For most stand up comedians their arena is a stadium. For Ted Pullin, it’s his kitchen table and a microphone wedged on the end of a wooden spoon.
But despite his rather abysmal set-up, his quintessentially brutal British humour has exploded in popularity on TikTok, where he roasts people’s dating profiles – no holds barred.
The videos follow a simple format: Ted swigs on a whiskey or beer as screenshots of someone’s dating profile appear. He then savagely picks them apart in excruciating detail, commenting on facial expressions, poses, outfit choices and poor chat.
What sets Ted’s videos apart from the other accounts on TikTok is that it’s a consensual roast – plenty of people rinse others without permission online, but not this guy.
So, what’s the point of these videos?
‘I want to let people know that it’s alright to laugh at yourself to try and give people a bit of a grasp that it’s for a comedic purpose,’ Ted tells Metro.co.uk.
‘The ability to laugh at yourself is an awesome thing and when you’ve got people who can do that around you they’ll laugh with you.’
Ted’s most viewed roast sits just shy of a million views on the platform, providing five minutes of savage entertainment for his followers, where he picks apart a willing subject’s Hinge profile.
He diligently checks with the victim in question – he then films the video and sends it to them for their permission before he posts it. It’s 100% enthusiastic consent from start to finish.
This is what happened when I sent my profile in…
After a few glasses of wine with the man himself, but no convincing whatsoever, I sent my profile in for Ted to brutalise.
Questioning which online persona from my profile would actually turn up on a date he said: ‘Will it be the f**k-off-face dog-thief or will it be the melanin intolerant Brit abroad.’
Honestly, who knows?
I got called out for attempting to flex my celebrity following, but upon hearing it consists of John Cena, Ted said: ‘If I was a 9-year-old boy, that would get me really excited’.
It’s also great to know that when prospective dates look at my profile they see my ‘f**k off sunglasses and emotionless expression’ coupled with the family dog who ‘doesn’t look overly happy to be there’.
The irony wasn’t lost that Ted’s roast highlighted the literal roasting of my horrendously pale complexion on holiday in Crete.
‘F**k me put some sun cream on mate, looking a little rouge’ – but alas, Ted, a gallon of SPF 50 couldn’t save this girl.
But what did I learn from this, you ask? Why did I put myself through this? Well the answer is for no other reason than I find it rather funny.
Ted offers the same allure of American TikTok sensation and comedian Matt Rife – after all they’re both known for being comfortable and brooding in front of the camera.
But what social media doesn’t see is the origins of his deadpan humour, which perhap stem from his late father, BAFTA winning Jim Pullin, who wrote comedy scripts for A League of their Own and 8 Out of 10 Cats.
‘Comedy was always massive in our house,’ Ted tells me. ‘Instead of sitting down and watching a movie with my dad I would sit down and watch a comedy set when I was seven – which was probably wildly inappropriate but it’s always been my thing.’
When he uploaded his first video in June last year, in which he actually roasted himself, Ted says it ‘hit a group of people that [he] didn’t know existed anymore, that were perfectly happy to have the piss taken out of them’.
‘There had to be that element of consent, so I felt it was a good thing to do my own profile to establish the sort of humour,’ he says.
‘And also it’s not a great look to be taking the piss out of other people without letting them know that you can also laugh at yourself.’
It certainly hit the right audience and Ted now receives anywhere from 100 to 200 profiles daily from those who wish to be roasted in front of his nearly 70,000 TikTok followers and 131,000 strong Instagram following.
Is it a more entertaining approach to rejection therapy – where you do something or ask for something knowing you’ll be told no, in order to stop being afraid of rejection itself?
Perhaps, but if you feel it’s a method of rejection then you may slightly be missing the point.
Unfortunately, many people on the social media platform do exactly that, with Ted having two of his videos reported and taken down (although one was reinstated) – did we mention they take a whopping eight hours each to make?
Ted says: ‘When I’m making these videos, it’s not to offend people and it’s not to make jokes about people at anyone’s expense.
‘The whole movement of people being offended by things that aren’t directed at them is interesting and counter-intuitive because by definition you can’t be offended on behalf of someone else.
‘And if I’m not saying something about you then without the intention of offending you, the logic doesn’t follow that someone can then get upset about that.’
Ted’s humour doesn’t poke fun at things we cannot change about ourselves and it’s a far cry from the likes of the tactless roast me sub-reddit, which insults peoples appearances based on one singular picture of their face.
Instead, the witty take-downs stem from how people choose to portray themselves online.
Ted says: ‘The reason dating apps are the perfect place to do it is because that’s a social media profile that most people don’t think their friends are ever going to see. And obviously it’s with the purpose of attracting a date so people will be unapologetically honest or almost the other way.
‘And I find I get the best reaction to my videos when I call them out on something that I think might not actually be them and they’re able to laugh at it.
‘It’s all quite serious and people live another life on social media, so bringing people back down to earth is quite a fun thing to do.’
After all, ‘it needs to be somewhat personal to be genuinely entertaining and meaningful’, he adds.
Is this type of comedy for everyone? Of course not. But Ted knows there are also plenty of us who love this humour and actively want to be part of the community built around his comedy.
Ted says: ‘Comedy is such an awesome space because the community around it broadly understand that in that arena, whether it’s about trauma or tragedy, it’s part of how people deal with it and I think there needs to be a little more respect for that.’
Being subjected to a comedy roast was actually a very fun experience, and I found that whoever I spoke to about it seemed rather impressed that I’d volunteered myself.
People admire those who have the ability to poke fun at themselves and that’s a good way to feel. So all in all I found it rather beneficial.
But I’ve made a mental note to self to not wear a bandeau bikini in my profile pic next time. Whoops.
So if you’re open to taking yourself a little less seriously, why not get involved? It’s rather liberating to be able to laugh at yourself.
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