Comedian and social media superstar Patton Oswalt has been tapped to host the 17th annual Webby Awards. The Webby Awards, an award show presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, is one of the most prestigious internet-based award ceremonies. It’s often referred to as “the Oscars of the internet.”
The IADAS is made up of over a thousand member judging body that features high-profile public figures like Arianna Huffington, Vint Cerf, David Bowie, Biz Stone (Twitter), and Kevin Systrom (Instagram). Last year’s Webby Awards generated more than 1.2 billion media impressions.
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There’s also a “People’s Voice” element to the voting, which you can check out here.
The ceremony will take place at Cipriani Wall Street on Tuesday, May 21st and will be available to watch on-demand the next day on the Webby Awards’ official site.
“Patton can out-nerd the nerdiest of nerdy nerds, and out-funny just about anyone,” said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “He’s the perfect Webby host.”
The Webby Award is handed out in various categories, including websites, advertising, online video, apps, and this year will introduce new categories based on “the social web.”
This year, Nike leads the pack with 17 nominations, followed by Google, The New York Times, and HBO with 12 each and NPR with 10. Music site Pitchfork and comedy site Funny or Die also lead the field with 8 and 7 nominations, respectively.
Patton Oswalt made headlines earlier this week when his Facebook and Twitter posts regarding the Boston Marathon attacks went viral.
