Ben Jumanji

Ben+Doffing+works+hard+on+his+commercial+project+in+Video+Productions.+The+video+is+the+%E2%80%9CNot+Space+Suit%E2%80%9D+by+Melon+Dusk%2C+and+will+be+posted+on+Ben+Jumanji.+

Ben Doffing works hard on his commercial project in Video Productions. The video is the “Not Space Suit” by Melon Dusk, and will be posted on Ben Jumanji.

Written by Lawrence Pauly, staff member

January 10, 2015, marks an important day for two individuals. This day, the Youtube channel known as Ben Jumanji started. Started by seniors Benjamin Doffing and Caden Runnalls, this channel’s expertise is sketch comedy videos. The channel itself has 88 subscribers total, and the most viewed video, “24 Subscriber Cardboard Play Button!” was viewed by 2.2 thousand people.

Doffing said he had always wanted to make videos but never started until inspiration hit him one night when he was with friends. Seniors Audrey Doffing and Molly Schmanke, along with Doffing and Runnalls, were working the concession stand for a night, when accidents turned to jokes, and jokes turned into the idea for their first video, “The Pickle Skittle Cheese,” and the second video, “The Pickle Skittle Cheese #2 No Cheese Left Behind.”

This channel has posted a total of 50 videos of comedy content. More recently, Doffing has upheld his promise he made to himself and to his audience to upload a video every Friday for the past 7 months.

“I want to keep it running as long as possible,” Doffing said. “It’s not about the views, I just like to do it.”

Along with Ben Jumanji, Runnalls has his own channel called simply Caden Runnalls. Here he posts comedy content of him playing video games with his friends and cousins.

“We both added a lot of videos to [The Ben Jumanji Channel] and it was nice to be able to be on more the creative side, not the technical editing side that Ben did. I just got to come up with and make a lot of the sketches we did,” Runnalls said. “Ben Jumanji helped me realize how easy video making and comedy was, but I’ve always wanted to do my own channel, even if Ben Jumanji wasn’t a thing.”

Other students have also created content that Doffing has posted on his channel, and he jokingly stated that these people “Own part of the channel now.” One such student is senior Brady Beal. He has helped Doffing post content a few of the weeks he had nothing to post and helped him keep his upload every Friday promise.

“I like how it’s just a group of close friends producing content, and I’m glad to be a part of that group,” Beal said.