This new joke managed to be entirely different from the original without changing the words. What began as a deadpan quip became something much broader, more physical, exposing a sillier side of Lynch. Onstage, she can seem aloof. But here, in this intimate video, she was ingratiatingly goofy. Lynch said partly this was because she was performing home alone and felt relaxed, but paradoxically, she sees this version of her as more of a performance. “TikTok feels more like a character,” she said. “More of a persona, like I’m just acting.”
Whatever she was doing, it worked. The video took off, rocketing to a million views, and in the past month, as she posted clips daily, her followers tripled. She even started receiving small payments from TikTok, earning $100 in the past month. “There are more old people on TikTok than I realized,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s because of Covid and people are bored, but they’re out there.”
After posting the video on other platforms, she found that the joke didn’t have the same impact on each one. She was far less successful on Instagram and barely made a ripple on Twitter. TikTok is more likely to show videos from people who aren’t following you, which can expose you to new fans. In an effort to compete, Instagram started a TikTok-like service, Reels, in August. That’s where Lynch had the most success with the boyfriend joke, racking up 2.5 million views. After struggling to raise her Instagram follower count, she’s seen major growth since that joke went viral. “I was at 12,400 forever and even when I did Fallon, I might have gotten 500, but in the last two weeks, I had 5,000 new followers and that’s from Reels.”
These are still small numbers compared with popular influencers, and most comics like Carmen Lynch are not going to make a living off social media. They are aiming to build their audience and hoping that translates to ticket sales when live shows return.
Comics tend to be alert to the audience, but many veterans have chosen not to spend much time telling jokes on social media. Some aren’t digital natives, some understandably think stand-up is an inextricably live form and others see social media as beneath them.
But like it or not, these platforms are where much of the comedy audience is now. The pandemic has accelerated the transition to digital, and there will be an impact on the business and aesthetic of comedy. It matters that a club crowd’s laugh is less quantifiable than the raw numbers on social media.
The Link LonkDecember 09, 2020 at 08:00PM
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What TikTok Taught One Stand-Up Comic - The New York Times
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