On an equal footing: the performance of up-and-coming and established comedians during social distancing

Abstract

The pandemic in 2020 brought cinematographic productions around the world to a standstill. Some artists, now at home, kept their production routine and had to adapt to the new reality. In comedy, the result was an apparent similarity between the production of established comedians and newcomers, the latter natives of the digital environment. Was this a moment when comedians of different status were on an “equal footing”? This research sought to identify the similarities and differences between the humor production of established comedians compared to the content produced by up-and-coming artists in 2020, with attention to aspects such as audience, visuals and content. Twenty publications by Brazilian comedians Marcelo Adnet, Ademara Barros, Tom Cavalcante and Lorrane Silva were subjected to a quantitative and qualitative analysis that sought to understand the impact of the pandemic on the performance of established comedians and on the rise of certain up-and-coming comedians. The result of the investigation indicates a greater presence of differences between the analyzed material, mainly in terms of content, audiovisual resources and duration. Hypotheses that aim to explain these results were pointed out in the conclusion.

Keywords:

• Humor
• comedy
• pandemic
• TikTok
• communication
• Brazil

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

The author did not receive any funding for this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcell Machado Marchioro

Marcell Machado Marchioro holds a Master’s degree in Social Communication from PUCRS and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. Interested in the study of different communication phenomena, he’s currently researching the language of humor and its applications in social communication.