Women have always liked comedians, whether they were the target demographic or not. But throughout the last several decades, it hasn’t been as though many male comedians have actively cultivated a female audience. TikTok has brought some change to this, though. There, where a first-person, off-the-cuff style abounds, creators like Connor Wood, aka fibulaa, have developed a largely female audience. As in the past, this isn’t necessarily intentional. It’s more like Wood and other guys on the app have stumbled into this fanbase—and, to an extent, comedy writ large—purely by accident.
Some have called this phenomenon part of the “female gaze.” Wood is a very charming, handsome young man, but (no offense, Connor) he may not look like the sort of sculpted Hollywood heartthrob other guys expect women to want. But that’s exactly the point. On TikTok, it’s precisely the boy-next-door, funny guy who thrives. And thrive Wood has: He also co-hosts the highly ranked Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, Alexandra Daddario cites herself as a “Connor Wood and Brooke Averick fan account” on her TikTok bio, recent stand-up shows of his have sold out, and he’s starting a nationwide tour next month. Not bad for a guy who started off using TikTok to lament unemployment.
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Below, Wood and I discuss how exactly one falls into this female gaze success, what it’s like pivoting from app-based comedy to the stage, and some of his ins and outs for 2024.
VICE: You got your start on TikTok early in the pandemic. What were your original goals for the platform?
Connor Wood: I didn’t have the intention originally to lean into this full-time. I was definitely trying to get a job. My mom would say what I’m doing now is a “job,” with air quotes. I was looking for a no-air-quotes job when I fell into the TikTok thing, and I started leaning into it more. I didn’t go viral right away like people do today, but once I saw steady growth, I started doing longer-form comedy, actually speaking to the camera rather than just using whatever sounds or dances were popular on TikTok at the time.
Who did you consider your audience to be at the time? How did you hope your audience would evolve?
I wasn’t thinking about my audience. That’s the weird part. It was just very personal experience-oriented. It was a lot of me talking about, “Oh, I did this job interview, and I absolutely bombed. And then I sent a follow-up email, and instead of saying, ‘Excuse me,’ I said, ‘Exsqueeze me.’” But I guess my personal experience wasn’t as personal as I thought it was. Talking about getting a job was really relevant in 2020 for people right outside of college or maybe senior year of college who were panicking about going into the real world or being a legit adult. So I found out really quickly that my audience was the recent grad demographic, and then I didn’t know until a year later how heavily female-skewed my audience was. That was unintentional. I didn’t curate my audience, as much as it may feel like I do.
What were your thoughts on the discovery that women, in particular, liked your work?
I mean, it was cool. When I saw that it was skewing that way, I was like, “I need to bring in the guys.” My original thought was that I needed to get that back to a 50/50 gender split. I was like, “I should chug a beer here. I need to play more golf. Maybe I should do more basketball jokes.” And then I realized really quickly that is just not what I do. So it’s worked out, really.
What do you think it is about TikTok that allows for this type of female-audience comedy dynamic to unfold?
I think it’s that there’s no forced material coming out. It’s just the authenticity. I think women on the internet are more open to that sort of thing. It feels safer. I think a lot of male comedians are almost a little scary. I watched some stuff that guys post, and I’m like, “Oh my god, I would never ever, ever go there.” With this largely female audience, it feels like a really good community of people and a safe space. My comments are always really fun. I wish I was more like a data scientist so I could put this into more logical terms.
I’ll post a more structured comedy bit, then I’ll post something off the cuff, just hanging out. It’s something you used to only get on, like, MTV Cribs episodes with comedians. When I post all this right there on TikTok, you’re like, “I know this person.” And I think that goes into parasocial relationships.
Does it ever get strange that there are people who watch you online and basically remember every detail you’ve ever said?
Yeah, it gets weird sometimes. And I think that it’s, like, a blessing and a small tiny curse. I’ll go on the podcast and talk about my mom, and then someone will jump in the comments like, “So your mom has narcissistic borderline personality disorder.” I can’t be mad at someone for feeling connected to me or my family or my friends or whatever when I’m telling them every single detail. I’m telling personal anecdotes and stories that let them in. But it is sometimes like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Could they take a step back?”
How has the transition been to other mediums like podcasts and stage work?
I got really lucky with it, obviously. This is still a blossoming area. I’ll get put in a room with some of the coolest people ever, Tiffany Haddish or Bill Burr. And those people talk about their rise to comedy, and it’s like, “I was in the trenches for 15 years, and then I finally got my big break.” I’m in these rooms after one year of doing stand-up comedy, and like, I’m just gonna keep my mouth shut. It feels like I kind of got the FastPass with TikTok because they’ll put me on a lineup, and I’ll sell tickets, and that’s awesome, but it feels less like I worked my way up from the mailroom. But it was different back then.
You get exposure and you grow really quickly online now, and I know a lot of the biggest comedians right now can connect their success to the fact that they were able to start posting their standup clips on TikTok and go viral there. That was their big break. So I think that’s just a newer thing, but being in the green rooms at first as the TikTok guy right when I started was kind of an interesting experience. It was like those scenes in 90s movies where you can’t find somewhere to sit at lunch because you’re the new kid, so you end up eating on the toilet with your tray, which is just so foul. There’s better ways to do that. Now I’m feeling like I’m supposed to be there. I’m no longer like a freshman. I’m kind of figuring it out.
“I kind of got the FastPass with TikTok because they’ll put me on a lineup, and I’ll sell tickets, and that’s awesome, but it feels less like I worked my way up from the mailroom.”
Does your audience in person feel like the same audience you have on TikTok? Is it largely women?
Yes, it is, and it’s really fun. It’s cool because the women that do come will bring their friends or their boyfriends. I have a joke that I always do with the boyfriends in the crowd who look like they want to kill themselves. It’s kind of a fun challenge to win over the crew that was the plus-ones or plus-twos with the women who were already fans. But yeah, it’s pretty reflective of my audience online.
You recently had a “2024 Ins and Outs” video that went pretty viral. Are there any you’d like to add to the list now that we’re a few weeks in?
I’ve done like 50 of those ins and outs. I actually have my phone right here. I’m gonna look and see if I added any more. Tupperware has not taken off in the way that I thought it was going to. And that is kind of shocking to me. I really thought that we were going to step in that direction.
In: Completing tasks. I really suck at completing tasks. And I think that I’ve fallen into a TikTok algorithm that’s giving a lot of advice on, like, taking your ADHD medication. And one of the tasks I’d like to complete is to take that medication.
Out: Tap water. I’m gonna stop drinking tap water because I feel like that’s also kind of leading into my not completing tasks and the heavy metals are weighing me down a bit.
Out: Asking for favors. I’m gonna cut back on asking people for favors. And I’m not going to mount my TV this year. I’m gonna get a credenza for my TV.
Final question. Scrolling through your TikTok, it’s like you have a new hat for every video. Exactly how many hats do you own?
I just moved, and before I did, I went through and counted 170 hats. I got rid of 100 of them. I’m still working to get that number down because I leaned into the hat thing so much. I get a lot of free hats that are cool. I go through them and I’m like, “What if one day I need this green hat,” and then I look at my other seven green hats. That’s something I’m seeing my way through right now. I have enough for every occasion. I can mix it up enough on the podcast and in videos. But then this company sent me 24 new hats. So, my hands are tied here. I’m just going to end up being a cat lady but with hats.
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