Homeless stars, endless spaghetti and amplified farts: the comedians of TikTok

Speech is out. Daft captions are in. Nearly everyone is beautiful. And one guy amassed 11m followers while living in emergency accommodation with his mum. Our critic samples TikTok comedy

I'm used to consuming jokes and sketches as part of shows, as components of a bigger whole. But that experience leaves me rudderless on TikTok, where comedy is often conveyed in free-floating skits and blink-and-you'll-miss-them stings. YouTube sketches are Infinite Jests by comparison.

Ah, but the shorter the video, the more you can condense your comedy into bite-size, shareable chunks", according to one guide to TikTok comedy, suggesting that humour on the platform is as often about brand development as it is about making people laugh.