With 431,000 subscribers on YouTube, 354,000 followers on Instagram, and a whopping 2 million followers on TikTok, Rob Anderson is one of the most popular gay comedians on social media.
From digital series like “Gay Science” to videos explaining how every single character in a movie is gay, Anderson attributes his comedy style to “stupidity” and doesn’t hold back even in the face of criticism. Now, his online popularity is giving him the opportunity to tour the United States as a comedian, with dates from Hawaii to Florida. During an exclusive interview with PRIDE, Anderson talked about his exciting upcoming tour, biggest comedy inspirations, and possible new career in music.
“I definitely didn’t envision this [comedy career] specifically being my path, because I came about with new technologies – with TikTok and whatnot,” Anderson reflected. “But I definitely knew that the nine-to-five wasn’t going to be for me. I was a little too weird for it.”
He added, “I knew there was something out there for me, but this was quite surprising. When I gave up trying to make something happen in a traditional sense and went, ‘I’m just going to live my life and see what happens,’ then things kind of took off. So, I guess I let Gay Jesus take the wheel.”
When it comes to his first-ever tour, Anderson believes that this is “just another step to spread my ‘dumb humor’ everywhere, in person, across the country.” He went on, “What I want people to see when they go to [the tour] is all new things. (…) I like everything to be new and fresh when people see it and not go, ‘Okay, yeah, we’ve heard that joke before.’”
As far as comedy references, Anderson credited Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Strangers With Candy, and Chicago’s The Second City improv school – which launched the careers of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler – as his biggest inspirations. In 2022, Anderson was invited to attend the 94th Academy Awards, which was an experience he called “unreal.”
“Having the opportunity to be there was surreal,” the comedian noted about his experience attending the Oscars, “[Not just seeing] the actors and actresses, because I think people would get a little starstruck just seeing Timothée Chalamet just being like ‘Heyyy,’ you know?”
He continued: “[But] everyone’s around the same hotel, which I thought was crazy. Like, ‘Wow, they really are… like, Bradley Cooper and everybody is in your hotel hallways.’ But then seeing the producers and directors, and interacting with them, and going to the Governor’s Ball after – it was surreal, it was amazing. I can talk about it forever.”
You can watch Rob Anderson’s full interview with PRIDE below.
In the meantime, the comedian has also been releasing original songs and music videos as of late, which begged the question: is Rob Anderson a musician on the path to becoming a popstar?
“I definitely would not call myself a musician, and I would use the term ‘singer’ very loosely,” Anderson answered without hesitation. “I enjoy it, and like all the other things that I do, I just try to find every ounce of some sort of talent in me… and apply it to stupidity.”
Anderson’s first original single, “Nothing for You,” is close to reaching 400,000 views on YouTube as of this writing. He said of the song, “‘Nothing for You’ came about as a pop song that I wanted to sound as close to a real pop song as possible. But the things I say are so banal, they’re so ridiculous, that you listen to it and go, ‘Wait, what is he saying? What is he thinking?’ And that one in particular is, like, a ‘submissive pride anthem.’”
Surprisingly, though, Anderson faced an absolutely bizarre response where some viewers seemingly didn’t understand the irony of the song and took it as a matter of fact. “Particularly on TikTok, where music is defined in a different way, people thought it was real. They thought it was a real song that I came out with and I was now diverting and being a music act,” he recalled with a smirk. In typical fashion Anderson just watched the discourse play out and had a laugh about it.
For more information about Rob Anderson’s upcoming tour, you can visit his official website and follow him on Instagram at @heartthrobanderson.
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