Laura Murphy-Oates: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

If you spend enough time around me you will hear my big, loud cackle – it’s often featured on the Full Story podcast. I trace my love of laughter back to sitting around the dinner table as a kid, where me and my two sisters would quote funny lines from movies (most likely Anchorman or Ace Ventura) in a bid to crack each other up.

In my adult life, working as a journalist for the past 10 years, small breaks from a grim news cycle are a must. I love live comedy, but I also love the deep bowels of the internet.

As this list shows, sometimes I’m drawn to comedy with a viewpoint – on race, gender and class. Other times I can’t get enough of cute dog pics, pranks and toilet humour. What can I say? I contain multitudes.

1. Marnie T by Brian Jordan Alvarez

Some may recognise American Colombian comedian/actor Brian Jordan Alvarez from the cult horror movie M3gan. Of course, the true fans already knew him from his many caricatures online, including Australian weightlifter Rick (REEEEK) or TJ Mack, the pop sensation behind the viral song Sitting.

My introduction was via one of his more bizarre characters – Marnie T, a wellness guru with a terrible bowl cut whose Instagram monologues are a rambling mishmash of mindfulness and spirituality, delivered in a hushed, soporific tone. During the depths of the pandemic Marnie T became a go-to source of comedic relief, but also, oddly, a source of calm.

If you’re looking to join a harm-free cult, or add a dash of humour to your daily mindfulness, Marnie T videos are a free and safe option.

2. We Rate Dogs

We Rate Dogs is (mostly) what it says on the tin – rate cute dogs. User-submitted photos are given absurdly high ratings of 11 to 16 out of 10, often accompanied by a caption that pleads with their followers to only submit dog photos and not a “coastal cutie pie cockatoo” (or insert other adorable descriptor of said dog).

3. Will McPhail

I love my silly little cartoons – they save me from the depths of doom-scrolling. New Yorker cartoonist Will McPhail is one of my favourites. He finds absurdity in the mundane, like the way we all made our hovels Zoom-worthy during early pandemic days, or his fanciful depiction of Lady No-Kids, who spends her days chasing after geese in a top hat.

By far my favourite is this depiction of a perfectionist woman who begins filling in the cracks in her house, only to end up filling in the cracks in her face.

4. Toilet feelings

As I said – I love my silly little cartoons. Toilet feelings (real name Humyara Mahbub) is one of the creators of the comedy show Why Are You Like This but she also makes delightfully deranged cartoons. Often women are depicted as disfigured monsters, seeking attention or revenge, and for some reason I find that weirdly relatable?

Sometimes Mahbub’s perfect observations also break my brain open. See – this depiction of a personal relationship to gender, which is genius.

5. Delaney Rowe

Delaney Rowe is the queen of cringe TikTok impersonations (though as a millennial I, of course, consume them solely on Instagram). From “the girl who’s convinced you’re obsessed with her” to “insufferable female lead of an indie movie”, her sendups of female tropes are so painfully accurate they’re haunting. Who among us has not acted a little kooky and manic pixie dream girl on a first date after watching one too many rom-coms? Not I!

My favourite is a series of “female characters as written by a man”, which skewers the type of one-dimensional writing that pop culture was riddled with in my teens – though if you’ve seen Top Gun: Maverick you’ll know the sassy bartender trope is not yet dead.

6. Isaac Compton

Blak TikTok is the only reason I ever visit the dancing teenagers app and Isaac Compton is one of the best. Finding a post of his for this list that a) wouldn’t defame various conservative politicians, or b) wouldn’t scandalise ya nan, was … tricky.

7. Pablo Rochat (not for the faint-hearted)

Pablo Rochat is kind of a modern-day prankster/creative genius. Whether he’s making a scarf out of baked beans on Photoshop, or tricking real-world passersby with his flyers, his blend of graphic art, animation and wicked internet humour is unrivalled.

One of his best stunts (which landed him in some legal hot water) involved placing QR codes at a chain of cheesecake restaurants that, when scanned by unsuspecting customers, directed them to a deeply disgusting hippopotamus video. It’s toilet humour, it’s immature, it’s unnecessarily elaborate – I love it.

8. Maria Lewis memes

I’ve mostly quit Twitter and am trying to limit my Instagram intake which means it’s hard to find the memes that I crave. Luckily my friend (and brilliant writer/author) Maria Lewis scours the internet, collates the most absurd pop culture content and posts it to her Instagram each week in her Monday meme drop.

If you see me glued to my phone occasionally letting out a very loud, witchy cackle, it’s Maria meme time.

9. Reductress

All I can say about Reductress is that I feel far too regularly seen and/or attacked by their content, especially when it relates to podcasters.

They also comment on whiteness in a way that is *chef’s kiss*.

10. Freudian Nip

How could I go past the Nips? I was lucky enough to work alongside this sketch duo when we were at The Feed on SBS. A sketch they starred in called Contact Tracys (written by Nina Oyama and Bec Shaw) blew up the internet during the pandemic, but their send-ups of Australian politics as private school girls and hot mess Gladys (often written, shot and edited on tight one or two-day turnarounds) are truly some of the best work that Australian comedy has to offer. It’s comedy that punches up, has a political viewpoint and is just really bloody funny.

However, the top prize for me goes to this sketch about the Juukan Gorge disaster.