Commentary humor provides quality content without harming others

April 25, 2019 — by Kaitlyn Tsai

Avoiding cheap laughs, Cody Ko and Noel Miller manage to keep viewers entertained in their YouTube videos.

“Dude, imagine getting four tupperwares filled with grilled chicken and beans for Valentine’s Day and then being stoked,” YouTube personality Cody Kolodziejzyk, widely known as Cody Ko, said in a video mocking fitness comedy. “Life must just suck so much at that point.”

A Duke alumni and former software engineer, Ko is one of the leading figures in a rising branch of YouTube comedy: commentary humor, characterized primarily by YouTubers sharing and mocking ridiculous or outrageous content such as Jake Paul’s songs.

Ko began his video-making career with comedy skits on the six second video sharing app Vine and now celebrates his success on YouTube with a growing fanbase of over 2.5 million subscribers. Although at first glance his content may seem offensive, and commentary humor may seem rude or arrogant, Ko constantly reminds his audience not to make hateful remarks to the subjects of his videos. More importantly, Ko manages to crack his jokes without making them personal attacks against the subjects, usually other Internet personalities.

Aside from commentary videos on a variety of topics ranging from the short video app TikTok to the lack of good comedy on Instagram, Ko also has a popular series called “That’s Cringe,” in which he and fellow YouTuber Noel Miller commentate on bizarre, outrageous content.

Several months ago, it was from this series that I stumbled upon my first Cody Ko video: “That’s Cringe: Vape Hotbox.” In it, Ko and Miller watched and laughed at a video in which YouTuber MattySmokes and his friends attempted to hotbox, or smoke in an enclosed area, with Juuls. Primarily, Ko and Miller laughed at the teens’ language and actions rather than at the vaping itself.

“I feel 40 years younger watching this video. This is so good,” Miller, 29, laughed at one point in the video, to which Ko retorted, “I feel 40 years older watching this.”

Although I normally have little patience for videos longer than 10 minutes, Ko and Miller’s sharp wit, endless laughter and jokes made the 15 minutes and 39 seconds fly by in what felt like five minutes. From there, I browsed other videos on Ko’s channel and discovered several ironic — and incredibly catchy — parody songs that he made with Miller.

After watching their music video “No Flex,” i.e. a montage of Ko and Miller riding on electric scooters and throwing $1 bills at the camera, I knew whose videos I would binge on over winter break.

So if you’re looking for fresh content and a good laugh to distract you from the pain of finals, you know where to go. And don’t forget to smash the like and subscribe buttons.

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