What a month! What a year! One thing that’s been keeping me sane are hilarious comedians on Instagram, who have spent the last few months doing parodies of this wild world. Here are four favorites…
Caitlin Reilly, an LA-based comedian and actress, does impersonations of people, including high school bullies at their weddings and an L.A. mom giving her assistant a shopping list with items like “gluten-free blueberries” and “meat from an animal but I want it to be vegan.” Here, she portrays a friend who just got back from Paris.
Actor and writer Jordan Firstman launched to fame for his impressions of inanimate objects and everyday concepts, like “all the clothes people aren’t wearing right now” and the ecstatic “banana bread’s publicist.” He nails them all, but my favorite might be his impersonation of a birthday: “You need to chill, you need to absolutely chill…I am just a day.”
New York-based author and actor Sarah Cooper lip-syncs to Trump videos and adds her own amazing expressions and movements. Her disinfectant video went viral and she now has almost one million Instagram followers, and even more on TikTok. “To get the lip-synching just right, I have to listen to Trump’s voice over and over again, which is pretty painful,” she told InStyle. “My husband, Jeff, is ready to gouge his ears out… So once I know what clip I want to use, I try to get it done quickly, which actually helps me not overthink it too much.”
Matt Buechele, a comedian and composer, tackles daily pandemic life in his short sketches. Above, he announces school rules for 2020. You might like this hangout one, and this doctor one was on point this weekend ([Trump] is fever…ishly working for the American people”). Because if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
Who are you following on Instagram these days? What mellows you out? I’d love to hear…
P.S. 9 great Instagram accounts, and how to vote this fall.
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Tony Baker is my favorite. His animal voiceovers are hilarious and I love his walks “out in the community”. What in the habadasheries and hemoglobins? KIRKPATRICK!
Actress Briana Venskus has been making the most hilariously oddball videos since the beginning of the pandemic.
WHAT ABOUT HEATHER MCMAHAN?!?!?!
Yesss, I love these! Also @mafarina and @thedailytay
Shout out to @mafarina, also hilarious and in this cabal.
Celeste Barber! Love her sense of humour
Ditto!
Sydney Battle! Her “Ditch Please” series is gold. @sydbattle
BIG fan of @heatherkmcmahan on Instagram. Scroll back to April 28th for her post on a yoga move. That’s what drew me in and I haven’t gone back since.
Heather is MY GIRL!!! I share her instagram and podcast with everyone i know.
Heather!!!!!!!
definitely check out @blair.erskine as well! she lives in Atlanta and does so many hilarious caricatures, highly recommend :)
Friend just shared the Magic Coffee Table video with me and if you haven’t seen it, it is definitely good for a laugh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_kXIGvB1uU
Caitlin Reilly is excellent and talented and I am very keen to see how she branches out from impersonating annoying white women because she is very insightful in this regard!
It’s funny these are “Instagram” comedians, because I feel like they became known on Tik-Tok, since that’s where I’ve seen some of them. I love Sarah Cooper, and Jeff Wright (‘jeffrightnow’) is fantastic too. https://www.instagram.com/jeffrightnow/
I’ve commented about her before, but ELSA MAJIMBO!!!! Don’t sleep on her. Icon. https://www.instagram.com/majimb.o/
Yes, I came here to shout her out too. She is effortlessly hilarious!
AGREE
oh my gosh I have not heard of her before but THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING ME???loving this account
Another plug for Benito Skinner @bennydrama7.
His Queer Eye and CHEER parodies are a must watch – he has me rolling.
Jordan Firstman’s impression of the god who decides prices crack me up every. single. time.
“Let’s make raspberries weirdly expensive.”
Hands down, @celestebarber and her #challengeaccepted series of photos and clips. Cry laugh out loud.
Came here to shout out Celeste Barber! So, SO GOOD.
Those guys have been giving me life. Especially JT Firstman. I love him!
Haha I haven’t seen any of these – provided a much-need boost today!
