Forget open mic nights, TikTok is where aspiring comedians try to make it
“We want to be full-time comedians and quit our day jobs,” Says said. There is no denying that TikTok has cemented its position as a “funny” app – the comedy hashtag alone has over 1645 billion views, and the most followed person on the platform is Senegal-born comedian Khabane Lame (146 million). More than 7 million Australians now use the app, and Australian comedians such as Tom Cashman (@tom.cashman, 158,000), Jeremy Franco (@jezbreezy, 274,000) and Lizzy Hoo (@lizzyhoo 23,800) also have huge followers. While it seems TikTok loves comedy, the lack of transparency around its algorithms makes it difficult to know what factors have the most impact. The algorithm has been criticized by users and creators alike – in 2020, black content creators called the app “racial bias”, which viewed videos with the hashtags #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd unwatched, which TikTok later apologized for. Swag on the Beat says that despite many attempts to recreate viral content, they still haven’t f