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Cody Ko brings his wit to the Homecoming Stampede Comedy Show

Comedian Cody Ko will perform live at the Homecoming Stampede Comedy Show on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. on Microsoft Teams. SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE

The host of this year’s Homecoming Stampede Comedy Show is not known for holding his tongue when it comes to content. In fact, it’s what has drawn millions of people to him.

Cody Kolodziejzyk, better known as Cody Ko, is a 29-year-old comedian, YouTuber and podcaster who gained popularity on Vine in 2016. He now has 3.8 million followers on Instagram and Twitter combined and 5.1 million subscribers on YouTube.

Ko is being paid $17,500 to perform live on Microsoft Teams as the main event of the Stampede Comedy Show. The show will start at 7:30 p.m. Monday when students will get a taste of the content creator’s sarcastic and straightforward humor.

When the USF Campus Activities Board posted on its Instagram that Cody Ko would be the star of the Homecoming Stampede Comedy Show this year, the response from students was overwhelming.

The post announcing the popular internet comedian’s virtual visit received over 650 likes and 57 comments expressing excitement and asking how to sign up for the show, whereas last year’s announcement for comedian Michelle Buteau got less than half of the likes on Ko’s post and only garnered two comments.

Ko is best known for his YouTube video series “That’s Cringe,” where he and his podcast counterpart Noel Miller make fun of other videos on the internet.

His most popular videos from the series include “That’s Cringe: ‘Girl Defined,’” in which Ko and Miller made fun of a YouTube channel giving life advice to girls, and “That’s Cringe: Vape Hotbox,” in which they made fun of a video that a teen created documenting him and his friends vaping in a car.

Their podcast “Tiny Meat Gang” is also well-known for the same kind of content. Filled with sarcasm and mockery, the comedic hourlong episodes include the two joking about current events. However, some episodes prompted backlash from internet influencers like Jake Paul, who was the butt of Ko’s jokes at one point.

In fact, Ko made a parody version of Paul’s viral song “It’s Everyday Bro” in 2017 with Miller included in his video titled “It’s Everyday? No. (Jake Paul reaction).”

Ko featured his song with Miller “Keep Ya D*ck Fat” at the end of the parody video, prefacing it with the claim that the song was better than Paul’s original.

“I’m not saying it’s easy to write music at all, I know it’s tough. But I think I could come up with a better song in one day — in fact, I did,” said Ko.

The song is explicit and nonsensical, but it showcases how successful Ko is at poking fun at other people in an enjoyable way. This song is actually the beginning of his “Tiny Meat Gang” musical journey with him and Miller teaming up as a rap duo and releasing seven more singles, an EP and a music album just as satirical as their premiere single.

However, Ko isn’t all fun and games. Originally from Canada, he moved to the U.S. and eventually graduated with a computer science degree from Duke University. He was also a member of their men’s swim and dive team. Before switching to being a full-time content creator, Ko worked as a computer engineer and computer programmer in California where he met Miller and his internet career began.

“It was a blessing in the beginning, because I didn’t care what anyone said because I was like, ‘I’m an engineer and I’m just going to do this because I’m good at it.’ So, I never worried about what people thought of me online because I was just doing it for fun,” Ko told Forbes in an interview on May 30, 2019.

Ko continues his comedic work now more actively with the “Tiny Meat Gang” through podcasting and making music, releasing “Sofia” this past Sunday.