Online famous: How comedians became content creators
Transferring the finely-honed art of stand-up comedy into successful online content is no mean feat. Some of the algorithm's favourite faces tell us how they managed it...
The best comic talent have always rolled with the punches and learned to adapt. Whether that is from stage to radio, radio to television, or writing to performing to producing. Funny is funny, and comedians are particularly adept at shapeshifting into different mediums and ways of working.
These days it seems that online algorithms are as important as open mics. Beating the scroll is as vital as beating the gong or the frog. But in a saturated market, how do comics make their online output stand out? Is there a strategy to their social output or do they just upload as and when inspiration hits?
One of the best and most loved comedians of the social media age is Josh Pugh. An exceptional stand-up of many years…well, standing, he’s also developed a large and devoted fanbase for his weekly online videos. But how did it all start? A bit like the inventor of the QR code or Hannah Ingram-Moore, he found an unlikely silver lining to the dark clouds of Covid time.
“I started during lockdown. I’d been doing stand-up since 2014. It was going ok. I’d done a few Edinburgh shows and stuff, but I didn’t have representation or that kind of thing. Then in lockdown I made a video and put it on Twitter, and it actually did okay,” he tells Rolling Stone UK. “Obviously everybody was just on the phones at home. Then I did another one maybe a week later and then another the week after that. They all did well. So I made the decision to do one every week for a year to see how it went. I’ve been doing that every Monday for over three years now.”
I ask Josh if he was influenced by any other online creators of the time or whether he found some algorithm-busting formula for online success. It turns out it’s far simpler and more unscientific than that. He’s very much an advocate of finding your own voice, doing what feels right to you and not worrying too much about how to crack some code.
“I think the audience can smell that stuff. You can’t write for the algorithm. If I think something is funny I’ll go with that. But also, I couldn’t really do it any other way. I can’t really edit. I haven’t got a green screen. My phone is six months past its upgrade. I’m just not interested in that stuff. People like Sam [O’Leary] and Tom [Lawrinson] – I love their stuff but it’s so far beyond what my skills are. The distance from idea to posting it is so short and that’s what works for me.”
A big part of what makes Josh’s videos so good is precisely what makes his stand-up so exceptional: he is a master of the universally recognised premise and has an innate ability to create fully rounded and three-dimensional routines and characters from them. Even in a very short time frame. Of course that’s perfect for social media but it’s very much an extension of his on-stage material.
“A lot of my [online videos] are basically stand-up premises. I could sit on them and develop them into stand-up routines. They’re coming from the same place. They’re coming from the same well of ideas. It’s like a feed line and then an act out; the video is the act out. The caption at the top is the premise of the visual below, if that makes sense.
“This is all by accident. I started at the right time and did it before I talked myself out of it. I didn’t place any weight on it. People are really nervous about putting stuff online. ‘What if nobody watches it’ and that kind of thing. But I put it out before that anxiety occurred to me.”
Many fellow comics-turned-content-creators know that anxiety all too well. They feel compelled to put out content because that’s what you’re meant to do these days. The difference with Josh is, it seems it came very naturally to him. To the point that it feels like a vocation. As he explains, he was kinda putting out social media content before social media really existed.
“I remember at college, we had an [intranet] notice board, and I’d put silly things on there. I’d put fake things for sale and advertise fake events. They’d get taken down because they weren’t appropriate. But I’d find it so entertaining for myself. That was my first foray into social content really,” he recalls.
“I remember I put something on Facebook years ago. Do you remember the song Wires by Athlete? I did a video of me lying in my bed with iPhone charging cables up my nose, singing a really breathy version of Wires. I found it so silly. Nobody really engaged with it at all but I just thought ‘What a fun way to use your social media’. I was just playing.”
But what if it’s less like playing and more like a job? What if instead of your own personal amusement turning into an online phenomenon, you feel somewhat obligated to do it because that’s the new normal for advancing your career?
