Here’s How Social Media Turned Comedy Into the New Indie Rock
If the comedy scene in 2024 is the new indie music explosion, does that mean that Joe Rogan is the new Radiohead?
Back in the 1990s, the mainstream success of post-punk and grunge music inspired listeners to dive deeper into bands outside the major, multi-billion-dollar, industry-defining record companies that controlled the airwaves as a new kind of music fan began to seriously explore independent labels, bands and scenes. Clad in flannel and sporting anti-skip Discmen, the indie music lover quickly became an integral part of American culture, shaping the sound and style of popular music for decades to come. Meanwhile, the entire indie music movement was a constant source of material for the stand-up comedians at the time, most of whom got a lot of mileage simply out of mocking the kinds of hairstyles that were typical of these proto-hipsters.
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Flash forward to 2024, and an independent music artist becoming a worldwide sensation nearly overnight is an absolutely ordinary occurrence. Now, as the avenues for reaching new audiences only continue to grow more accessible to newcomers, the next medium that may be in the middle of its indie era is comedy, or so said Fahim Anwar on Funny or Die’s Inside the FOD Vault podcast:
Anyone who followed stand-up comedy in the 2000s can agree with Anwar’s assessment of the previous industry model, as the half-hour Comedy Central set on Premium Blend or its successor Live at Gotham seemed to be the biggest difference-maker in a comedian’s commercial success outside of the lucky spot on Letterman. Back then, the coveted HBO comedy special was the biggest achievement toward which a stand-up could aspire, and any talented performer could easily turn success on those platforms into TV or movie deals outside of their stand-up careers.
Today, though streaming platforms produce more stand-up specials than ever before, more and more comedians are going the DIY route by self-producing YouTube specials that are free to anyone with an internet connection and an hour to kill. Even respected veterans who have plenty of mainstream success under their belts have gone the indie route — earlier this year, Saturday Night Live alumnus Colin Quinn dropped his debut YouTube special Our Time Is Up with virtually no promotion or press, quickly amassing over half a million views.
Critically, the younger generation of stand-up comedians has obviously embraced the new avenues for amassing followings. Generation Z makes and consumes the majority of their comedy on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and it’s not even worth asking them whether they think doing 30 minutes of stand-up on cable TV at 2 a.m. is more impressive than 100,000 Twitter followers.
The tastemakers and gatekeepers of stand-up have never been less powerful, and independent artists are flourishing like never before — and once Spike Jonze directs a YouTube special, we’ll know for sure that comedy is in its indie golden age.
