It’s a ridiculous time to be male – and that’s good news for a new genre of social media comedy poking fun at the shifting notions of masculinity
“I’m gonna miss toxic masculinity,” says the comedian Kiry Shabazz. “I feel like it’s going to be in a museum someday.”
In the ensuing standup routine, Shabazz describes a fight with a friend who, like him, is “doing the work” to be a better person. He called the friend several unprintable names while acknowledging: “I’m only calling you that because culturally that’s how I know how to express myself.” The friend’s reply to the torrent of insults: “I hear you and I receive that.” The whole thing, Shabazz says, made him “miss the good old days, when men handled beef like men”.
The bit encapsulates a dilemma of modern masculinity – how attempts at enlightenment battle with alpha-male impulses. On social media, the manosphere clamors for our attention, extolling traditional masculine virtues such as authority, protein powder and the stamping-out of empathy. Meanwhile, other voices point out the absurdity of that image and call for thoughtful, emotionally attuned understanding of manhood.
In short: it’s a ridiculous time to be male. And that’s good news for a genre of social media comedy that has emerged between the Hims ads. If 2024 was the year of thoughtful masculine standup, 2025 was the year of the self-mocking man sketch.
