These influencer parodies are bringing me much-needed joy today

If you like to watch videos of comedians poking fun at social media influencers, you’ll enjoy these seven clips

Remember when you were a kid, and an adult would ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up? It’s unlikely that you’d have said, “I want to document my life, including the food I eat and the people I talk to, and showcase it to the wider population”.

Nowadays, ‘social media influencer’ is not just a career possibility, but a goal for many children and teenagers. Research by AWIN found that 31% of kids aged 11-16 would like a career as either a social media influencer or YouTuber – a bizarre concept for many of us. Still, there’s huge money to be made.

If you’re not quite sure what (or who) an influencer is, they’re defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as a person who is “paid by a company to show and describe its products and services on social media, encouraging other people to buy them”. It’s a booming business, with one sponsored post on Instagram reportedly earning influencers upwards of €1,400.

Influencer parody

As the power of social media influencers has increased in recent years, so too has the evolution of influencer parody. All over the world, comedians (both famous and non-famous) have been making videos in which they mock the influencer industry.

The majority of the time (though not always), influencer parody is made in good fun. The videos are exaggerated caricatures of the people we follow on Instagram. They are spoofs of people promoting brands and earning a living by doing nothing but being themselves.

Occasionally, however, they are made to highlight a certain viewpoint (as you’ll see with Game of Thrones star, Sophie Turner’s video below).

Here are seven of our favourites.

Celeste Barber

 

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A post shared by Celeste Barber (@celestebarber) on Nov 19, 2019 at 11:50am PST

Doireann Garrihy

 

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A post shared by Doireann Garrihy (@doireanngarrihy) on Nov 7, 2018 at 1:45pm PST

Hells Fitness

 

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A post shared by Hells Fitness! (@hells_fitness) on Feb 9, 2019 at 2:16pm PST

Whit Howard

 

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A post shared by Whit Howard | Momlife + Beauty (@splitwhit) on Oct 16, 2019 at 5:08am PDT

Sophie Turner

 

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A post shared by Sophie (Turner) Jonas (@sophs.turner) on Oct 8, 2019 at 10:18am PDT

Currently Hannah

CBC’s ‘influencer family’

Photos (l-r): Sophie Turner, Doireann Garrihy, Whit Howard

Read more: 8 fun female celebrities to follow on Instagram now

Read more: ‘Baby influencers’: are parents exploiting their children for a quick buck?

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