How Latino Comedians Are Getting Creative on TikTok (and why it matters)

From “Hot Cheeto girls” (@mialaniaurora2) to the well-known skit character “Rosa” (@adamrayokay), if you’re a member of the Latinx community on TikTok, it's likely these quick comedy sketches by Latinx content creators have shown up on your “FYP”. 

In a culture which centers Nacho Libre and figures like Guillermo on Jimmy Kimmel Live as the pinnacle of Latinx comedy, it's hard to laugh without feeling laughed at. Bad representation in comedy results in Latinos as punching bags, while good representation projects typically don’t last long without losing funding and getting canceled. Gordita Chronicles and Gentefied are among the many short lived Latinx centered projects.

When networks don’t support or fund Latinx creativity, where can it go? Do we continue to remain underrepresented or without the creative liberty to express ourselves? 

This is where platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels become a center for Latinx creativity. While we can certainly look at these social media platforms and their creator funds as the birthplace of infamous influencers that simply get paid thousands of dollars to promote products, there is a creative freedom that this funding allows that has resulted in the emergence of Latinx comedy that is written, directed and performed by Latinx creators for a Latinx audience.

The algorithm, which distributes relevant content to users that are likely to engage with it, makes it so that Latinx audiences who can relate to the content get to be the primary point of contact and motivation for these creators. There’s no need to appeal to a wider audience for funding, or to translate the dialogue that shifts seamlessly back and forth from Spanish to English. There is no need to spoon-feed the Latinx experience to a “universal audience”.

These videos are not just funny-they use humor to speak to a number of experiences that are clearly important to the Latinx community, and in subtle ways contain complex, empowering representations of Latinos. The “Hot Cheeto girl” archetype, for example, made popular by content creators such as x, is not just relatable and understood for her easily identifiable “Chicana english” accent, her staple style of large false eyelashes and long acrylic nails, or the fact that she’s eating Hot Cheetos in her 7 AM high school calculus period.

The Hot Cheeto Girl is, across multiple creators, portrayed as an advocate for her community. She isn’t afraid to “clap back” at someone who bullies other “outcasts” in the classroom, such as queer students. She is a fearless representation of solidarity. 

@mialaniaurora2's content and the "Hot Cheeto girl" archetype.

Similarly, creators like @soyrolis, whose 2 million follower count are attributed to popular videos such as those captioned “That one dude with weird vocabulary”, in which he comically switches back and forth between English and Spanish, throwing in words like “skidaddle” and being laughed at for it, demonstrates the complexities of the Latinx vocabulary, a constant “in between” that Latinxs can find humor in.

It isn’t the “funny accent” humor of Gloria in Modern Family. It is a brilliantly conveyed understanding of the subtle way that the two languages meet, in a way that only Latinx people are familiar with. Skits like these give representation to an experience that is unique to our community and help us connect over this shared bond.

@soyrolis and Latinx experiences with Spanish/English.

While it may be easy to dismiss TikTok content creation as a frivolous medium, valuing the space that Latinx creatives have made for themselves on these platforms as empowering to the community is important. While the lack of Latino representation on the big screen can be discouraging, there is seemingly hope to be found in the realm of Latinx creatives making space for themselves regardless of this issue.

Note: TikTok access in the U.S. remains uncertain. For further information, see The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (the “Act”) (Pub. L. 118-50, div. H).