Bella Hull and Sarah Roberts are two incredibly talented stand-ups in their own right, but they would be the first to admit they entered the arena of ‘online content’ with a level of anxiety. It wasn’t their natural calling to set up their phones and ring lights and be funny for likes. In fact it’s what Bella describes as having to scale ‘cringe mountain’. What made the climb easier and more enjoyable for both Bella and Sarah was joining forces with Bebe Cave, not a stand-up but an actress with a natural gift for comedy. Bella explains: “I think Bebe’s acting skills are something Sarah and I are quite grateful for because I don’t have a theatre background. I didn’t even do drama at school. When I first did stand-up I started it because I loved jokes but I had zero stage presence. I was so nervous. I’d physically shake on stage. So it’s been nice to collaborate with Bebe and Sarah because Bebe in particular is so natural as a performer, whereas for me it all just exists in my head.”
Sarah is also grateful for Bebe’s influence and admits to an initial nervousness about performing online which seems incongruous to her assured delivery in a live comedy club setting.
“I agree [with Bella]. I was so scared of doing anything online. I do spend most of my life online and love watching stuff that other people do, but I was terrified of actually doing anything front-facing myself. But it felt kind of natural and also very calming to be able to do it with these guys.”
As grateful as Sarah and Bella are for Bebe’s influence and performance background, Bebe had her own obstacles to overcome. These were less about confidence in her own ability, and more to do with how putting your stuff online is perceived in some thespian circles.
“I feel like my acting background did limit me for such a long time from posting anything online. There was something almost humiliating about it because it wasn’t what ‘proper actors’ do. It’s like that Paul Mescal quote. He said this thing about how he was disgusted by people comparing his work to ‘content creators’. I found that really interesting because I thought, in fact Mr. Mascal, if you were an out-of-work actor with three part-time jobs and having to do gigs in the evening, you’d probably have to make a silly relatable sketch about having to share a frying pan with your flatmates or something too.”
Thankfully for Bebe – and very receptive online audience – she came to the realisation that it was a way of taking charge of your own creative destiny and making things happen on your own terms.
“That [Mescal’s comments] happened at the same time as when I was having a sort of shift in my thinking towards, actually, it’s not humiliating. It’s really cool and empowering to be able to come up with an idea yourself, film it that day and post it online. Regardless of whether it gets loads of likes or not, it’s still your work. Especially in this industry where it’s increasingly difficult to find any opportunity to put yourself out there.”
On the point of online output being ‘embarrassing’ or even ‘humiliating’, Sarah explains that a lot of that is to do with the fear of bombing. It seems counterintuitive, but an online video getting little or no traction can feel more ‘public’ than a joke dying in an IRL public setting.
“It’s embarrassing until it’s instantly not. Every time I post a Reel, I’m like, please let it get to a hundred likes and then I can relax, because as long as it gets a hundred likes that to me is okay. That’s a decent amount of people who actually enjoyed it; and then more and more people start to like it and it’s suddenly not embarrassing at all.”
Bella adds: “It’s also like, with standup, you might write it on your own but then you perform it in a new material space and you can see whether it’s good or not. And then you can workshop it and by the time you’re doing it in an actual show, you’re pretty confident that people will find it funny. But when you come up with an idea online, there’s no new material gig. It’s just out there and there’s something about it that’s so much more exposing.”
Exposing it may be but each of Bella, Sarah and Bebe have racked up massive numbers through both their individual and collaborative online output. That in itself feels like something of a revolution for creative people who are seeing the foundations of traditional media slowly crumble away. Bebe very much sees it as an empowering showcase.
“This is basically our way of saying we deserve to be seen. We deserve to have eyes on us. There are dwindling opportunities to get that done in a [traditional] way, but this gives the power back to the performers. Literally anyone who has a phone has the ability to create films and comedy Reels and I think that that is such a fantastic thing.”
Bella concurs and references the astronomic online success of a comedy colleague: “I’m really close friends with Red Richardson. I knew him before he went viral and it’s completely changed his entire life. So in a way, it’s really liberating that it’s less about these gatekeepers you have to impress. It feels more meritocratic. I had a Reel that got me like 15,000 new followers from just one video and that completely changed things for me. It actually persuades them [gatekeepers] to book you.”