OMG thank you for that!!! :-) sitting in my office trying to hide my laugh – now I’m going to spend unreasonable time catching up with all the videos they ahve ever posted :-D
Eva Victor’s one year anniversary of NOT killing her husband makes me laugh every time: https://mobile.twitter.com/evavictor/status/1149712118872256512
I keep thinking I need to share this with MY husband.
The BEST by far for me during covid has been @julienolke and her time travelling in 2020 videos. Hilarious!!!
When I’m in a particularly bad funk, things like this help SO much. The power of laughter – thank you!!!
Julie Nolke also did some hilarious videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk_MHfOAfRQ
Also check out the Holderness Family.
I adore Katie Florence who created @the.kouncil (on instagram, I believe she’s also on TikTok).
Sarah Cooper has been a life raft for me in these troubled times.
Sarah Cooper got me thru the quarantine. I just love her! Looking forward to checking out the others. We all could certainly use some humor right now!
Hi,
For mellowing out ….
I enjoy watching Mei Xiang and her 6 week old cub on the Giant Panda Cam (24/7) at the National Zoo, Washington DC.
Awww, so cute! Thank you for the rec!
Would love to watch these but they are not captioned.
Cup of Jo could add captions to screencasts of the videos and advocate having the creators caption their own content in the future. <3
Ok ok if you’re into your horoscope and astrology you must check out Chris Corsini on Instagram, his monthly readings are soooo good and so funny!
I’ve been loving @Ryan_Ken_Acts on twitter!
I would add Erin Farrington to this list! https://www.instagram.com/erinfarrington/
My favorite of hers is this pair:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEmc9napklq/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEmdKElJ4jQ/
The dr. Bronners one by Jordan is hilarious and can make me laugh just by thinking of it!!!!
Check out Bennydrama7 if you can on IG. He’s hilarious.
Caleb Hearon is the absolute FUNNIEST tweeter in the world. @calebsaysthings on Twitter and on Instagram. Seriously so funny, sometimes I read his tweets before I go to bed to put me in a good mood, haha.
Heather McMahan (@heatherkmcmahan) and her Absolutely Not! podcast!!!! It’s like visiting with your hilarious high school friend. She makes me so happy when I’m doing dishes and I (painfully) laugh in those lower abdominal muscles that I can’t be bothered with since becoming a mom.
YES, love her!!!!
Also a huge Heather McMahan fan, her instagram stories bring a smile to my face every single day.
So fun! I found Caitlin Reilly from you on Instagram—would love to see A Week of Outfits from her (with her signature amazing highlighter tips!!). Xo
OMG that would be a DREAM!
I’ve been listening to Tig Notaro’s podcast Don’t Ask Tig in the morning and it’s so nice to start the day with a good laugh :)
omg thank you for the rec! I adored her special.
Obsessed with Megan Stalter – her comedy is surreal and brilliant and has helped me find moments of joy during these crazy times! https://www.instagram.com/megsstalter/
YES YES A MILLION TIMES YES~!!!!!!!!
came here to say this! love meg. i will add joe castle baker: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1U0j1YFBtC/
A gentle request to try and include creators of color in posts like this. Representation matters so much. Thank you :)
Sarah cooper is Black (jamaican-american)
oh, yes, we always strive to be diverse (in terms of race, sexual orientation, location, style, etc.) in round-ups, like wedding advice posts, Instagram feeds, and book recommendations. here, Sarah Cooper is Black, and Jordan Firstman is gay, and we are so honored to feature this talented group!
Hey Lydia, totally agree that representation really matters, but I wanted to point out that this post does include a Black woman.
I’m so glad to be wrong! Thank you all for clarifying :)
OMG America as your boyfriend … “he takes 30% of your money to share with his guy friends.” Crying laughing BC ITS TRUE.
My husband and I are obsessed with Caitlin Reilly! Love her videos so much. Our first favorite was the Overactive Listener and I just enjoy bingeing them all, especially the WASP mom ones. I can’t wait to check out the rest here.
hahahaha! thank you!
