Tosh's Takeover

Tosh’s Takeover
By Matthew Klaiber

Daniel Tosh is a 36 year old comedian and he is the host of Comedy Centrals hit television show Tosh.O. Tosh.O is a web clip show in which Tosh will show videos found on internet sites such as Youtube and provides a sarcastic commentary on them. On Tosh.O you will get plenty of videos involving puke, nudity, and testicular injury. According to Rob Sheffield, an entertainment writer for The Rolling Stone, “Tosh.O averages 2.3 million viewers, which means he’s by more people then John Stewart or Stephen Colbert”. One might ask how could such a seemingly childish and grotesque show be such a hit? Using a simple formula that consists of Tosh standing in front of a green screen he is able to make one of the most popular shows on Comedy Central.

One way that Tosh.O is such a funny and popular show is laid back style of hosting and simple style of comedy, but this style doesn’t make the show boring in any way. Sheffield says “Tosh likes his gags broad and his targets easy. But somehow that makes his humor seem lazier and therefore friendlier”. Tosh like to use one-liners and more low-brow humor to make the audience laugh. He also uses mockery as a main way to laughs. The show has a regular segment called “Web Redemption” where Tosh will have Youtube stars on the show to give their side of the story, but Tosh usually ends up making fun of them. Tosh will often go off on tangents, for example in one episode he goes on a tangent on the new Karate Kid remake saying, “Hey Hancock, your son's annoying. Stop buying movies for him to be in, and throw DJ Jazzy Jeff a bone — I think he's homeless". This is a great example of the kind of host Tosh is, a little harsh but mostly hilarious.

A reason that Tosh.O has grown to be a popular show is the uses social media resources to his advantage. With the use of The Comedy Central Tosh.O blog and Daniel Tosh’s twitter account, Tosh is able to connect with his fans in a new ways. Tosh reminds his fans after every show to keep up with his blog and to follow him on twitter. He also will live chat with people via their twitter pages during his show. This is relevant to our society because people are always on their twitter pages so Tosh takes advantage of this and will leave posts on anyone’s twitter page during his show. This shows that Tosh.O is connecting with their fans in new ways.

The use of twitter on Tosh.O helps make the show extreamly funny and original. With 1,387,652 people in the twitter world following Daniel Tosh, using social media on Tosh.O is a brilliant idea. Twitter is used on Tosh.O in different segments on the show; Tosh will ask different questions where the posts will be aired on the show. For example in one episode Tosh featured a segment in which he let his twitter followers write a movie script. This new use of twitter on television is one way why Tosh.O has become so popular.

The Comedy Central Tosh.O blog also helps Tosh connect with his fans but from a more comedic standpoint that shows how hilarious Tosh is. The blog is more focused on comedy and is less of a personal site for Tosh. For example, Tosh features a different bumper sticker everyday, calling it “Bumper Sticker of the Day”, and every Friday he features “WTF Friday”. Tosh also posts funny pictures or funny videos on his blog and follows with a few witty comments about them underneath. This is essentially Tosh.O on the internet. The blog makes a show that in thirty minutes, once a week, but the internet makes it so that the show is always accessible. With a show like Tosh.O being always accessible is important because it allows people to always be able to get their Tosh.O fill whenever they need it.

Tosh.O is one of the funniest and most innovating shows to hit cable television in a long time. Tosh’s hilarious and original style of comedy and his uses of social media recourses make the show a huge success.