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A sleeper hit, also known as a surprise hit, sleep-killer or sleeper, refers to a film, book, single, album, TV show, or video game that gains unexpected success or recognition. Sleeper hits often grow in popularity over time as people promote them through word-of-mouth marketing.

Sleeper films[link]

Some sleeper hits achieve unexpected success at the box office immediately upon their initial theatrical release, but this is not typical. Because these films are not expected to do particularly well they often receive little promotion or advertising and take time to register with the public. Typically the sleeper hit relies instead on positive "word of mouth" as well as the publicity generated by awards and good reviews. Two good examples of these are Mike Judge's Office Space and Idiocracy, both of which quickly became cult classics. The movie Caddyshack is another good example.

Thus sleeper films often attract the most viewers in the latter part of their theatrical releases. There's Something About Mary had a small release in 1998, but gained notoriety through word of mouth, and grew to top the weekend box office on its 8th week of release. Similarly, the 2010 film How to Train Your Dragon was considered a relative disappointment when its premiere wide release box office gross was smaller than expected, but was later reassessed as a major success when its theatrical run proved unexpectedly strong over a longer term to more than compensate. Studios have become more adept at promoting sleeper success at the box office, gradually increasing the number of screens and amount of advertising devoted to a promising film over several weeks (as opposed to a traditional pre-release advertising blitz). Some sleeper hits fail completely at the box office but succeed later on television and video as cult films (such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Big Lebowski) through positive word-of-mouth reviews communicated between fans in particular social networks or demographics.

A sleeper hit does not necessarily have to create a lot of revenue; it just needs to achieve a high degree of success relative to expectations. The Dreamworks film Shark Tale was panned by critics but was a box-office success with fans garnering $367,275,019, nearly five times its budget. However, the term is generally not used to refer to large-budget films—even those that defy their expectations, such as 1997's Titanic, which had been expected to lose money. The term is fairly subjective, so many films are informally referred to as sleepers. Sometimes unreleased films are advertised as sleepers.

Songs[link]

The term is used for songs that have attained massive popularity against the odds, due to them belonging to a genre unpopular at the time. An example is the song "Fireflies" by Owl City^[1], a 2009/2010 synthpop song that became a hit in a time when most hits were hip hop songs. Another example is the song Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana^[2], which became a hit in 1991 when alternative rock was not yet mainstream and hair metal and other 1980s styles were at the end of their heyday.

Sleeper hits often change the music scene as they tend to break new genres into the mainstream.^{[citation needed]}

The 2011 pop hit "Pumped Up Kicks" by indie rock band Foster the People has also been described as a sleeper hit as it was originally a modern rock radio hit in late 2010, and slowly crossed over to contemporary hit radio by August 2011. The song's sleeper success was considered surprising by some media outlets, as rock music—and especially indie rock music—rarely crossed over to the CHR format throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.^[3]

Books[link]

In publishing, success is usually measured by reaching the bestseller lists. Sleeper books are usually released by an unknown (often first-time) author, are not widely publicized on release, and may not sell well at first. However, sleeper books gain recognition by word of mouth and this leads to sales increases. They can be promoted by independent booksellers, book clubs, or literary awards.

For example, Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (a first-time novelist), was released with a modest print run of 25,000. It received good reviews and was initially promoted by small booksellers and word-of-mouth. The book won the 1997 National Book Award, spent 45 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, sold over a million copies in hardback alone, and was adapted for film in 2003.

Video Games[link]

Unexpectedly successful video games such as Riviera: The Promised Land for the Game Boy Advance, the PC game Roller Coaster Tycoon, the multi-platform game Angry Birds, the DS game Scribblenauts, the PS2 game Katamari Damacy. the PS3 games Valkyria Chronicles and Demon's Souls, the PC game Minecraft, or Dreamcast's Skies of Arcadia can also be described as sleeper hits. Also included are games such as Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night which saw only limited success on initial release but were critically praised, developed a strong fan community, and later saw several re-releases inspired by strong fan support.

TV shows[link]

Sleeper hits are rare in television, as the massive competition for time slots and high costs of production mean that most series that do not premiere to strong ratings are quickly cancelled. Nevertheless, several important franchises fall into this category - Star Trek, for instance, was nearly cancelled early on but saved by a barrage of letters from its loyal fan community, and has since gone on to become a multibillion-dollar empire spanning several series and more than a dozen films. Joss Whedon's Firefly series was a critically beloved but sparsely watched sci-fi franchise that later inspired the movie Serenity and eventually gave Whedon a significant reputation in film. The most recent reboot to the My Little Pony series, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has become a unexpectedly large hit among a subset of millenial generation males due to viral Internet memes, despite being a property designed very specifically to appeal to young girls in its original form in the 1980s, and not targeted at a male audience in the reboot nor expected to reach a male audience.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Movies that took the longest time to reach #1 at the weekend box office
• The Science of the Sleeper

Colin Quinn
Colin Quinn, July 2005
Born	(1959-06-06) June 6, 1959 (age 53) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1985–present
Genres	Observational comedy, black comedy, sketch comedy, satire, political satire, news satire
Subject(s)	American politics, current events, race relations, embarrassing hangovers
Influences	Richard Pryor,[1] George Carlin[2]
Influenced	Dave Attell[3]
Notable works and roles	Co-host of Remote Control Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live Host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn

Colin Edward Quinn (born June 6, 1959) is an American stand-up comedian and writer best known for his five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live, as the sidekick/announcer of MTV's late 1980s gameshow Remote Control and as host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central from 2002–2004.

