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Ever since a bootleg clip of a Saturday Night Live sketch comedy skit put YouTube on the map in December 2005, the growing consensus among Web watchers has been that short comedy clips are the "killer app" of the brave new viral video world.

So it's no surprise that websites devoted solely to comedy videos are proliferating, from amateur sites to big-budget efforts backed by entertainment heavyweights.

Among the latter: SuperDeluxe.com, a comedy broadband network launched in January by Turner Broadcasting, and FunnyOrDie.com, a partnership between Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions and Sequoia Capital, venture capital firm behind YouTube and Google.

The business model is simple: Build it, make it funny enough, and the public will come. And once you get enough eyeballs, you can make money through advertising, just like regular TV networks.

Andrew Wallenstein, The Hollywood Reporter's digital media editor, calls dedicated comedy websites "a trend that's gathering steam."

"When you look at how online video is consumed, it seems that quick bursts of comedy on YouTube, or even jokes you get in your e-mail, work the best," he says. "The holy grail is coming up with a one-stop dot-com shop where you can snack on comedy until you pass out."

Two of the first of these dot-com comedy shops were CollegeHumor.com, launched in 1999 by two friends from Baltimore, and Jokeroo.com, launched a year later and now featuring video clips, forums, greeting cards and photo galleries.

Other popular sites include EbaumsWorld.com, which bills itself as the world's largest independent online publisher of humor-related content, and JibJab.com's Jokebox, a virtual swap meet for comic video clips, photos and text jokes that was launched last year by JibJab Media, best known for its hit 2004 online short lampooning presidential candidates.

SuperDeluxe.com has lured pro comedians to create content. Plans call for the network to expand beyond the Internet to such platforms as cable video-on-demand, mobile phones and personal media players.

Bob Odenkirk, the comedian, writer and director who created and starred in the HBO series Mr. Show, is creating a 12-episode Internet series of shorts called Derek & Simon: The Show for Super Deluxe. The series makes its debut May 16 and follows real-life bumblers Derek Waters and Simon Helberg trying in vain to pick up girls in Los Angeles.

"There's more people watching performances and programs on the Web than ever before, and it's going to grow," Odenkirk says. "With more and people having high-speed Internet, it's just becoming a great new venue for entertainers."

Odenkirk says professional comedy series, delivered in short bits over the Internet, is the logical progression from the user-submitted pranks and candid-camera clips so popular on sites such as YouTube and Revver.

"You're going to see a lot more of these conscious pieces of performance, something that's written and there's an idea and a character … instead of just a glancing blow, an accidental laugh," he says.

One advantage the Web has over television: "There are very few restrictions on language and subject matter, although what we are doing on Derek & Simon could go on any cable network," he says.

Another contributor to Super Deluxe is Brad Neely, the Arkansas comic book artist behind Creased Comics.

Unlike television, Neely says, "you get a direct line of communication between content and audience. We know immediately what works and what doesn't. Audiences can smell from a mile away anything that seems like a formula, so you constantly have to give them something new and different."

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