It's enough to make Nick Pupo want to become a forest hermit

How social media in comedy makes me want to become a forest hermit

Social media has done wonders for stand-up comedy. Comedians of any kind, all over the world, can gain recognition for their work simply by posting it online. If their content goes viral often enough, they can grow their following into the millions, which could allow them to tour the world and share their live act with dedicated fans.

And this is a really special thing… or maybe it’s an absolute travesty of creativity and mental stability. Who’s to say?

If you’re someone like me, who is prone to cynicism and sensitive to social isolation and deep, palpable self-loathing, you scroll the apps and seethe at the achievements of your peers (even your close friends) as well as balk at the idealised representations of their personal and professional lives. I hope you’re not like me, because buddy? It’s exhausting.

I’m not unique in this way. Most of my friends, comedians especially, battle with the day-to-day addiction to the apps and the pressure of posting on a consistent basis in order to stay ‘relevant’ but often avoid it in a desperate attempt to maintain their sanity, and instead text me at 3am wondering why one of the worst comedians we’ve ever seen has 300k followers. I always respond with something like ‘Because they’re stronger-willed than you. Go to bed.’

I started doing stand-up comedy in the US in 2010 when Facebook was primarily used for complaining about your day, spoiling Game of Thrones, or expressing your disdain for the ever-growing musical comedy-drama, Glee.

Instagram and Twitter hadn’t really gotten off the ground, cable and satellite television was hanging on by a thread. A career in comedy was still of the decades-old model: Do open mics for a few years, MC at comedy clubs, work your way up to middle at said clubs, go on the road and open for any comedian who will let you. Eventually you’ll begin headlining some rooms, do a set on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, do an hour special on HBO, star in a sitcom, whatever. This was the way it had been for decades. Little did I know, the paradigm was shifting.

Social media, self-promotion, and finally TikToks or Instagram reels with captions, posting three to five times a week with fresh crowdwork clips featuring you asking the audience who’s dating, or what they do for work, commenting on their Russian accent and how it makes them sound like a professional hitman.

We’re saturated with 50-second clips of the same joke being told a thousand times. It’s… spectacular, isnt’ it? A lot of comedians who post a lot are truly some of the funniest people I know, and I love them dearly, and I envy and respect their resilience. 

But I think the comedians I envy more are the ones who avoid it altogether and work solely on getting funnier.

This is very rare, but a few of the funniest up-and-coming comedians either seldom use social media, or don’t use it al all.

Now, you might be wondering, ‘Well, Nick, are you one of these comedians?’ No, this is who I merely aspire to be. Alas, I’m a weak-willed cog in the machine just like the rest of you saps, clinging to the validation of strangers and self-destructing after reading the insults in the comment section.

Maybe one day I can strongarm my addiction and get the help I need. But for now, gimme them LIKES, BABY!

Comedy is for sure better in a lot of ways than it was in the 1970s though to the mid-2010s. It’s so much more inclusive of comics from marginalised and under-represented backgrounds, you can bypass the gatekeepers of big networks and studios by growing your own following and self-releasing your work on YouTube and other platforms, and we’ve become a more sensitive society, listening more when an audience member complains about being offended by something, rather than blowing off everyone who has any complaint about a joke; this is great, in certain contexts!

Also, if I was around before social media, I probably would have picked some other nonsense to complain about like not getting hired to write on Seinfeld.

Look, my point is this: I’m teetering on the edge of continuing a career in comedy or selling everything, including my phone, and living in the woods. I’ll probably pick somewhere in rural Colorado. Have you been? It’s in the States, and boy, oh boy, it’s beautiful.

I’ll build a cabin, adopt some kind of athletic dog that lives longer than it should, maybe open a tiny cafe and serve my small community of woodspeople little cappuccinos. I’ll hike and start calling people ‘chief’ and I’ll say things like ‘I hear ya, partner. I hear ya."’This is the dream.

That, or starting a YouTube comedy channel where I eat poison berries just to see what happens. Anyway, follow me @nickpupo and pray for me.

• Nick Pupo’s debut stand-up show Addicted is at the Just the Tonic at the Bottle Room at 6pm.

Published: 14 Aug 2023