Comedy video has moved from an established online niche to a major part of internet culture. Pew Research Center measured humorous-video viewing among internet users in 2007, 2010, and 2013, while later TikTok and YouTube reports quantify the scale of comedy discovery, participation, and creator influence.
Contents
- Early evidence of comedy-video demand
- How comedy viewing changed from 2007 to 2013
- Who watched comedy videos
- The rise of everyday and funny video creation
- Comedy on TikTok
- Humor, identity, and younger viewers
- The scale of YouTube video
Early evidence of comedy-video demand
Pew Research Center’s What They Watch Online study provides an early benchmark for comedy video. In 2007, 31% of internet users said they had watched or downloaded comedic or humorous videos. On a typical day, 7% did so. These measures describe different behaviors: the first is a broader experience measure, while the second captures regular daily activity during the study period.
Age differences were already visible. In 2007, 56% of young adult internet users had watched humorous online videos, and 15% had done so on a typical day. Among internet users ages 30–49, 29% had watched or downloaded humorous video online. The corresponding shares were 17% for users ages 50–64 and 12% for users ages 65 and older. These figures are historical measurements from 2007, not current audience estimates.
The same Pew Research Center study reported a gender difference in comedy-video viewing. Thirty-eight percent of male online users had watched or downloaded comedy video in 2007, compared with 25% of online women. On a typical day, the figures were 9% for male online users and 5% for female online users.
How comedy viewing changed from 2007 to 2013
The available Pew Research Center measurements show a sharp increase in the share of online adults reporting comedy or humorous-video viewing. In The State of Online Video (2010), comedy or humorous videos accounted for 50% of adult internet users, up from 31% in 2007. The two measurements are useful as a historical comparison, although they come from different reports and years.
Video use more broadly also expanded. In 2010, 69% of adult internet users had used the internet to watch or download video, while 52% of all U.S. adults had done so. Fourteen percent of adult internet users had uploaded a video to the internet in 2010.
By 2013, 72% of online adults used video-sharing sites such as YouTube or Vimeo, according to Pew Research Center’s Main Findings. Fifty-eight percent watched comedy or humorous videos. For comparison, 50% watched educational videos and 56% watched how-to videos.
| Pew Research Center measure | Share | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| Internet users who watched or downloaded humorous video | 31% | 2007 |
| Adult internet users who watched or downloaded comedy or humorous video | 50% | 2010 |
| Online adults who watched comedy or humorous videos | 58% | 2013 |
| Online adults using video-sharing sites | 72% | 2013 |
The 2013 findings also show that comedy sat within a wider video ecosystem. Music-video viewership grew from 32% in 2009 to 50% in 2013. In the 2013 survey, online video watchers were consuming several types of content rather than choosing comedy in isolation.
Who watched comedy videos
Pew Research Center’s Online Video 2013 report gives more detail by age among online video watchers. Eighty-two percent of online video watchers ages 18–29 watched comedy videos in 2013. Among online video watchers ages 50 and older, the share was 61%.
The age contrast appeared in other categories too. Eighty-one percent of online video watchers ages 18–29 watched music videos, compared with 39% of those ages 50 and older. Animation videos were watched by 47% of the younger group and 20% of the older group. These comparisons place comedy in a broader pattern of age-related differences in online video preferences.
Some 2013 category measures also differed by gender. Forty-nine percent of male online video watchers watched sports videos, compared with 23% of female online video watchers. Political videos were watched by 40% of male online video watchers and 30% of female online video watchers. Adult videos were watched by 25% of male online video watchers and 8% of female online video watchers. These are category-specific historical percentages and should not be treated as comedy-viewing rates.
The rise of everyday and funny video creation
Viewing was not the only important behavior. Pew Research Center’s 5 facts about online video for YouTube’s 10th birthday reported that 31% of online adults posted a video to a website in 2013. Among online adults who posted a video, 35% hoped it would go viral.
The subjects of original videos show how closely comedy could connect with ordinary life. Among internet users who posted an original video online in 2013, 45% uploaded a pet or animal video, 58% posted a video showing friends and family doing everyday things, and 56% posted a video of themselves or others doing funny things. Fifty-four percent posted a video of an event they attended.
