A Comedian's Job

About

A Comedian's Job refers to a catchphrase used to describe what a stand-up comedian's objective is when performing their comedy. It is typically used as an ironic phrasal template where meme creators don't give an earnest objective but rather give a nonsensical one for humorous effect. It started on Twitter in early 2022 in regards to Joe Rogan's N-Word Controversy and picked up traction online in the following days.

Origin

On February 6th, 2022, professional stand-up comedian Whitney Cummings posted a tweet^[1] that detailed her opinions on what a comedian's job is. She stated that comedians "did not sign up to be your hero. It’s our job to be irreverent and dangerous, to question authority and take you through a spooky mental haunted house so you can arrive at your own conclusions," earning roughly 44,900 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

The tweet was inspired by the controversy surrounding comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan and his use of the N-word in February 2022, where Rogan received backlash over a compilation of him saying the N-word. Cummings, a close friend of Rogan and a recurrent guest on his podcast, responded to the controversy via this tweet.

Spread

At first, other comedians reacted to Cummings' tweet via their own tweets. The first to do so was Twitter^[2] user PallaviGunalan, who posted a tweet on February 6th, 2022, reading, "comedians will be like 'it’s our job to say things that make people uncomfortable' and then can’t even tell their racist friend to shut the fuck up," earning roughly 22,400 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Users then started to spread the format using the phrasal template "a comedian's job is X," going into the rest of February 2022. The first to do so was Twitter^[3] user TNeenan whose tweet devolved into a joke about fracking, earning over 200 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, left). A couple of minutes later, Twitter^[4] user ThisIsTomLittle also used the snowclone, stating, "A comedian's job is to be incredulous about garlic bread. Nothing more, nothing less," earning roughly 4,000 likes in less than 24 hours (shown below, right).

As the trend continued, more iterations evolved. Many Twitter users that joined the trend captioned image macros of Tim Robinson from the Netflix show I Think You Should Leave. For instance, Twitter^[5] rynprry posted a tweet (shown below) that earned over 700 likes in less than 24 hours.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References