Front-facing camera comedy is a

comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

genre filmed on the front-facing camera of smartphones in which performers deliver in-character

monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...

s while directly facing the camera, sometimes playing multiple roles. Early iterations of front-facing camera comedy went

viral Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). Viral may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...

Vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

in the early 2010s, and now frequently appear on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, and

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

.Zinoman, Jason
"Now Playing Nightly on Instagram: Sketch Comedy’s Newest Star,"
''The New York Times'' 29 Mar. 2020. Notable practitioners include

Cole Escola Cole Escola (born November 25, 1986) is an American comedian, actor, and singer. They are best known for their cabaret work and their appearances on the television series '' Jeffery & Cole Casserole'' (2009–2010), ''Difficult People'' (2015– ...

Chloe Fineman Chloe Rose Fineman (born July 20, 1988) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. Fineman became a featured player on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' starting in its Saturday Night Live (season 45), 45th season in Septem ...

, and

Megan Stalter Megan Stalter (born September 15, 1990)Zinoman, Jason''The New York Times'' 29 Mar. 2020. is an American comedian and actress. In her videos, Stalter specializes in desperate, deluded characters who are prone to theatricality, frequent mispronunci ...

, the latter of whom has referred to the genre as "solo improv". While it has become a defining form for some comedians, others use it to workshop material that will eventually be polished for use on more traditional platforms.Martin, Clare
"The Rise—and Limitations—of Front-Facing Camera Comedy,"
''Paste'' 31 Jan. 2020. The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

resulted in the closure of live comedy venues and a subsequent "pivot" to front-facing camera comedy.Gillespie, Katherine
"So You Want to Make a Quarantine Comedy Video,"
''Paper'' 14 May 2020. In March 2020, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' critic

Jason Zinoman Jason Zinoman (born 1975 or 1976) is an American critic and author. He has written for ''The New York Times'', ''Time Out New York'', '' Vanity Fair'', and ''Slate''. In 2011, he published ''Shock Value'', a non-fiction book about horror films. ...

declared it "the dominant comedy form" of the pandemic.

References

Comedy genres Show business terms 2010s fads and trends 2020s fads and trends Internet memes {{comedy-stub