The Single Performer Comedy YouTube is a popular phenomena that, as far as I know, doesn't have a single name, so I had to invent this term for it. And it isn't an accurate name, since such performers aren't confined to YouTube, but also use services like TikTok and Instagram to spread their content. They also aren't always "single performers", since sometimes they have other people in their videos, but usually it is a very basic set-up of one performer, with one camera (often just a smartphone camera).
These performers usually make short videos, as short as ten seconds, sometimes several minutes, but usually around one minute. They are usually sketch comedy where they do an imitation of a specific figure, or group of people. It is usually topical, relatable content, but sometimes it is more absurdist. Most props and costumes are made out of household items, and are not meant to be convincing: for example, a construction paper hat might show that someone is a baker. If multiple characters are in a skit, they are usually played by the one performer, talking to themselves.
Here is a list of performers who I consider to fall under this category, this is meant to be a representative list, there are probably lots of good comedians who I can't fit here
- Calebcity: https://www.youtube.com/c/CalebCity-- an African-American comedian whose videos sometimes touch on cultural topics, but are just as often about anime or absurdist themes.
- ProZD: https://www.youtube.com/user/ProZD -- Asian-American and a professional voice actor, most of his comedy focuses on anime and video games.
- Hannah Montoya: https://www.youtube.com/c/HannahMontoya5 -- late teens/early 20s woman, most of her content is about being in middle school/high school, roles she does perfectly.
- Ryan George: https://www.youtube.com/c/RyanGeorge -- Canadian, with higher production values. Sometimes topical humor, but usually pretty relatable, with such subjects as "where did fruits get their names".
- Alasdair Beckett-King: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq5btGtqdn4CpvU0xTXaelA is British (as you might have guessed from the name), and hasn't gotten a custom URL yet (as you can also probably guess). ABK is a professional stand-up comedian, and his videos have sets, graphics and special-effects, but still involve him acting all roles with simple props. Focuses on satire of tv shows and the like.
One interesting thing about this is that I don't know how, why, or when this all started. Many of these performers share similarities with each other, but it is not exactly a unified movement. This type of YouTube performer just decided, more or less, that it was a new format for a single person to act out multiple roles, signified only by changing a hat or putting on a pair of glasses. And it works---the brevity and simplicity of the format allows viewers to jump right into the videos. Of course, with YouTube being a constantly evolving medium, styles and tastes might change.
Another interesting thing is that while these performers might not be exactly household names, they often have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and some of their more popular videos have millions of views. This video, for example by ProZD, has over 23 million views at present, meaning more than 4 times as many people have seen this video shot in his living room on a smartphone camera than see the average episode of Saturday Night Live. This is especially interesting because there has been some public controversy about famous comedians getting their comedy specials "cancelled"---and while they complain about that, someone on YouTube with little-to-no budget can make a video that millions of people will watch and relate to.