Front-facing camera comedy
Front-facing camera comedy is a comic genre in which performers deliver in-character monologues while directly facing the camera. Early iterations of front-facing camera comedy went viral on the video hosting service Vine in the early 2010s; now they frequently appear on Twitter and Instagram. Notable practitioners include Cole Escola, Chloe Fineman, and Megan Stalter. Stalter has referred to the genre as "solo improv"; while it has become a defining form for some comedians, others use it to workshop material that will eventually be polished for use on more traditional platforms.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of live comedy venues and a subsequent "pivot" to front-facing camera comedy. In March 2020, The New York Times critic Jason Zinoman declared it "the dominant comedy form of the Covid-19 crisis."
