Through TikTok’s rise and the now-looming threat of its being banned — many states have some kind of ban on the app already — the social platform has undeniably made people laugh and, inadvertently, ...

Like generations of Hollywood hopefuls before him, Adam Waheed moved to Los Angeles in 2017 to become an actor. "I was trying to get auditions. I was trying to get a manager. I was trying to get an ...

Stand-up comic Nimesh Patel sometimes asks his audience: Who is here because of TikTok? “The first thing I noticed was the diversity,” he says. His TikTok videos brought out comedy fans in their 20s ...

Clubs book comedians with lots of TikTok followers because they say it ensures ticket sales. Some stand-ups say the platform launched their careers. Others say TikTok is an additional full-time job.

W hen Morgan Jay was cast on a prime-time TV show, he thought he’d finally gotten his big break. “I never really wanted to be doing social media. First, you had to post on YouTube, then it was ...

On occasion, when a friend downloads TikTok for the first time, they’ll ask me who to follow. My answer is generally the same: You don’t find the funny TikTokers, they find you. TikTok’s algorithm is ...

This story is part of a USA TODAY series looking at the evolution of comedy and what the industry’s future looks like in a changing world. In 2022, comedy is more accessible than ever. Though some ...

If you fluff a joke in a TikTok, you've always got the option of deleting the video. Not so much live on stage at the world's biggest performance arts festival. But for a group of acts who've gained a ...

It doesn’t build slowly like a sitcom, or unfurl as witty repartee in a novel. It doesn’t explain itself like a stand-up routine. Instead, it hits fast, surprises us, and vanishes. Absurdism, as a ...