Creators also used video for instruction and planned performance. Thirty percent of video posters uploaded tutorial videos in 2013, while 23% uploaded intentionally staged or scripted videos. The 56% figure for funny things is especially relevant to comedy-video research because it measures humorous subject matter in user-created video, rather than only professional comedy programming.
The same Pew Research Center source reported broad platform reach in 2014. Seventy-seven percent of internet users used Facebook, and 63% used YouTube. YouTube use reached 82% among 18- to 29-year-olds and 34% among adults ages 65 and older. By race and ethnicity, YouTube use was 76% among Black internet users, 74% among Hispanic internet users, and 57% among White internet users.
Comedy on TikTok
TikTok’s own business reporting describes comedy as a large-scale discovery and marketing category. By January 2024, videos posted to the #funny and #comedy hashtags had accumulated 6 trillion views, according to the TikTok For Business Blog. This is a cumulative hashtag-view figure, not a count of unique viewers or individual comedy videos.
Humor also appeared in purchase-related measures. Thirty percent of TikTok users said humor in creator content was a top motivation for purchase intent. Seven in 10 TikTok viewers said making people laugh was the most enjoyable aspect of watching TikTok ads. These measures concern reported attitudes toward creator content and advertising, not comedy-video audience size.
Creator participation was another recurring theme. Eighty-two percent of people who create on TikTok said other users inspire them to create. Remixing a trend was linked to a 14% uplift in view time for ads. Seventy-nine percent of TikTok users agreed that brands should experiment with different topics and interests on the platform. The TikTok creator marketplace search database included over 2 million qualified creators.
TikTok Newsroom supplied additional campaign examples. The #TikTokComedyClub campaign had just over 451 million video views. Hallebberry’s comedy brand had 2.3 million fans on TikTok in under two years. These are reported platform or brand figures associated with specific examples, so they should not be generalized to all comedy creators.
Humor, identity, and younger viewers
YouTube Blog reporting on its Creative Maximalism report measured the relationship between online content and the self-described habits of 14- to 24-year-olds. Fifty-eight percent said their sense of humor was shaped by the internet. Sixty percent said they picked up habits from online creators, and 59% said their personal style was influenced by online content. Sixty-two percent said they used internet slang.
These findings connect comedy video with language and identity, but they measure reported influence rather than viewing frequency. They also apply specifically to the 14–24 age group in the cited report.
YouTube Blog’s 2022 Trends Report reported that 65% of Gen Z agreed that personally relevant content mattered more than content many other people talked about. The same report said 83% of Gen Z had used YouTube to watch soothing content that helps them relax. Neither figure is a comedy-viewing percentage, but both help describe why online video categories compete through relevance and emotional response.
The report also gave a live-event comparison: nearly a quarter of a million viewers tuned in to Big Jet TV’s Heathrow live coverage during Storm Eunice. That example concerns live coverage rather than comedy, so it illustrates the platform’s ability to gather audiences around timely content, not comedy demand itself.
The scale of YouTube video
YouTube Blog’s 2025 20th Anniversary Report described a global service operating in more than 100 countries and supporting 80 languages. The report said YouTube had billions of monthly viewers and that viewers collectively watched over a billion hours of video each day. These figures indicate the scale of the distribution environment in which comedy videos can compete, but they do not isolate comedy viewing.
The YouTube Blog’s Virtual Creators report added a 2024 sample: 300 Virtual Creators earned over 15 billion views across videos, livestreams, and Shorts. One billion of those views came from the United States alone. This is a sample-based creator figure and includes multiple formats, so it is not a direct estimate of total virtual-comedy or comedy-video views.
Taken together, the historical Pew Research Center data show comedy video becoming a larger reported part of online viewing between 2007 and 2013. TikTok’s later hashtag, advertising, campaign, and creator figures show how humor can scale through participation and discovery. YouTube’s global audience and daily viewing measures show the size of the broader video environment, while the age-specific findings clarify why comedy remains especially prominent among younger online video watchers.