I never even have thought that, oh, someone might be watching my video and liking it. I came out after I got eliminated from the show. I was on a dating show, a straight dating show, called “Provo’s Most Eligible.” It’s “The Bachelor” for Mormons and it is terrible. I have a local meme account just about weird BYU culture. Do you know what I mean? I’m sitting in Provo, Utah, totally unaware of like anything. What’s a little bit insane is it’s like, oh, I’m on people’s radar. It’s just a surreal experience because all of a sudden, I had all these verifieds popping up in my feed. What it’s been like to see the massive reaction to the videos this week?Īgain, this was just a funny thing for me, and then it’s suddenly become a thing. It’s me running around my room for 30 whole minutes, making a minute long video. So that’s where I started using the terminology in that way, where I was like, “It’s not a vibe. What’s interesting about TikTok is that it is so intergenerational that you have to find a way to communicate to a lot of people in weird ways. Where it actually came from is I had to educate myself on all the new Gen Z slang. It’s usually like, “Oh, it’s a feeling, like, they’re giving off this vibe.” You know, that sort of stuff. I mean, I have used the term “vibe” a lot, but definitely not in that way. The terminology of doing a “vibe check” - is that something that you had been using in your life?

Like, maybe Lizzo or Doja Cat? Something cool like that. So now I use the videos to say everything else.Ī lot of people have been asking for what is a vibe? I’m trying to figure that out right now. Especially as a comedian, you know, there’s some things that I don’t get to say in my standup sometimes.

There’s a lot of stuff where I was like, this is something that I could use to just like, vent my personal issues or my points of view. Like I did the Kaitlin Bennett video, the BYU video. It became an outlet for me to talk about issues, which was really cool. I just find a random piece of clothing in my room and I’m like cool, this will be a head wrap, this will be something weird. I’ve kind of built up a weird wardrobe of things. And then the big pink ones, those were actually a gift from a friend - I think she got them at H&M. The sunglasses - I actually got two of them from Nordstrom Rack, the purple and the brown ones. What about the rest of your looks for the videos? I just have always incorporated them into some of my videos every now and then. It was a really messy situation because she was crying, and in that moment, I was like, I’m so sorry - this would make a good hat! That was basically how it started. I was moving my sister out of her house, and I popped one of her daughter’s Koosh balls. Where did you get the - I don’t even know what to call them, but the spiky cap things that you wear? This will just be another one of those throwaway ideas and we’ll see what happens. I think this is for me more than anyone else. I genuinely thought, it’s a funny concept, but I don’t think anyone will think it’s funny. He just got randomly teleported to this place where these people were just telling him he’s not a vibe. You’re not supposed to act that way.” The first vibe check video I ever did was just a random guy getting vibe checked. All I remember is thinking it would be really funny if there was a council that, like, could vibe check someone, like, if they told them, “That’s not a vibe. To be honest with you, I do remember the day that I came up with it, but I’m not entirely sure how I did. How did you come up with the idea for doing these Vibe Checks? Spencer, currently sheltering in place in his off-campus apartment in Provo, Utah, spoke to Variety via Skype about how he developed the Vibe Check videos, and how TikTok helped him find an audience for his sense of humor.

Suffice it to say, this is exactly the kind of ineffably delightful and original content TikTok was made for.

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