Billy On The Street may be one of the earliest shows to introduce/popularise the street interview format. The format has been abused now to no extent, with the most ridiculous things being done and strangest questions being asked to people. What's happening in BOTS is also ridiculous, but in a self-aware, culture-parodying, social-observation way. I still watch it whenever I need a good laugh / need to rinse off the toxicity from street interview videos on reels.
I discovered Conan in college, & have been a devoted fan ever since. I feel like I am giving away a part of myself by talking about Conan here. I have spent countless hours watching his videos on Youtube, and he has been extremely influential in defining my interests, humour, writing style, wordview over the years. Remote is a segment where he goes beyond the live audience in his studio and tries different things inside & outside his office. Okay, yeah, that's not a great description but you have to watch it to really get it. It's hilarious, and surprisingly insightful.
I think for those of us who have grown up without SNL, our introduction to it and in extension to sketch comedy happened through Youtube. Again, the humour might not be for everyone but if it does work for you, it's going to work so well. I have probably rewatched some of the older sketches with Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Amy Poehler etc hundreds of times. It's crazy to see all these artists that you now love together, to see how they started.
I still remember when the Honest Flights sketch blew up, I came across a video from an Australian news channel where they were talking about the sketch and interviewing the AIB guys. That was surreal to me. India has never really been known for its comedy globally, & especially because comedy is so subjective, Indian comedy needs a lot of cultural context which is often lost in translation. AIB made Indian comedy global, but still extremely accessible to everyone here at home. I really miss it.
College Humour was to YouTube what SNL was to TV. They have defined & redefined Youtube sketch comedy again and again over the years. They constantly experiment with their formats, their styles have been adapted by countless other creators who went on to become even more popular, and they parody everything from pop-culture to themselves. Again, like all great comedy groups, their videos aren't just funny but also acute observations of society. I strongly recommend watching as much of their work as possible.
These random guys from New Zealand got me through the first lockdown. I found them through a clip on Facebook, decided to check out their full sketches on Youtube, & got stuck in their rabbithole for the next few months. Their videos are so refreshing, have such an interesting style, & the choice of subjects is so novel. There is also a certain innocence and sincerity in them that will get to you.
Honestly, don't even want to say too much about them. You just have to see their sketches to know how good they are. Again, some of the videos are possibly a sharper observation of society than some of the greatest social dramas you have seen. Their subjects range from some of the most horrifying things in human history (slavery, Holocaust) to just simple, silly things... such as that guy in class who steals other's jokes.
Watching clips from this one show is enough to understand how different British humour is from American humour. It's mostly dry, sarcastic, bantery but also self-depreciating. I love this unique comedy format that the British have devised, where they have combined comedy with game shows. You also see traces of it on Indian Youtube, a lot of whom have done it well & successfully.
Like CollegeHumour, Funny Or Die are also largely responsible for shaping YouTube comedy over the years. To see that this channel came from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay is even more surreal. But Between Two Ferns has to be their one great gift to humanity. I used to watch them as a kid in college, and now I watch them as an interviewer (not to see what to do), but just to see how interviews can be such an interesting format if used well. So many people have tried to replicate what they did but it always falls flat. This show works because it was original, and because Zach Galifianakis can pull it off.