Kyle Mooney, YouTube star
To the dismay of many, Saturday Night Live recently lost valued cast member Bill Hader to the deadly Ebola virus (or perhaps he retired, I forgot which), along with fan favorites Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis. For a while, America was destroyed. However, in a day and age when tragedy is becoming the norm, there is a solitary light at the end of this dark, damp tunnel. That light is Kyle Mooney, who joined SNL’s cast this season.
Who is Kyle Mooney, you ask?
Comedic genius. Master satirist. Purveyor of strange accents. International man of mystery. And perhaps the single most promising act of avant-garde Internet comedy the world has ever seen.
Kyle was a part of Good Neighbor, an incredibly clever four-man Internet sketch comedy group, and helped churn out some of the most consistently funny videos on the Web. Beck Bennett, another member of the group, is also a recent addition to the SNL cast.
Known by his first name, Kyle’s real genius, however, shines through in his personal YouTube channel, titled kyle’s channel, a collection of mostly improvised caricatures that parody some of the most annoying members of our society. His unique brand of comedy gained him a cult following on the Internet, but until joining Saturday Night Live, he remained relatively unknown.
In honor of his recent promotion, I bring to you Kyle’s five finest YouTube videos. They are the type of video that gets funnier with each subsequent viewing. They are also the type of video that may seem like dumbed down, low-level humor to the untrained eye. But do not brush them off as such. If you dive below the surface, you will notice that these over-the-top characters are dead accurate impersonations of people who pollute our daily lives.
5. chrismas
Kyle’s character Chris is the wannabe hard-ass who never grew up after middle school. We all know people like this, who talk big about drugs and picking up their guitar from the shop but at the end of the day listen to their mothers and aren’t allowed to watch R-rated movies. Hilarious but also spot-on. We all know a Chris.
4. is my roommate gay?
This clip was featured on Tosh.0 and helped Kyle gain a larger audience. There’s not much to say about this touching story of a man denying everything when all odds seem against him, so I’ll stop writing.
3. sporty
Perhaps my personal favorite YouTube video of all time, “sporty” satirizes one of those overzealous sports fans who doesn’t actually know anything about sports. In an effort to seem cool and hip in this sports-centered society, Kyle rants about his eclectic knowledge of stats, Benjils and the championship playoff series.
2. ball champions
One of Kyle’s recurring segments is him interviewing poor souls in what may be the most uncomfortable thing you’ve ever seen. These videos show Americans dealing with a somewhat handicapped interviewer who is trying his hardest to get cold, hard facts. Some of the reactions he receives are less than kind, but not surprising. Kyle is at his best in “ball champions.”
1. smoking
“Smoking” wins my award for the most quotable YouTube video of all time. It features one of Kyle’s most iconic characters, a certified green addict who can’t get enough kush. If he knew what kush was, of course. I’ll let the video speak for itself.