AHHHHHH THIS POST HAS MADE ME SO HAPPY!!! I feel like I’ve watched every one of Caitlin Reilly’s videos 300x and love JT Firstman too – his impression of someone who says mosquitos love them gets me every time.
I don’t have IG, but some others I love:
-Caleb Hearon on Twitter (think I saw him listed below) – his videos for “pov: you’re a close friend venting to me about a situation where you were entirely in the wrong” https://twitter.com/calebsaysthings/status/1201590348730032129?lang=en is so so so good
-Benito Skinner/@bennydrama7 is an absolute favorite and all of his many wildly wonderful characters
-Chloe Fineman (@chloeiscrazy) is on SNL now and more well-known, but her impressions and characters on Instagram (and especially going back a couple of years) are magical
I read this yesterday in a profile of Benito Skinner, and it made me really emotional.
For every time we think about all the many horrible things about social media, this makes me at least feel like it does some good: ““What is so great about the internet and the time we’re living in now,” he says, “is that I can be so many characters, and I’ve tried so many of these things, and I’ve been on camera so much, and I didn’t need a casting director to do that for me and decide that I was worthy of a part. I just wrote the part and made myself the part. We’re kind of getting rid of that, ‘You have to have gone to this school, and you have to have done this program, and all this.’ Or you didn’t have to. Maybe you’re just doing it your own way, and it works.”
these people are kind of heroes to me! laughing is surviving! what a week for you in the us, I can not believe it; the news are so weird they feel unreal. Thinking of you and your comedians are SO talented!
Matt (of whose existence I learned about from you) is my celebrity crush
Wow, I am in a Sarah Cooper rabbit hole! I don’t do instagram, (which means none of the instagram photo’s posted on your site are ever visible to me – presumably because I’m not logged in? It’s just a blank box with the captions. Wish that could be fixed), so, missed her until now. Once I climb out I can’t wait to check out the other ones for some much appreciated humor, thank you so much!
Wow! Definitely needed this! Thank you for the laughs!
Chelsea Frei (@chelseafrei) and Naomi Ekperigin (@blacktresscomedy)!!!!
hahaha so good. As an economist the price one is so funny, we learn something called a walrasian auction, which is essentially a guy (Walras) taking prices until supply equals demand :)
Omg this is a good one today!!! I cant stop watching Erika Priscilla on IG, her alter ego Qelsi is the worst but funniest version of an influencer. Also Cazzie David has a short animated video series Are U Mad At Me and I wont even try to do that one justice by explaining it here but it was life sustaining during quarantine haha. Thanks for always being a bright spot CoJ!
going off to check these out right now!
When you start off with “what a month” I really hope you’re JUST referring to October so far! This was definitely one of those times where I was like “what a year this week has been…”
Anyway, really just wanted to say that I love Sarah Cooper! Excited to check the others out too.
yes haha! what a month these five days have been.
When this year started, I had very good intentions of moving my body more and laying off the junk food. Then COVID hit in March, I got laid off, and then started a very stressful new, remote role in May. Here I am on October 5, zero exercise days done and wondering how much ice cream is too much. Next year feels like a good time to try again.
B- It sounds like you’ve had a big year and have accomplished some other big goals (like navigating a new job and even finding a new job in a bad climate) so if you needed someone to say way to go…WAY TO GO!
B, so many of us are right there with you – this year has felt impossible for good habits.
But maybe get a head start on it and practice making smaller healthy choices now? Then you’ll have some momentum heading into 2021!
Sarah is, of course, on Twitter too and very active. And Randy Rainbow is too. Recommend.
Sarah Cooper, omg, she is brilliant!!! I can’t stopping watching her.
What a great way to brighten this Monday. Thanks CoJ!
The “if you’re one of the popular kids you can wear your mask like this” on Matt’s principal video gets me EVERY TIME. THE ACCURACY!!!!!
me too hahahaha
I’m not on Instagram but Caleb Hearon on Twitter (@calebsaysthings) is the only reason I can’t quit Twitter. He’s so hilarious.