Channel 4 Renews Comedy Thing YouTube Channel With ‘Pun Battle’

EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4 is returning to its A Comedy Thing YouTube channel for a second year with new formats including Pun Battle.

Channel 4 said A Comedy Thing, which publishes weekly long-form programming for YouTube with up-and-coming comics, has delivered 6.5 million views on YouTube, clocking up 165,000 hours of watch time with an audience mostly under the age of 35.

The second year of the YouTube channel will feature new faces like Eric Rushton, the winner of Channel 4’s Sean Lock 2023 Award, Edinburgh Comedy Award Best Newcomer Nominee Jin Hao and viral star Kyla Cobbler. All seven initial cast from year one are returning.

Formats returning include The Lying Game, in which comics must each tell an anecdote about the same randomly selected topic with some lying and some telling the truth, along with new formats like Pun Battle, in which comedians go head-to-head to try and make each other laugh with the driest of puns.

The news comes ahead of a Channel 4 comedy event tonight in London that will showcase talent. British TV comedy feels in rude health at present. Prime Video’s Last One Laughing has been a huge hit while the first-ever Saturday Night Live UK has outperformed expectations on Sky. Its next two hosts are Nicola Coughlan and Aimee Lou Wood.

Charlie Hyland, Channel 4’s Digital Commissioning Editor, Comedy, said: “We wanted to build a proper home for new comedy — somewhere brilliant young stand-ups can try things, sharpen their voice and find an audience. What’s been exciting is seeing that grow into a real community around them. The UK and Ireland have always been at the heart of this kind of comedy, and this is about creating the space to keep doing that.”

A Comedy Thing is commissioned by Hyland with Laura Marks, Head of Digital Commissioning. The channel is produced and managed by Strong Watch Studios, with Thom Gulseven and Ben Powell-Jones as executive producers.