One of my favourite ways to consume comedy is through the YouTube channel of Kurtis Conner, a comedian from Hamilton, Ontario. As mayor of the fictional community known as “Kurtistown,” Kurtis Conner has collected 5.3 million subscribers on YouTube and 2.4 million followers on TikTok. He is well known for his tours and recorded comedy specials, two of which are available online: Python, a free, 40-minute video on his channel, and Keep Busy, a full-length special on his Patreon. Both comedy shows accurately display the distinguishing characteristics of Kurtis’ strange comedic style, but Conner’s YouTube channel truly showcases his creative humour.
Each video uploaded on his channel is 20-60 minutes long and utilizes a unique structure and form of skit comedy. These techniques are the strongest in Kurtis’s wheelhouse as they present a critical factor in Peter McGraw’s theory of what makes something funny: a benign violation––a theory in which humour is formulated through a violation (something unexpected), that is treated as benign (not harmful in effect). Kurtis Conner’s FUSHIGI: As Seen on TV’s Weirdest Product, which was uploaded to YouTube on May 13th, 2022, is a video that best uses this technique to establish a comedic presence. Conner journalistically researches unseriously, thus inciting humour for anyone who watches.
The video follows Conner’s childhood fascination with the old Canadian infomercial for Fushigi, a ‘magic’ contact-juggling ball from the 2010s. It was a small metal ball advertised to children and young teens that Conner was fascinated with while growing up in southern Ontario. Conner’s video structure is oddly journalistic, as it uses unexpected professionalism to research a ridiculous topic. At the same time, his skit-based comedy is essentially random, presenting the audience with a strange source of humour they can not help but laugh at. Both techniques present a violation that is abnormal to the comedic context of the Fushigi, becoming benign through Kurtis’ comedic style of never taking something too seriously.
Whenever Kurtis Conner approaches a topic, he tends to do a lot of research. His videos are well-written with detailed scripting and often follow a format similar to a school project or paper. For example, Kurtis’ video on the Fushigi ball follows a clear, immersive structure, taking us through the bullet points of his extensive research. After he looks through old manuals and advertisements, he practices tricks with the Fushigi, films a performance video, and concludes his visual presentation with a debrief about the ridiculousness of the product.
This structure is inherently a violation as it is an unexpected format for a comedy video. It’s strange for Kurtis to take an over-the-top journalistic angle for such an odd product, but he does it for humour. He makes this violation benign by never fully committing to the professional tone. The best example of this in the video is when Kurtis opens the product for the first time. The video segment is set up to be perceived as an essential moment of immersive research, but then he starts dancing with the orb strangely in front of the camera (11:33).
Another aspect of Kurtis Conner’s comedy that presents a similar benign violation is his use of greenscreen skits, a typical gag in almost all of his videos. While in the middle of a bit or build-up to a punchline, Kurtis will transition into a ‘scene’ where, in costume, he’s edited himself playing different characters in front of a green screen.
In the Fushigi video, Conner similarly transitions into one of these skits after he learns that improperly storing the ‘magic’ gravity ball could result in property damage or bodily injury. In the sketch, he plays two characters: a man with a fushigi ball in his storage and a fushigi enthusiast who’s come to attack him for improper use (5:45). This first becomes a violation by separating from the norm of the video and creating a whole new world for the audience to see, becoming benign through the over-the-top stupidity of the character Conner plays. Conner points out how strange it is to be in ‘scene’ by making his characters equally as weird, dressing up the enthusiast in beady glasses and a pale fedora. These benign violations take the audience by surprise, but he manages to stay humorous when he purposely acknowledges their oddities.
These two elements of Conner’s style can be found in almost all of his YouTube videos. He approaches his content carefully to write funny, journalistic videos that cover various topics: Canadian commercials, the Harry Potter fandom, old technology, and even Digimon. His greenscreen skits have evolved from miniature bits, where he used to converse with himself at his desk, to full-blown mock productions. These benign violations in his YouTube videos keep me actively engaged with Conner’s content, and I hope to see him live on tour one day! Kurtis Conner is a growing Canadian comedian who stays relevant by creating high-quality content and connecting with his fans. At any point, I know I can pull up one of his videos and laugh at everything he says.