British comedy duo ‘the Pin’ found a way to mine Zoom meetings for humour
Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen managed to turn videoconferencing habits that we’ve all had to get used to into hilarious sketches.
Zoom won 2020. The video chatting software went from niche product to household name, zooming past competitors like Skype and firmly embedding itself into the cultural firmament. Founder and Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan became one of the world’s 100 richest people and the firm’s stock shot up by 450% over the course of the year.
But whether it was ridiculous backgrounds, the dreaded internet lag or Zoom accidents, not everything went smoothly on the software. And that was the rich vein that British comedy duo, ‘the Pin’ tapped.
Ben Ashenden and Alex Owen are a comedy double act who star in a BBC Radio 4 show also called The Pin.
Over a series of sketches, the duo – along with comedian friends from the United Kingdom – picked up Zoom scenarios that we’re all familiar with, and then lampooned them perfectly.
Take the sketch about a Zoom conversation with your mum, for example:
Another instant classic was the job interview that is interrupted by a cute child:
Or this very simple sketch structure about a “secret Zoom hack”, that builds on conversations that wouldn’t be out of place in any work Zoom meeting.
And a little further down the absurdist path, this sketch about not wanting to go back to in-person meetings.