The English teacher-turned-TikTokker
Colleen Landry has over 200,000 followers for her “interior designer” skits.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
I can’t call out my “interior designer” because he doesn’t appreciate my art installations, either. —Kate
The 59-year-old English teacher Colleen Landry was planning to retire this year. Instead, she gained over 200,000 Instagram followers, and kicked off her next chapter as a creator. While she had been slowly growing a modest following for her humor column and the comedy videos she began posting on Facebook during the pandemic, it wasn’t until April of this year that she went viral, and millions flocked to see more of her now-beloved character.
In most of her videos, Landry plays an exaggerated version of herself—a paranoid, passive aggressive mother of two adult sons who, in order to maintain a sense of inner peace, interprets her husband’s mess around the home as expressions of interior decorating. “I love a bit of texture in the kitchen,” she begins a typical video, which goes on to show a small handful of crumbs left on the counter. “The little bits of black pull the gray veining out [of the marble].”
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Each video is delivered with a relentlessly positive tone and sometimes genuinely impressive home decor vocabulary as Landy does somersaults to convince herself that, say, the toilet paper roll looks better on top of the sink counter than it does on the holder. “You play this so convincingly that I actually agree… the white is lost in the cabinets !” a comment reads.
Landry refers to her husband as her “interior decorator,” a term her followers have now adopted when referencing their own partners, who maybe also leave their socks on the floor or dirty dishes just inches away from the dishwasher. In this interview, Landry and I talk about her unexpected success, how it’s changed her retirement plans, and where this character can go next.
How did you come to making videos?
During Covid, I put funny videos or comedy videos up, mainly on Facebook. I noticed a lot of people were doing that, so I did videos about how to accessorize our pajamas 'cause we weren't leaving the house ever again, and they did quite well. But it was just my Facebook friends. I really don't know if I had been on Instagram at that point. Then when Covid ended, I kind of ran out of ideas. In the meantime, I've always been a humor writer, which is sort of how I identify. I write a monthly humor column. I've written a humor book, Miss Nackawic Meets Midlife. I co-write funny children's books with two other colleagues. I was always busy with that and teaching, and then as I got closer to retirement, thought, I kind of want a side gig. I took a stand-up comedy course.
So that's always what I envisioned that I would do, stand-up on the side. It was really fun. There used to be a little stand-up club in town. So for a couple of years I really focused on that. But I have to tell you, the shows start around the time I'm usually waking up and toweling off from my second night sweat. Not to mention the preparation and the stress and the nerves. So when the videos went well during Covid, I thought, “Gee, this is a much easier way to make people laugh.” I had about, I'd say, shy of a thousand [Instagram] followers in April. I hopped onto TikTok as well. And I was getting more traction on TikTok and I was about to give up on Instagram and my younger son, who was 26 at the time, was home for a visit. I got up in the morning and there was my husband's baseball cap, a pair of dirty socks, and a guitar string, 'cause my youngest had changed his guitar strings. And I thought, well, I'm gonna see if I can make a funny video. And I mean, I really didn't think anyone would see it.
I saw that! I didn't realize I was seeing the first one.
Nor did I, and that was about, I think, 10 weeks ago. And my phone just started going wild. I'm like, “What's that beautiful singing sound? The affirmation of total strangers?” I can't remember how many likes and views it got right away. Now it's at over 7 million.
So crazy.
Crazy. And people just related to it. I wasn't expecting that, you know? And so I thought, well, I'll try another one and another one. And they just kept going. But I didn't want it to be like I'm husband trashing. I wanted it to be a little self-deprecating and passive aggressive. So I think the people who join, which are mainly women, are just getting a kick out of it.
You're right, it is not negative, but it does feel cathartic to watch a little bit.
I raised two boys, so it's been all males in my house. It's been like a hundred years of, “Put that away, put that away.” They are gone now. So I'm recreating some of it. But when they come to visit, I'm not really exaggerating too much. They eventually put them away, but why can't you just put it away? Or why can't you just rinse the toothpaste? So I guess I had no idea that these little things aggravated other people. So I'm just thrilled that I've been able to make people laugh and to know that we all share the same little aggravations.
There's this book, I don't know if you've read it or heard of it, called Fair Play that is essentially about the division of labor in households. I actually had to stop reading it because it was making me too mad. Your videos allow people to feel those feelings, but it's not immediately like, “Should I get a divorce?” There's still some fun to it.
I'm glad you said that because I feel the same way. It's better to laugh at it. I'm so amazed at the women who have sent me messages saying, “I was about to lose it this morning, and I thought of you and I was able to laugh.” So that's kind of thrilling, and I just love the community. I never really thought, sort of back to your original question, that I would make any traction on social media. I was sort of looking at it as a receptacle, like if I write more books, I would love to have a nice little following where I could say, “Here's my book for sale,” or “Here's a YouTube show I'm trying,” because I wanna try different things in retirement. But now that I've got almost 200,000 followers, it's taken another turn. So it's just a nice community to reach every day, and the comments are hilarious.
