Friends Clip Seinfield Clip Tik Tok Reel Algorithms Are Now Deciding What’s Funny Rather Than People What’s happening to comedy these days? Comedy used to be shaped in rooms, live and in person. Stand-up comics had to test jokes in front of real audiences, and in front of their own peers, to see what worked and what didn’t work. Improvisers relied on real-time reactions, silence, laughter, and more often than not, failure or awkward pauses to guide what worked for audiences. Humor used to be negotiated between the performer and audience. Today though, comedy lives online, where algorithms rather than people determine what gets seen, shared, and ultimately rewarded. Comedy success now on platforms like TikTok, FB reels, Instagram, YouTube etc., is measured by views, likes, watch time, and shares. Those metrics don’t actually evaluate whether something is clever, thoughtful, or connecting. The algorithms evaluate if people stop scrolling or not; so as a result, the type ...