As much as social media provides an opportunity to turbo boost your profile and popularity, it also comes with a set of rules – shaped by the often mysterious and always unforgiving algorithm. Bebe explains that she received a lot of essential guidance on how to tackle the dreaded algorithm from her boyfriend – fellow content creator and stand up Horatio Gould, who smashed it at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe with his now touring show Return of The Space Cowboy.
“Horatio is a content creator himself and he’s such a pro at this stuff. He told me that ideally it needs to be a certain length otherwise the algorithm doesn’t show it to new people. You really need your video to be under 1 minute 30 seconds – which of course doesn’t allow for many funny lines. So you’ve just got to get a few bangers in, especially if you’re doing a more surreal concept,” she explains.
“You have to have at least two or three lines that are so incredibly clear about who and what your character is and then by the end of the sketch it can get a bit more silly. But people lose interest in the first three seconds. It’s amazing if you look at the insights and like, 97,000 people stop watching after the first three seconds. It really makes you think, ‘I should have thought of a funnier opening line!’”
This sense that the algorithm is essentially warping the way people formulate comedy feels slightly disconcerting. Of course true creatives always find a way to adapt, but it’s also somewhat dystopian that a computer code is shaping the future of comedy to a certain extent. As Bella explains, it can even affect your on-stage delivery.
“I don’t know whether it’s helpful in terms of how it translates to live performances because it alters the way I say things on stage if I know it’s going to be a clip. You think to yourself that the opening line has to be so eye-catching otherwise everyone will scroll past. Even if you know the punchline is really good. It makes you adapt yourself to a world in which nobody has any patience.
“I gig at Top Secret a lot and so many of the comics who are there regularly will literally open their news app in the morning, check what’s trending and be like, ‘I’m going to write a bit right now because it’s a clip’. The thing is, it won’t be half as good as the beautifully crafted bits they’ve actually spent some time on perfecting. But even though it’s a lower quality of comedy because they’ve just written it that day, it will do better due to the fact everyone’s talking about Zelenskyy or Trump or whatever and the algorithm rewards that. It’s kind of sad because it does train you to favour what will work rather than what’s good.”
It is a conundrum echoed by other creatives who have to balance virality with producing great comedy. Toby DB (aka tobyfrombath), Al Nash and Imogen Andrews are another trio of incredibly gifted and innovative talents, who occasionally come together to collaborate online like a sort of comedy Avengers. Both through their own output and combined efforts they’ve been absolutely killing it of late. You’ll have seen and enjoyed their stuff even if you don’t realise it. Even so, they too are wary of how the specific preferences of a social media platform can mis-shape natural comedy beats. Imogen references the way she (and Al) were originally taught to structure their comedy.
“Al and I were actually taught by the same tutor at the NFTS (National Film and Television School). I feel like I’m almost flipping what he taught us [for social media] because obviously you’re meant to build to the joke, and now my thinking is ‘Well, I can’t leave the funniest bit to the end’. It’s almost like, how can I open on the joke or the killer line? I feel like our tutor wouldn’t approve of that way of thinking. It’s weird you learn one way and then you’re unlearning it almost.”
Toby agrees but explains that one perk of an unforgiving algorithm is that most people won’t actually see your weaker stuff by its very nature and design.
“For all its faults that is one of the joys of the algorithm. If you make something that doesn’t quite work, fewer people will see it. I always think about that. In a strange way it’s actually quite nice. But it does force you to constantly edit yourself and think, ‘Oh I can cut three lines here’ so I get to the funny bit earlier.”
Cutting those three lines is clearly working, and being done with a deftness and skill that doesn’t edit out the magic. Toby, Al and Imogen seem to have cracked the code when it comes to being funny in a way that the algorithm rewards and the public – and industry – respond to. Al explains how it’s useful to instantly establish certain tropes and scenarios before subverting them.
“For me a real golden nugget is when you can have something with a real visual identity. So for example, the post-match interview sketches we do. When you see Imogen and I standing together side-by-side and you hear Toby with the first line, and you instantly understand the premise. I love those personally. I think those types of format parodies lend themselves really well to the medium.”