Early years[link]

Quinn was born in Brooklyn, the son of teachers ^[4] of Irish descent, and was raised in the Park Slope section of the borough. He attended and graduated from John Dewey High School. His natural idiosyncratic mannerisms are trademarks of his stand-up act, headlining at top comedy clubs across the country, including Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City. Before becoming a comedian, Quinn attended Stony Brook University for a year and worked as a bartender. He stopped drinking in the early 1980s after several bad experiences with alcohol, including drunken blackouts and nights spent in jail.^[5]

After quitting bartending, Quinn began his stand-up career in 1984. He first achieved fame in 1987 as co-host of the MTV game show Remote Control, which he did for three years. In 1989, he hosted A&E stand-up showcase Caroline's Comedy Hour, and acted in and wrote the comedic short/music video Going Back to Brooklyn along with Ben Stiller. Much of his early comedy career focused on stand-up and writing for shows like In Living Color. He later co-wrote the story and was an associate producer for the movie Celtic Pride, starring Damon Wayans and Dan Aykroyd.

[edit] Saturday Night Live

In 1995, Quinn was hired by Saturday Night Live as a writer and featured player until 1997–1998 season, when he became a full cast member. He established himself on the show with characters such as "Lenny the Lion" and "Joe Blow", and did the recurring segment "Colin Quinn Explains the New York Times". Quinn took over as host of the Weekend Update segment in January 1998 after Norm Macdonald's firing, and anchored the segment until departing SNL in 2000. Quinn would often comment on the highly publicized media circuses such as Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal and the Microsoft Anti-Trust Trial. At the end of each Weekend Update segment, he would use the catchphrase, "That's my story and I'm sticking to it." He was not thrilled about his run on the show, declaring on an episode of Tough Crowd, "I don't miss it."

During his SNL years, Quinn made his Broadway debut in his one-man show, Colin Quinn: An Irish Wake co-written with fellow comedian Lou DiMaggio, and was offered the role of Scott Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery by Mike Myers, which he turned down to make time for his writing projects.^[6] The role was taken by Seth Green.

[edit] Recurring characters on SNL

• Gene, an ex-convict who does menial jobs.
• Joe Blow, a blue-collar worker from Queens who complains about the declining quality of his neighborhood.
• Lenny The Lion, a lion, similar to his Joe Blow character, only he talks about trying to better himself.
• Rolf, a racist who always has second thoughts about his behavior.

Celebrity characters[link]

• Dale Jarrett
• Elvis Costello
• Gerry Adams
• Leon Panetta
• Robert De Niro in the "Joe Pesci Show" sketch where the real Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci make surprise appearances.

[edit] Post-SNL career

After leaving SNL, Quinn had a sketch comedy show on NBC called The Colin Quinn Show in 2002 that lasted for only three episodes.

Quinn became host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central in December 2002. The show immediately followed The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and was one of several attempts to create a companion show for Stewart's program. However, Tough Crowd never managed to keep the majority of its lead-in audience. Although it was renewed through the 2005 television season, Tough Crowd was placed on indefinite hiatus in October 2004, with its "final" episode airing on November 4, 2004. The show featured four comedians (often his friends such as Dave Attell, Jim Norton, and Patrice O'Neal) with Quinn as host, discussing various political issues in conversations that were often heated. Quinn gave many comedians exposure on the show, which ran for roughly 250 episodes over a two-year period. His stand up material was also used in Comedy Central's animated stand up series Shorties Watchin' Shorties. ^[7]

Colin performs regularly at the Comedy Cellar in New York City, where many top comedians perform when not on the road. In 2004, he was named #56 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time. He was also named to the Irish America Magazine list of the "Top 100 Irish Americans of the Year".^[8]

He would later be heard as the "unofficial co-host" on the Nick DiPaolo show on the now-defunct 92.3 Free FM in New York City, airing Monday-Friday from noon to 3pm. Quinn and DiPaolo were originally slated to host the show together on WJFK-FM, but the station decided not to pick up the show. Nick often referred to Quinn as "the joke fairy", due to his propensity for telling a joke and hanging up the phone before getting a response. Quinn is also a regular guest on The Opie & Anthony Show. Recently Quinn has discussed what he refers to as thousands of pages of "manifestos" that he's written since his departure from Tough Crowd, but never elaborated on the contents.

More recently, Quinn played Dickie Bailey, the childhood town rival to Lenny Feder (Adam Sandler's character) in Sandler's movie Grown Ups, released in the summer of 2010.

In 2010, Quinn premiered his one-man show "Colin Quinn Long Story Short" on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre, directed by Jerry Seinfeld. Comically channeling the demise of various world empires, Quinn takes a satirical look at the history of the world in 75 minutes. Quinn recorded a special performance of the show that aired on HBO on April 9, 2011. He explores the attitudes, appetites and habits that toppled some of the world's most powerful nations.^[9]

In summer 2011, Quinn toured "Colin Quinn Long Story Short" to Guild Hall in East Hampton, Philadelphia Theatre Company in Philadelphia, and other cities including Chicago at the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Colin Quinn at the Internet Movie Database
• Colin Quinn on National Public Radio in 2003
• Comedy Cellar - a Comedy Club in New York and one at which Colin always performs.
• SNL Transcripts: Colin Quinn - contains searchable database of almost all of Quinn's SNL works
• ColinQuinn.com - Website for Colin Quinn's Broadway show "Long Story Short" directed by Jerry Seinfeld.
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