As comedians embrace AI, they aim to still run the show

A baby and his family dog sit across from each other in a podcast studio.

- MATT O'BRIEN

KING WILLONIUS uses AI to generate music and imagery for his viral parodies.

“Welcome to the talking baby podcast,” says the infant, wearing headphones and sounding like a deep-voiced radio broadcaster. “On today's episode, we'll be talking to the weird-looking person who lives at my house.”

So begins a series of humorous interactions between two characters animated by artificial intelligence that’s attracted millions of views on social media. They’re a nod to the 1989 movie “Look Who's Talking,” but produced in a matter of hours and without a multimillion-dollar Hollywood budget.

AI helped do all of that, but it didn’t craft the punch lines. It’s a relief to comedian Jon Lajoie, who made the videos, that AI chatbots just aren't “inherently funny.”

“It can't write comedy,” Lajoie said. “It can’t do any of that.”

For now, at least, they won't take his job.

Lajoie’s viral videos have gained him attention as an AI-adopting entertainer that he’s not entirely comfortable with as he grapples with what all of this means for the future of his very human craft of making people laugh.

King Willonius is not feeling so cautious. His first big hit was an AI-generated song called “BBL Drizzy” that made fun of rapper Drake during the height of his feud with Kendrick Lamar. He’s since moved into making AI video parodies like “I'm McLovin It (Popeye’s Diss Song)” and “I Want My Barrel Back (Cracker Barrel song).”

“It’s very similar to somebody who's writing for the Onion or ‘SNL,’” Willonius said. “I try to find out, OK, what’s my comedic angle on this particular topic? And then I'll generate a video from that.”

He starts with writing his own notes on an idea, then refines it with a chatbot and puts that language into AI tools that can generate imagery, video, music and voices. The key, he says, is to keep iterating.