Hometown DIGITAL HEROES
Whether it’s Brampton YouTube star Lilly Singh, satirist Monica Heisey, or actor and web crack-up Jared Keeso, we give you eight digital funny people worth following on
The Serial
Letterkenny Problems (YouTube.com/user/ PlayFunGamesPictures) YouTube Views: 10.6+ million views Rednecks Refreshed: The five-part series of rapid-fire redneck rants from 19-2 star Jared Keeso has been expanded to a full web series by Canadian actor/director Jacob Tierney that will debut on Crave (a premiere date is TBA). Choice Clip: “North Korea is threatening to drop some nukes, but what’s more concerning is Duck Dynasty has become way too scripted.” Link: http://bit.ly/1Vo0qzg (Warning: profanity)
The Pod People
See You Next Wednesday (SeeYouNextWednesday.libsyn.com) Downloaded: 82,351 times Worthy Gamble: The podcast stars Greg LeGros and Casey Lyons, co-owners of College St. bar Rancho Relaxo, and Dan Gorman riffing on film, music and pop culture. A roll of the dice determines who will screen an anticipated project (such as Johnny Depp’s Black Mass) and who will be sadistically punished (with, say, Miley Cyrus/Kelly Osbourne caper So Undercover). 15-Second-Repeat Worthy: On the X-Men’s Gambit throwing explosive playing cards as his superpower: “It looks like you’re an . . . old maid! Zap!” Link: http://bit.ly/1Vo1Gm6 (Warning: profanity)
The Satirist
Monica Heisey (@monicaheisey) Twitter Following: 9,069 Ridiculously Retweetable: If you’re not ready to commit to Heisey’s memoir-ish I Can’t Believe It’s Not Better, featuring essays such as “Pizzas I Have Loved” and quizzes such as “Which of the Terrible Fashion Mistakes of My Past Are You?”, start with her wonderfully absurdist Twitter feed. Quote Tweet: “Man in grocery store and I made eye contact at exact second we both declined an optional $2 charitable donation is this love” Link: http://bit.ly/1POvUI6
Drop Dead Funny
Skellie (@omgskellie) Instagram Followers: 294,000 Death Becomes Her: Skellie, assisted by living companion Dana Herlihey, is just your average Insta girl: posing in summer dresses, grocery shopping for organic kale, and posing with pals Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba (#SquadGoals). She’s also literally a skeleton. Heart This Video: Skellie had the thrill of an afterlife-time at the Salsa in Toronto festival last July, where she took a spin on a beethemed carousel, captioned, “Bitches be jealous cos I’m The Queen Bee.” Link: http://bit.ly/1KT0uvL
The King of Vine
KingBach (@KingBach) Vine Following: 13.9 million Six Seconds of Stardom: Born in Toronto as Andrew B. Bachelor, the L.A. transplant has become the most followed person on Vine for his highly physical comedy. On Loop: KingBach: “Yo, guess what I just found out?”
Anwar Jibawi: “Your girl cheated on you with Mark?”
KingBach: “No . . . I got into Harvard.” (cue sobbing) Link: https://vine.co/KingBach (Warning: profanity)
Sketchy Lady
Kate Beaton (HarkAVagrant.com) Greatest Hits: 1,250,100 unique hits per month Comic Timing: Though the Nova Scotia-born Toronto resident just released Step Aside Pops, her second collection of doodles that document wry retellings of the historical and literary canon, her patriarchy-sassing scribbles are updated regularly on her blog. Quotable: “I love early aviatrices — Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Beryl Markham, etc. — they were like, ‘Oh is there a brand new job on the face of the earth? Think I’ll invite myself to do it before anyone says I can’t.’” Link: http://bit.ly/1RgO7Pq
The Face of YouTube
Superwoman (YouTube.com/user/IISuperwomanII) YouTube Subscribers: 6,749,219 Comedy Hero: Known by her secret identity Lilly Singh in her hometown of Brampton, the 27-year-old comedian not only boasts such IRL brand extensions as a clothing line, an upcoming doc about her life and the ongoing A Trip to Unicorn Island World Tour (four shows in India sold out in two days last April), but YouTube chose to spotlight her in its current crop of creator-focused ads. Choice Clip: “This person is so single they won’t even use plural words.” Link: http://bit.ly/1hbMQfN
The TwitWit
Norm Kelly (@norm) Twitter following: 166,000 Social skills: The councillor for ScarboroughAgincourt has a beloved Twitter timeline that mixes roadwork updates with Toronto hip-hop shout-outs. He’s proven to be as vigilant in his support of the Scarborough subway as he is of Drake in his ongoing beef with rapper Meek Mill. Drake even brought Kelly out during his Sept. 11 performance at Ryerson University, where Kelly asked the frosh week crowd, “y’all turnt up?” Quote tweet: “What a time to be alive” — Kelly quotes the title of Drake and Future’s surprise mix tape in a link to a news story about a monkey’s legal rights to its own selfies. Link: http://bit.ly/1M2tJgw