GUEST POST: Why These Comedians Went Viral in January

An instructive breakdown of five recent, viral TikToks.

Hello! I’m David Zucker, a former data analyst at TikTok that now helps comedians grow their audience.

After my first client won Britain’s Got Talent last June, I officially quit my job to start my own marketing consultancy. I incorporate data-driven analysis to make my global roster of clients go viral with purpose. I also run a humble mailing list of my own where I blather about digital marketing, break down viral comedy videos, and make an annual Edinburgh Fringe Guide.

Last month for Cramer Comedy Newsletter, I questioned the usefulness of LinkTree, that omnipresent URL in seemingly every comedian’s Instagram bio.

Today, I’m introducing a monthly round-up called “Virality Bites”.

I’ll be analyzing several viral videos from a variety of comedic styles posted within the past month that serve as excuses to rant and rave about all things social media marketing strategy.

The first section of today’s analysis will be available for all subscribers, but the rest will be for paid subscribers only.

So, let’s get into it:

2/3RDS OF A THREEESOME – Emily II (A Sleep Talking Song)

@twothirdsbandy’all blew this song up so much that we released it, and then Tiktok muted the sound because of “copyright infringement” 🙄 so we’re reposting ‘cause Emily deserves those sweet, sweet royalties 💸😴🎶 #musicalcomedy #sleeptalk #sleeptok #sleeptalktok #funny @Caitlin Cook @AJ Holmes

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Quick Stats (at time of writing):

• 2.3M Views, 226.8K Likes, 1,234 Comments, 10.1K Shares, 25.8K Saves

• Like PCT: 9.86% | Comment PCT: 0.05% | Share PCT: 0.44% | Save PCT: 1.12%

• Video Length: 3 min 22 sec

• Hashtags: #musicalcomedy #sleeptalk #sleeptok #sleeptalktok #funny

• Location Tag: Brooklyn

2/3rds of a Threesome is a NYC-based musical comedy duo consisting of Caitlin Cook (The Writing On The Stall) and A.J. Holmes (Book of Mormon, Kimberly Akimbo)

Aside from being an expertly structured song with an inherently shareable subject matter, there are a few elements worth pointing out here.

Firstly, the videographer did a great job in capturing this song from the vérité perspective of an audience member. We feel like we’re there.

Secondly, the in-video captions are legible, in frame, and do a great job of providing a read-along without spoiling the punchline.¹

Thirdly, the metrics. This video had a Like PCT of 9.86%.

In other words, 1 in 10 people who were exposed to this video at all pressed “Like”, signaling to their feed, “I’d like to see more things like this, please and thank you”.

Any Like PCT over 8% is a very high percentage at scale. Additionally, the Save PCT is over 1%, or 1 in 100 people who saw this video pressed “Save”. This indicated a viewer wanted to bookmark this song and come back to it at another time, or re-watch it at a later point.

Finally, the length. This TikTok is 3 minutes and 22 seconds long (!!)

There is still a widely held belief within the comedy industry that TikToks should be no longer than one minute. That may have been the case in 2020, but not in 2024.

Since 2021, TikTok has slowly expanded the maximum video length. First from 1 minute to 3 minutes, then to 10 minutes, and as of this past fall, 15 minutes.

Matt Rife posted 194 TikToks in 2022 and 2023. I counted it myself.

Here are some average stats on his 10 longest videos posted in that timeframe:

• Average Video Length: 7 min 22 sec (!!!)

• Average Number of Views: 18.6 Million (!!!!)

• AVG Like PCT: 13.8% (!!!!!!) | AVG Share PCT: 1.0% (!!!!) | AVG Save PCT: 1.2% (!!!!)

For the record, the average video length across all of Matt Rife’s 194 TikToks in 2022-2023 was 2 minutes and 20 seconds, over double the supposed “industry best practice”.

So not only is TikTok financially incentivizing top creators to post longer videos via the Creativity Program Beta², but Matt Rife, the gold standard for stand-up comedy on TikTok, is routinely posting videos longer than most comedians’ tight seven.

Do you know what that tells me?

Your clients should be posting longer videos!!!