There’s this specific kind of silence that happens after you post a comedy skit you were excited about… and no one responds. No likes, no comments, no shares. Maybe one pity repost from a friend. And if you’re lucky, your mom texts you, “I thought it was funny,” with a crying-laughing emoji, which somehow makes it worse.
It’s happened to me more times than I can count. If you’re out here making skit content regularly, I can pretty much guarantee it’s happened to you too. It’s part of the game. But man, it sucks. There’s this weird sting that hits when something you wrote, shot, edited, maybe even stayed up late stressing over, just completely falls flat. It messes with your head.
But over time, I’ve learned a few things. Not from one skit, but from many. From all the ones that bombed, flopped, and vanished into the feed like they never existed.
First off, I’ve stopped immediately deleting videos that don’t get traction. That used to be my gut instinct: if it wasn’t getting likes in the first hour, I’d panic and nuke it. But now I try to let it breathe. Sometimes videos just need time. I’ve had skits that went nowhere for days, then suddenly picked up because someone shared it, or the right tag started trending, or maybe the internet is just chaotic like that. Not every post catches fire instantly, and that doesn’t mean it won’t.
Once the initial sting fades, I also try to rewatch the video like a regular viewer, just someone scrolling on their lunch break. And sometimes, if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t have laughed either. Maybe the joke was too slow. Maybe I overcomplicated the setup. Maybe I made a reference that only three people in the world would get. It hurts, but it’s valuable. That’s how I grow. If I can understand why it didn’t land, I can adjust for next time.
Now, let’s talk about the algorithm. I used to blame it for everything. “Instagram is killing my reach,” or “TikTok doesn’t like my kind of humor,” or “YouTube Shorts hates me.” Sometimes, yeah, that stuff matters. But if every video bombs and I always blame the algorithm, I’m not actually learning anything. I’ve had hits and misses on the same platforms under the same conditions. At a certain point, I had to admit, not every flop is the algorithm’s fault. Sometimes it’s just the video.
One thing that’s helped me a lot is keeping a post-mortem journal. I know it sounds intense, but it’s literally just a doc where I write down what I think went wrong after a skit flops. Stuff like “Took too long to get to the punchline,” “Pacing was off,” or “This joke only makes sense if you’ve seen that one obscure movie from 2003.” After a while, patterns start to emerge. I see my own bad habits more clearly. Trying too hard to be clever instead of funny, or stretching an idea that should’ve been 15 seconds into a full minute. That little doc has helped me tighten my instincts.
And maybe most importantly, I’ve learned not to let a bad skit define me. I’ve had plenty of videos that bomb, and then the next one absolutely kills. The only way that would’ve never happened is if I’d quit too soon. Comedy is weird like that. There’s no formula. You just keep swinging. The best creators I know still post duds. The difference is, they don’t let it stop them.
So yeah, if your next skit bombs, and it probably will at some point, don’t spiral. Don’t panic-delete it, don’t swear off making videos forever, and definitely don’t take it as proof that you’re not funny. Take the hit, process it, and try again. Why not try again with the next sketch? It might be the one that hits. And when it does, the laugh feels even better after the silence.
Keep making stuff. The bombs are part of the process. And if you’re learning from them, they’re not really bombs at all.