They're so funny. Everyone is in on the joke.
Yes. I love that. It's like a safe space. And I'm on Cameo now, and it's just another extension of this.
Are you inhabiting the same character?
Yes. It was really busy before Father's Day.
Oh my God. Of course.
I had women saying, “Hey, my husband's a great guy, but he leaves shoes or towels or whatever. Can you give him some interior design tips?” So I would just do a one minute video saying, you know, “Well done, the placement is beautiful.” Some of them would send me pictures or they would just describe it. So it's another extension of that. I imagine I will branch out, because I don't know how far the interior design thing can go. So I'm trying to bring it in in other ways, like phone calls to my kids.
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I’ve seen those. It seems like it's still the same character, just a different facet of them. My parents are of a phone call generation, but if I call them out of the blue, they'll have a heart attack before they can even answer the phone. And so I always have to text them like, “I'm going to call you. It's not an emergency.”
Do you mind my asking how old you are?
I'm 31.
You're 31, okay. You're not much older than my kids.
My parents are in their sixties and my mom will just text with tons of ellipses, which to me reads as very ominous. And so it's like, we both have generational things that we have to accommodate so that we know each other's not dying.
That's sort of how I got going on TikTok, just phone calls to my kids. I liked doing those and it was kind of an exaggeration, 'cause I'm also a bit of a worry wart and if there was a weather system moving in the Baltic Sea, I would call both of them. And those went quite well too. So it was sort of the same character, but, you know, my parents used to do that. “There was a murder in Toronto and you live in Halifax, so look out.”
So much of your comedy pulls from experiences with your family. How are they reacting to all of this?
My husband's not really a social media guy. So when I started getting a lot of attention, I'm like, “Are you okay with this?” And I said that if it bothered him that much, he'd stop leaving his socks on the table. So clearly he's okay with it. He's not scurrying around like a little rabid person cleaning up, he's fine. And my younger sons, it's funny because it's a total role reversal. When they were teenagers, I was like, “Put away that phone. Go outside, get some exercise, do your homework.” Now I'm like, “Oh my God, I'm at 10,000 [followers]. Tell all your friends.” And [my son is] studying to be a pediatrician. He goes, “Mom, you remind me of my patients that come in with their iPads glued to them.” They're certainly not into social media the way some young people are. They rarely post. I think they both think it's cool.
Let's say they had the phone for the day. What character do you think they would do about you?
Probably overwrought, maybe overbearing. Asking too many questions. All the things I'm kind of making fun of myself. “Did you get your tires changed? Did you get your covid shot? Did you get your taxes done?” I probably drive them bananas. I try so hard not to do those things. They used to make fun of me when they were learning to drive. I was just a wreck.
My mom, to this day, if she's in the passenger seat, and I know she can't control it, but when she thinks we should brake, she instinctively pushes on the imaginary brake.
I do that. I think it's something about death by child. I'm already imagining how badly they're gonna feel for killing me.
When you were teaching, were your students ever like, “Hey, I saw you on TikTok”?
Well, you know, it's bizarre. I'm actually an online teacher. So I don't think they were aware of me. I'm from New Brunswick, Canada and I worked for the Department of Education. I'll be supply teaching probably in the fall, but it's so weird. I went to a tiny little town a couple of weeks ago with a friend in a shop, and [someone] said, “You look familiar.” And I do have that kind of face. I honestly get that a lot. And she goes, “Are you on TikTok?” And I said, “Yeah.” And then later that day we went to a restaurant here in Moncton, a bit of a bigger city. And this young girl, probably younger than you, said, “Are you on TikTok?” And she wanted her picture with me, so it's so weird.
You mentioned this is a part of just figuring out your next chapter. What are some other things you have percolating?
I would love to do some kind of YouTube show. I don't know whether it would be a talk show. I'd love to do something like that. I write a humor column. I wouldn't mind eventually having those published in a book. I'd love to have a podcast.
I think something that people can lament about TikTok, and it might be something you're already feeling, is that it can really, people call it, “niche you down,” where you're trapped into being the interior designer's wife and every video has to be that. I imagine there are some times when you're like, “I don't know how many more art installations there can be in my home.”
You couldn't have said that at a better time. It does maybe niche you down. I'm a little scared to try something else because this is sort of what got me the following. But I guess I just have to trust myself that the humor is relatable and authentic.
Do you write a script or does it just come out?
Just comes out. I'm obsessed with interior design shows for real. I have had people reach out and say, “Are you a designer?” And I'm like, not at all. But I did have my kitchen redone a few years ago. I worked with an interior designer who really spoke like that. This particular designer, she used words like “edit” and “delete.” And after she'd leave I’d Google it, what does she mean? And if you don't want the eye to go here, you paint this and it goes away. So I think that's where I got a lot of it. And I think my writing background just helps and I'm a teacher. Everything that I've done up till now has prepared me for it. Even the stand-up comedy.
“I think it's something about death by child. I'm already imagining how badly they're gonna feel for killing me.” Oh my god this is why!