Unlike the stand-up contingent, the ultimate goal isn’t to supercharge ticket sales for an upcoming tour or getting booked onto Live at the Apollo. All three have tried their hand at conventional stand-up or MCing, but their ambitions lie more in comedy writing and performance as characters – ideally ones they’ve created themselves. There’s already huge industry buzz around all three, and as Toby explains, trying stuff out online is as much about getting better as a writer-performer than just pure numbers.
“For me it’s a means to an end. I enjoy the process, don’t get me wrong. I love making our skits. I find it creatively very fulfilling. But also, we all have other aims. For me it’s very much a way of honing the craft. Other opportunities would be nice too and are starting to happen. Without putting too fine a point on it, a fair amount of stuff is happening already, so it’s really nice to see that. Because you go into it hoping that people will notice you and it’s nice when people you rate start reaching out to you as well.”
Al is very much in agreement, with the caveat that online comedy is sometimes looked down on unfairly as some sort of lesser art when it’s just as valid a medium as any other.
“Sometimes it feels like a means to an end, but I also think there’s a certain snobbishness around it. An attitude of if it’s online then it’s not worthy or whatever. Personally I find it very freeing. I don’t have to get script notes from anyone. I can edit it in the way that I like and there’s an instantaneous nature to it. You have the idea, you write it, you make it, and it’s out there. And then you live or die by how well it does.
“I’m a purist in that I don’t put anything out that I don’t think is really fucking good, which is at odds with the ‘content creator’ thing. I really baulk when people are like, ‘Oh man, I love your content!’ It’s ‘content’ in the broadest sense of the word. If my friend in a band puts out a new music video, I’m not like ‘Bro, I loved your content!’ Call it what it is: they’re comedy sketches. It’s a specific art form.”
Imogen echoes Al’s sentiments about creative autonomy it allows her to grow as an artist, and she seems to have a really healthy perspective on opportunities and pitfalls that a social media showcase allows:
“I also very much enjoy the act of doing it. It does gives you a lot of creative freedom. But it’s quite draining, just the nature of it. Being that online. I think it’s something that people get burnt out quite quickly doing as well and you have to be quite careful with yourself to not overdo it. Just getting responses online and the ups and downs of it are quite intense I think. I think it’s good to have ambitions beyond it all to keep you sane.
“I like working with different people because then you get a sense of how they do things and sometimes I find I adapt to what that other person’s doing. I guess that’s just part of learning in a public space. You’re gonna do things that aren’t perfect and you’ve got to learn through that and try things out. People forget that it’s all so throwaway online as well. I mean, people might remember a really good sketch six months down the line but most of the time, people don’t really care. As long as you keep trying to put better and better stuff out that’s the main thing.”
People might forget the sketches but they will absolutely remember the names. Whatever you think of social media and the way it’s changing the landscape of comedy, ultimately it’s just another medium where the best and most talented people have an opportunity to shine and become superstars in their own right. Algorithm willing.
Who the creators rate
Toby: I always loved Harry Trevaldwyn‘s videos when he played the smarmy mum character. They were always brilliantly written. Almost Friday are doing great stuff at the moment too. They’re brilliant.
Imogen: There’s an American woman called Hannah Pilkes who’s really funny, and I love Veronica is Cool.
Al: I love Sam O’Leary and Tom Lawrinson. I really Durk and Ski. They’re very funny. Derek Mitchell is fucking brilliant, amazing commitment to the bit.
Bella: I absolutely love Sam O’Leary. I could not find him funnier. I genuinely feel like a teenage comedy fan whenever I look at his stuff because it’s so funny and so ridiculous. And they’re properly cinematic as well. Even the editing I’m like how can you do that.
Bebe: I’ll plug my boyfriend Horatio Gould. He does amazing sketches and I have to say he’s been the biggest inspiration for me putting myself more out there. Him and his sketch partner, Andrew Kirwan, they make amazing stuff. Also Paddy Young and Ed Night. They make amazing videos too.
Sarah: I love Savannah Deso. I don’t know why she doesn’t have a hundred million followers. She’s my favourite person to watch.
Josh: I really love thesquidvids. Ash Tyson is brilliant too. Probably my number one is a guy called Jack Kirwan from Wolverhampton. He does a character called Gary Powndland. He’s such a funny person.