Jane Wickline on taking comedy TikTok to the next level
The 22-year-old explains how she writes and produces some of the most elaborate sketches on the app.
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Tim Robinson weirdly hasn’t taken off on TikTok, but Jane Wickline’s videos are just as good. —Kate
I mentioned in the last newsletter that TikTok may have more dancing days behind it than it does ahead. A lot of that is thanks to comedy. At this point, my For You Page is mostly a series of impressions and extended bits between the same three dudes in an apartment. But if the sketch features multiple characters, costumes, and backgrounds—all done by one person—then it’s a Jane Wickline production.
I first came across the 22-year-old when she was doing mostly front-facing comedy, parodying “the person sending you this…” videos with deadpan specificity. In recent months, however, her sketches have grown more elaborate. She tells me she now needs a color-coded Google Doc to organize the elements of each one before filming.
Wickline began making TikToks late last year, during her two months home from college when the semester was pushed back due to the pandemic. (She graduated this spring and now lives in Philadelphia copy-editing a small, decidedly not-comedic publication.) Less than a year later, she has over half a million followers and regularly receives millions of views on her content.
We talked over the phone about making comedy on TiKTok and the weird ways the app can thrust someone into unexpected fame.
Were you always doing comedy sketches on TikTok?
At the beginning, I was a lot more all over the place. My thing was quantity, 'cause I had so much time. So I was just doing little spoofs and consuming crazy amounts [of other TikToks]. It was kind of just figuring out the lay of the land.
Do you have a comedy background?
I did a lot of comedy things in college. I did sketch comedy at my school. I was the editor of the school equivalent to The Onion. It was definitely the thing I put most of my time into in school. But mostly writing.
What was the first video that you remember doing well?
I did one early on that was like ... do you remember the This or That Challenge? It was that, but it was the trolley problem.
You’re the only person in your sketches, but they’re super involved and usually have multiple characters. Can you walk me through the process of writing and making them?
I spend quite a bit of time writing them. Obviously, there's very, very low production value. I write them out in a Google Doc and I color code the little characters and then I try to plan out what all the shots will look like and what props or clothes I need. And then go to Google images and, like, find a carnival background.
I know a lot of TikTok creators start out feeling total freedom, but inevitably see what does well and what doesn’t, and feel pressure to change their content to make sure it pleases the algorithm. Have you experienced that?
The two-to-four character short sketch format—my account's grown a lot since I started making every video I make those. It's a kind of comedy that I really like to do, but it's also interesting that now that's what my whole account is. Selfishly I would love for the other kinds of videos that I was doing to be more successful, 'cause these are so time-consuming. It's weird. When something does well, it's like, I guess I should keep doing this. And then it happens very passively. You realize that you now have a much more specific account than you did a month ago.
How would you describe your relationship with your followers?
I still sort of feel like it's so recent that I don't even really know yet. I got a Cameo [account] a couple of weeks ago and I've been doing some of that. I'm still trying to get comfortable. I just feel like it's ... embarrassing isn't the right word. Because I'm excited about all of this. But I don't know how much to seek out personal relationships with people who are watching. I want to connect with people who are liking these videos, but I still feel like I'm not very good at it.
Even responding to comments freaks me out. I just feel like I'm so—and I think this comes across in my videos—I'm so neurotic and controlling about everything that I put out that just even like liking a comment is something that I'll really overthink.
I’ve seen a lot of them compare your videos to I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.
I love I Think You Should Leave. I just think it's such an absurd and joyful show. I love it. It's the kind of comedy that I feel like I see a lot of on TikTok.
Have your videos opened any doors in terms of connecting with other comedians?
It's been cool to interact with comedians that I have looked up to for a long time, but I haven't actually met anybody in person yet because again, I'm freaked out by it. But that's the goal, to eventually reach out and make more of a community of people who are on TikTok and hopefully use it to meet people who are working in comedy.
Who are some of your favorites?
Vincent Ward, who is another TikTok person. Claire DePaul. I really like @itsdammywise.
So is the goal to turn TikTok comedy into something more official?
I would love to write comedy in some capacity. At least at some point in my life for a full-time job. I don't really have that specific of an idea of what that would look like. I think I'd be open to and excited about lots of different things.