Oct 18th, 2015, 10:04 PM

What We Can Learn from Joe Jonas on Social Media

By Rachael Fong-Gurzinsky
(Photo: SCENE)
Former boy band sensation Joe Jonas is now a poster child for “new comedy”.

I follow Joe Jonas on Instagram. I don’t follow many celebrities, in fact, he may be the only one, but his account is truly a treasure trove. If you’re thinking red carpet pictures and self-promotion, don’t. Though there are a few of those sprinkled in, his account mostly consists of memes and impeccably captioned photos, all relevant and all relatable to his audience fitting roughly in the 15-28 age group.

To give you a taste, here are a couple of @joejonas’ notable posts:

Relatable. Joe's caption: hi monday

Just plain strange. Joe's caption: When you're in the bathroom at the club looking in the mirror: "you're fine. You're sober, you're hot. She likes you."

Why does this account, littered with questionably “dumb” jokes, warrant our attention and admiration? Maybe it’s because we have an infatuation with celebrities and everything they do. Perhaps it’s because we enjoy thinking of celebrities as common folk who share our sense of humor and who peruse the Internet just like we do for on-point memes in their sweatpants. Or maybe it’s just because Joe’s face is beautiful, despite his “humble” (and arguably embarrassing) foray into past-life Disney pop-stardom. But I think the real reason why my Insta-obsessed counterparts and I give @joejonas a coveted “follow” is that we actually really enjoy this style of “new comedy.”

This new era of comedy, a product of the digital age of media, relies on a few influencers who act as curators for humorous content. Their role is to bring the Internet’s best memes, photos, and videos together and, coupled with trending verbiage and associations to current pop cultural trends, provide viewers with platforms for easy access. Though Joe Jonas’ platform exists on Instagram, other similar curators include Tosh.0 (videos pulled from YouTube) and Buzzfeed (list-style blogging).

While Joe’s account stands out because he’s riding on his residual Jonas Brother fame, he’s hardly a match for a couple of other big players in this “new comedy” arena. Elliot Tebele is one who has risen to Insta-fame via a few different accounts. Most notably is @fuckjerry. Currently in the lead with 6.4 million followers, 24-year-old Tebele truly demonstrates how significant this system of humor is today. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Tebele admits that his account, started back in 2011 as a joke, is now a full-time responsibility. He begins each day by scouring Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram for relatable content that he knows will go viral.

@fuckjerry encourages viewer participation

Josh Ostrovsky, aka @thefatjewish, is currently sitting on 6.2 million followers. Unlike Tebele, however, Ostrovsky has taken the success of his account to a new level, reaping monetary benefits from companies who actually pay him to promote their brands in methods of his choosing. In the entertaining interview with Katie Couric below, he describes how he cashed in by lying down in a pile of Burger King’s chicken fries, and similarly by fashioning articles of clothing out of Three Jerks beef jerky.

Katie Couric Interviews The Fat Jew

In response to a general reaction among comedians and haters alike, Ostrovsky brushes aside the fact that he “steals” content from the original creators. “The Internet is like a giant, weird orgy where like everything gets shared.” He claims that his own original memes and jokes are shared on blogs without credit all the time, but that’s just the nature of the Internet. He makes a valid point in that the World Wide Web is so vast that we often can’t track down original creators anyway. And really, what good are the jokes without the curators to bring them to the faces of the people who wouldn’t see them otherwise?

Why do we love this lowbrow, debatably offensive, and in general pretty stupid humor? Some may argue that as a society we’re becoming dumber. While it’s easy to write this “new comedy” off as unintelligent, I think it’s really just a reflection of the oversaturation of content available in the world of digital media. Everyday, we receive thousands of messages and opinions, whether it’s via email, Facebook, Twitter, advertising etc. In a society like this, it makes sense that we fall back on quick, simple, and often visual jokes. Instagram functions around the idea of a live feed. As time passes, the photo drops further and further down, and if you don’t tune in quick enough, you may miss it. Our society moves so quickly through trends, news stories, celebrity gossip, etc. that memes and jokes need to be created and appreciated at an equally quick pace.

@thefatjewish promotes White Girl rose. Caption: It's a summer weekend, and you know what that means: it's time for me to fill an entire jacuzzi with rosè and drink it with an incredibly long straw. My new line of rosè, WHITE GIRL, is available right now, and it will make you forget about everything terrible happening in your life. Don't be a wine nerd like "how's the flavor profile?" FUCK YOU IT'S ROSÉ DRINK IT ICE COLD I PROMISE IT'S DELICIOUS. Go to the link in my bio to have it delivered right to your face by Fresh Direct Wine & Spirits, or to www.whitegirlwine.com

The content produced by accounts like @fuckjerry and @thefatjewish succeeds by being up-to-date and also by connecting followers in a community. You either understand the joke, or you don’t. And when you do, it strengthens the ties between community members.

One last thing that we learn from both Tebele and Ostrovsky alike is that today, anyone with a smart phone and a lot of free time can become an influencer.