When COVID-19 is a joke: Stand-up comedy versus livestreaming’s limits

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty)

Was that a stinky DD coming from a big giraffe? It's definitely not coming from our 14 different pooper dooper locations!"

Moments after stand-up comedian Meg Stalter drops this punchline, as part of a routine mocking the Disney Work Orientation process, her crowd of 11,400 viewers is silent. But she's not bombing. Stalter is streaming her comedy set via Instagram Live, and as soon as the joke drops, her audience members begin furiously tapping their phone screens, thus sending a wave of pink, yellow, and blue diaphanous hearts up from the right-hand side of her own livestreaming interface.

I'm about to puke this is so funny," one fan types. It's not the immediate feedback of a laughing crowd, but for Stalter, she'll take it.

Read 19 remaining paragraphs | Comments