Sam Hyde: Not actually funny.

I don't know where else to post this, but I have been developing this new obsession with Sam Hyde.

His career trajectory seems to be to have turned himself into a sort of "alpha", beyond-reproach "lolcow", pulling bizarre Kaufman-esque stunts and doing weird dumb bullshit that you can't tell whether it's meant to be a joke or not, but when you actually look at his concentrated formally-focused comedic effort, it's sort of dogshit. The MDE World Peace show that I saw on Adult Swim, with zero context as to who these guys were, just struck me as yet another post-Tim-and-Eric "lolrandom" sketch show with edge. I wouldn't have too much of a problem with this if not for the fact that the often-repeated refrain in interview with the MDE guys is that they don't want people to analyze them personally or politically, but appraise them in terms of their artistic output, of which they seem to feel their sketches are the height. I totally agree with that sentiment, but they don't make good on it.

Even Fishtank, which could be viewed as really interesting art, was somewhat sullied by its nature (and by their need to have financial support) to kowtow to their audience and constantly include them, wink to them, and make the whole thing an interactive experience that their online fanbase could get involved with. One wonders why that makes them in any way meaningfully different than Kai Cenat or Pokimane or whoever else, and why people seem to respect them as comedians and see the other two as grifters, when they seem to primarily do the exact same shit. And when you point to the one product that they seem to offer that they could justify all the streaming bullshit as an advertisement for, I think the proof is in the pudding when you see that those things are the last things that their fans want to talk about. The online discussion isn't "did you see how masterful the writing/art direction/acting was in this sketch?" It's "did you see how they triggered Hasan?" or whatever (which, I admit, is hilarious, but drop the pretense that you're any different from a streamer).

The more I've learned about these guys, the more I seem to notice that their fanbase is more interested in developing a weird parasocial relationship with them as an avatar for pwning libs and frauds than they are with engaging with their actual comedy. The most viral, shared content seems to be out-of-character podcast clips, interviews, pranks, etc., but when it comes down to actually producing the art they seem to be so focused on, no one seems to give much of a fuck, and just go back to the same meme-driven cult of personality that they'd otherwise criticize in a comedian with different aesthetic and politics. These guys are just influencers who chose a less-sought-after market. Their shit actually kinda stinks, by and large.

If all the sketches put out by MDE were the exact same, but were made by a liberal, rich, well-revered comedian, everyone would call them a hack.

What do they bring to the table that I'm missing?