reacting to Katherine Ryan

I broke out into a cold sweat because I wasn’t finding much of the Katherine Ryan compilation funny. That was not how I’d expected my reaction video to go. I’d seen funny clips of her before, and here was another Canadian living in the UK. I thought this would be fun.

It did improve when I changed what I was watching. The stand-up was stronger for me than the early panel-show selections, although I finished my April 2025 reaction wondering whether I’d chosen the wrong clips. This was a mixed first look, and I can’t turn it into an enthusiastic recommendation just because we have Canada in common.

Starting with the quiz shows

I began with a Big Fat Quiz compilation because Ryan had appeared in lots of panel and quiz shows, a format I associate strongly with the UK and don’t see in the same way in Canada. I was also pleased to see Richard Ayoade. I love Richard, although this was supposed to be a video about Katherine.

The early selection moved through remarks about working at Hooters, costumes, and an answer to a question about an old news report. In that last exchange, Ryan and Big Narstie answered with a joke about still being in their fathers’ testicles, because neither had been born when the report aired. They then tried to make that answer fit a report about women carrying and lifting things. It was a lot of work for a joke I wasn’t enjoying.

I wasn’t finding that compilation particularly funny. That isn’t the same as saying Ryan never makes me laugh, because I’d already seen clips that did. It was what I was watching at that moment, and I started looking for a different example rather than pretending the first selection had landed.

An 8 Out of 10 Cats compilation didn’t solve the problem for me either. By the end of that selection, I was concerned that I still wasn’t enjoying much of it, and I said I’d broken out into a cold sweat. The reaction had become awkward in a way I hadn’t planned for.

The stand-up made a difference

I was hesitant about using stand-up footage because of copyright claims on reaction videos. In my experience, a claim can mean I earn nothing from the video, but sometimes the rights holder blocks it from being posted at all. I wasn’t describing a general rule for everybody else’s channel. I was explaining why I was wary about what I played in mine.

I tried a stand-up clip anyway, and that gave me more to enjoy. One routine set conspiracy theories beside breast implants with serial numbers, then imagined a woman undressing and triggering a Microsoft Office update. Another took a deliberately rude intimate measurement in inches, converted it into a quarter of a metre, and compared that with a small owl and an envelope it wouldn’t fit into. These were stage jokes, not information I was presenting about anyone’s body. I said that was pretty good, and afterwards I said I’d enjoyed the stand-up.

My verdict at that point was that it was stronger than some of the throwaway panel-show jokes I’d watched. I also thought panel shows could need more context, including the atmosphere of the show, while stand-up was a different format. A short compilation might not be giving me the thing that makes a particular exchange work.

Shared background wasn’t enough

I felt a bit bad about being disappointed because we share the experience of being Canadian in the UK. I’m from Ontario too. That was part of what had made me interested in watching her, but I was still surprised that I hadn’t found her as funny as I’d expected.

I kept the question open. Maybe I wasn’t clicking on the right clips or watching the right sets. By the end, I thought this probably wasn’t the funniest comedian reaction I’d picked so far, while admitting that the selection might be the problem.

I had enjoyed the stand-up more than the early selections, but my final answer was still qualified. Perhaps I’d clicked on the wrong videos. I wasn’t sure.

Watch my mixed Katherine Ryan reaction, including the switch to stand-up.