GUEST POST: Why These Comedians Went Viral in June

An analytical breakdown of some recent hits on TikTok.

Hello! I’m David Zucker, a former data analyst at TikTok that now helps comedians grow their audience. I make data-driven decisions that enable my global roster of clients to go viral with purpose. I also run a mailing list of my own, where I recently shared the most important metric on Instagram, according to the app’s CEO himself. I’ll also be releasing my annual Edinburgh Fringe guide shortly, so be sure to subscribe to receive that before the festival starts.

Today, we’ll be looking at posts from Netflix, Weird Al, Don’t Tell Comedy, Gabby Bryan, and a nifty trick being used by Morgan Jay to streamline the ticket purchasing process.

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

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Netflix Is A Joke – Keith Robinson: The Biggest Challenge of Being Handicapped

@netflixisajokeKeith Robinson on his biggest challenge of being handicapped #KeithRobinson #standup#netflix#netflixisajoke#relatable

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Quick Stats (at time of writing):

• 690.4K Views, 49.1K Likes, 369 Comments, 4,919 Shares, 3,656 Saves

• Like PCT: 7.1% | Share PCT: 0.7% | Save PCT: 0.5%

• Video Length: 1 min 16 sec

• Text Hook: none

• Hashtags: #KeithRobinson #standup #netflix #netflixisajoke #relatable

While there is no text hook etched on the video, Keith opens with a strong hook by asking a question using a superlative¹ that compels the average TikTok user to stop scrolling and wait to hear what the answer is. You’re hearing from a perspective you rarely hear amplified, and the fact that he still manages to be a little irreverent (pretending to elbow an old lady at the crosswalk) makes this inherently shareable.

I’m personally not a fan of Netflix’s in-video caption style, and think it contrasts quite jarringly from their high production value.

The main reason I wanted to bring up this video was to draw attention to the new “Netflix is a Joke” widget Netflix recently rolled out on TikTok, highlighted in yellow below:

I recommend opening up the video on mobile to see what I’m referring to, but here is a screen recording of what that button looks like when you tap on it:

It’s unclear what Netflix is going for here.

The top part makes it seem like “Netflix Is A Joke” is an hour long Comedy movie with a runtime of 1 hr 0 min and R-Rating.

But the description below that part is simply describing this year’s festival from May, “12 days of comedy, 500+ live shows, 400+ artists, 35+ venues across Los Angeles.”

Below that is a “Cast”, which is just an alphabetized list of comedians that appeared at this year’s Netflix Is A Joke Fest who also have clips posted of them on Netflix’s TikTok with this widget.

Finally, underneath all of that is a stripped down version of their TikTok feed of solely the videos which incorporated this Netflix Is A Joke widget.

The part I thought was most interesting was when you tapped on a “Cast” member and it auto-populated some information about them above the in-app search results.

For instance, if you tap on Bert Kreischer, like I do in that video recording, you’ll see a brief description (“American comedian and actor”) and a few clickable search filters (“Raffle, “The Machine”, etc.)

Interestingly, none of this will appear if you simply search Bert’s name into TikTok. It only populates when clicking form the Netflix widget.

Whoever made this API probably intended it to be used for a movie, rather than the concept of stand-up comedy, based on its current subtabs.

A few weeks ago, this landing page also had a “Watch on Netflix” button that funneled people to the Netflix mobile app, which I thought was actually pretty smart.

But TikTok was probably not too happy about that, seeing as it actively funneled traffic to one of their biggest competitors.

In its current state, I don’t really see the point of the widget, or what they’re trying to measure. How do they evaluate success? How do they measure traffic brought in from TikTok without that final button? I also think titling it the same thing as the channel and placing it directly above the channel name is both redundant and confusing.

Still, it’s hard not to salivate at the thought of creating a widget that streamlines digital audiences towards the bottom of the marketing funnel, making it easier to take analog actions like buying tickets to live shows.

Speaking of…

Morgan Jay: Brasilians Love Jesus