YouTube stars Cody Ko and Noel Miller performed their signature “cringey” comedy to a sold-out Boulder Theater Tuesday night. The tour, “Tiny Meat Gang Live,” named after the duo’s stage name, managed to make the night feel uniquely personal despite the large crowd.
Both former software engineers, Ko and Miller rose in popularity with their viral six-second clips on Vine before moving to more longer-form videos on Youtube. Ko and Miller are well known for their “That’s Cringe” YouTube series, where they react to cringey online content. The two also create music and podcasts.
Tuesday’s show almost exclusively consisted of stand-up comedy, feeling far less like a stage production and more like a hangout session with two friends. Much like their podcasts, the banter felt unscripted, save for general talking points.
Ko and Miller talked about mundane experiences, as friends do, such as prior tour locations and a Netflix documentary Miller watched entitled “American Circumcision,” which is “two hours of this white lady who hates circumcisions.”
In between banter, Ko and Miller gave brief, comically autotuned musical performances. The first one consisted primarily of the lyrics “fuck the front row,” unsurprisingly directed to audience members in the front row. During the second musical performance, Ko sang about “trying to suck my own dick.”
“Every time I get so close,” Ko sang.
Ko and Miller conducted a live “That’s Cringe,” projecting a video onto the screen promoting a chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity and pausing to make commentary on it. Reacting to an external piece of content as a stage performance is an odd concept, but the two managed to make it feel natural.
Even though the two’s reactions appeared scripted in contrast to the presumably more genuine reactions in their YouTube videos, Ko and Miller were able to create a sense of community by way of everyone laughing at the same people – one of the main charms of their online content.
Ko and Miller provided plenty of commentary on Boulder itself.
“I wanna thank you guys for normalizing stripper hair,” Miller said, referring to the unnatural hair colors of many Boulderites.
“This whole place – I’m not gonna lie – feels like a cult,” Ko said, further describing Boulder as “weird but not bad.”
Tiny Meat Gang Live, like much of Ko and Miller’s online content, is highly specific to a teenage and college-aged audience. The show was rife with phallic jokes, fart jokes and meme references.
Those who aren’t already fans of Ko and Miller may have not enjoyed the show as much. The performance was by no means highly produced, and those who aren’t already invested in the YouTube stars could have even viewed it as under-produced.
Tiny Meat Gang Live is largely a conversation between Ko, Miller and their already-dedicated fans – often quite literally. Throughout the show, they responded to shouts from audience members and held a short Q&A at the end.
As audience members asked questions, Ko and Miller remembered their names from the prior meet and greet, which only added to the overall feeling of community that they created.
Fans of Ko and Miller who came to the show did not receive an extravagant production, but they did receive a feeling of personal connection with the two internet comedians, which is arguably more valuable than any spectacle.
Contact CU Independent Senior News Editor Anna Haynes at anna.haynes@colorado.edu.