Say cheese, you've gone viral!
Chatting with the comedian who's been searching for cream cheese in all the right crockpots
When I was a journalist1, I talked to a lot of people who’d recently and very suddenly gone viral.
Nearly every single time, the person in question was completely surprised that their piece of content had blown up2. They were also generally confused about what to do next. A lot of the time these weren’t people who were creating content with particular purpose or direction, so they had no idea what to do with a sudden influx of followers.
Others were actually trying to make a go of content creation but would find themselves backed into a corner of their own doing, unsure how long to milk whatever made them viral, or if their new audience would even appreciate the content they want to make.
Sam Skolnik has found himself in the latter camp.
Sam3, 27, is an LA comedian who you may know better as the guy on TikTok who waits for the crockpot recipes to include a full block of cream cheese.
Like this.
I actually have to give credit to my girlfriend, Amanda, for finding this one. We have this ritual before we go to bed where we show each other our saved TikToks, and Sam was in her selection one night.
I loved these TikToks immediately because I was already mesmerized by crockpot cooking videos that I’d seen popping up.
I didn’t grow up in a crockpot household. I did get one as an adult and cherished it until I simply couldn’t justify its counter/cupboard real estate, but this style of cooking is still pretty foreign to me. It seems to be mostly mixing cream soup bases with powdered ranch dressing, garlic powder, chicken breasts and often, as Sam has documented, an entire goddamn block of cream cheese.
I know I’m not alone, because I see other comments on these videos from people who are baffled. But, like, I get it! If I had kids, or worked away from home, or grew up eating this stuff, I’d be more intersted in crockpottery.
I did wonder briefly if there’s a class issue playing around here, but the videos Sam has featured are often a combination of already pricey pre-made items, so I don’t know if there’s really a cost-saving advantage. Would love to hear thoughts on this!
But I digress.
Sam posted the first of these TikToks on Oct. 31.
That TikTok now has 2.9 milliom views, by far his biggest hit until that point.
The reaction was, as I mentioned it tends to be, a complete surprise. Sam said it was all a fluke — he happened to be scrolling TikTok and saw some crockpot recipes with cream cheese and just went for a duet.
“It just happened that the first one I ever made blew up—I really had no intention on making more of them until it hit.” Sam told me via email4.
He’s now done 14 more by my count and the biggest has 8.6 million views.
“I was absolutely surprised that it exploded the way it did. I’m a bit jaded when it comes to social media and #numbers so I really just felt like it was a ridiculous thing for people to really latch onto . But I decided to continue making them and try to provide variations as much as possible,” said Sam.
As I mentioned, Sam is a comedian. His earlier TikToks are mainly standup clips and other bits. You know, the stuff that comedians do. What’s the cream cheese guy to do?
Sam has actually been smart. He’s trying to make the cream cheese videos into a sort of story arc. He’s also using the time waiting for the cream cheese to plug his shows and other work.
And in the mean time, the cream cheese stuff is bringing some attention to his comedy.
“I’m definitely getting more interaction for sure. It makes me so happy when I see boosts in views and interactions on my sketches and stand up clips because that is really where my heart is,” he said.
I think it’s been too short a time to see if there’s a real lasting impact on my career as a whole, but I am seeing increased interest in having me tour as a comic, which has always been a dream of mine.”
An also funny side note is Sam keeps having to pin comments telling peopoe not to hate on the original crockpot recipes.
He’s also just straight up called out the negative vibes.
“It’s wild to me what people will spin into hate in the comments section of any video. Seriously, these CC videos have in some instances sparked full on comment threads full of hate speech toward cream cheese!” he said.
“I think there’s a little bit of responsibility on the creator to kind of add context to their content and try to curb any negativity spread from their comedy.”
So what now for cream cheese guy? Sam hopes people will stick around once he moves on (and he says it probably won’t last much longer).
“But in the meanwhile maybe I’ll sell some show tickets, some shirts—who knows, maybe I’ll figure out what an NFT is.”
Thank you to Sam for answering my questions. You can give him a follow on TikTok or Instagram.
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Am I still a journalist? Does this count as journalism????
Occasionally people would say “honestly, I had a feeling it would go viral” and I respect the hell out of that.
I’ve realized I can make my own style guide! Wow! First names on second reference. Suck it AP.
Look this is way off topic but I’m still really on the fence about whether journalists should declare an interview was “via email,” especially considering how many Gen Zers I’ve interviewed just feel more comfortable writing than talking on the phone.