Jodie Sloan was initially mystified when her phone started buzzing with hundreds of notifications from men. Especially as most contained just one word: ‘No’.
Every time the comedian and content creator refreshed her TikTok, a little red 99+ icon would appear, notifying her of the new comments that seemed to make little sense.
However, she was busy doing her first-ever show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, so Jodie ignored the comments and got on with her life.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later when a friend sent her a screenshot from her phone, which showed that TikTok – without Jodie’s consent – had sent a picture of her face and a link to one of her videos to thousands (maybe even more) of phones alongside the caption: ‘Is she hot?’
The answer, according to many, was ‘no’.
‘It was crazy. I had no clue TikTok was doing this, and then I had a little flood of understanding as to why all these random people were coming to my page and commenting, “no.” The post had reached this mean side of TikTok. It was just so surreal,’ Jodie tells Metro over Zoom from her flat in Edinburgh.
The Canadian-born 28-year-old had only been in comedy for a few months when she unwillingly went viral in March 2023. After a stint in Australia and New Zealand, Jodie had been studying psychology and art before deciding to make a go as a musical comedian.
It all began with a song she wrote about ‘situational hotness’, where she plays her ukulele and asks whether we are attracted to people because of the circumstances we are in.
The song, which was viewed on TikTok more than five million times, asks thorny questions such as: ‘Is he hot or is he just the only man in your yoga class? Is he hot or did he just put his hand on the back of your headrest while reversing?’ But somehow – and Jodie still doesn’t know how – TikTok’s notification asked thousands of users if they thought she was hot.
The only clue could be that after a follower requested she did a female-version, Jodie posted a video of her playing the ukele asking things like ‘Is she hot or is she just good at skiing or surfing…’
However, even if it was simply an abridged push notification, it prompted a barrage of abuse.
‘It was challenging, confusing, and a bit shocking. And also isolating, because a lot of people around me said it was great publicity. But it’s quite a horrible thing to have happen, to have so many people coming to your video telling you whether or not you’re hot,’ Jodie explains.
‘I definitely wondered whether I should take the video down. But then I thought – if I take it down, is that cowardly? It was conflicting.’
‘It made me question my own attractiveness and was a blow to my self-esteem, but at the same time, I felt vain and vapid for caring so much about what people thought of my appearance. It really agitated me, but I felt like I had to compartmentalise it to get on with my life.’
Jodie still doesn’t know if the original notification was AI-generated or a deliberate ploy to generate engagement, but says she is weirdly grateful it happened to her, and not someone more vulnerable.
Even so, as thousands were idly thumbing ‘no’ on their phones, Jodie was grieving the deaths of her mum and brother, John.
Six years earlier, she had lost John, 22, to delusional-based suicide caused by schizophrenia, while her mother, Joanne Holtby, a psychiatrist, had died in 2022 of bowel cancer at the age of 62.
‘I was extremely close to my mum, and losing her after having also lost my brother was incredibly hard. John was only two years older than me and knew me better than anyone, as siblings do, and was just beginning his adult life when he died in such a tragic and shocking manner. It felt like I was facing family heartbreak after heartbreak.
‘The notification went out in March, and mum had died in November. So my mind was going to much bigger issues,’ she adds.
‘There is so much more to care about in life. I had some perspective. I thought – I don’t care if all these people online think that I’m not hot when I look so much like my mum. Her features on my face are gifts that I can take with me for the rest of my life. So why would I care what RobloxPro13, or whoever, thinks about my appearance?’
‘The way I look is the least interesting thing about me. My comedy, what I am trying to say online in my shows, is much more important.’
It wasn’t Jodie’s first brush with misogyny, either. When a standup joke about her being a sapio-sexual [when a person is attracted to someone’s intelligence rather than physical appearance] went viral and garnered more than 16 million views, the haters quickly piled on with vomit emojis, telling her ‘shut up b****’, and that women should stay in the kitchen instead of trying comedy.
‘I deleted some of the most misogynistic comments. I don’t mind people telling me I’m not funny or that they didn’t like a joke of mine, that’s just their opinion – but saying it’s because I’m a woman is wrong and, in my opinion, hate speech,’ she explains.
‘Your immediate bodily reaction to getting hate online is that fight or flight feeling. I remember being scared to walk down the street afterwards, even though, logically, you know that doesn’t make sense. But I was getting so many hateful messages, from men mostly, that it just makes you feel the world is unsafe.’
Over time, Jodie has come to learn that most of the vitriol stays behind the screen. Her songs – many of which can be firmly classified as NSFW – take a funny look at f***boys, anal sex, masturbation – but hidden beneath the humour is a layer of feminist rage.
‘I’m angry in general about the state of the world, patriarchy, AI and the lack of laws surrounding it, which is putting women in a lot of danger with things like revenge porn and deep fakes. I’m angry at violence against women.
‘And,’ she adds, ‘I’m angry at cancer.’
But she’s also happy finding her new community, exploring the British comedy circuit with her Glaswegian comic boyfriend, and she knows her mum would be proud of her.
Plus, there was one recent surprise notification that Jodie was pleased to get, following a video she’d posted of a song about actor Gillian Anderson.
‘I was walking down the street, and I got this notification saying Gillian Anderson liked your video. And I just thought: “What?! This doesn’t seem like it should be allowed to happen. But I love her and how she’s really sex positive for women.
Gillian later posted a reaction video to her song, which was ‘wild’.
‘I was awestruck. Just as I was surprised to get thousands of messages assessing my hotness, I was so shocked to get that response from Gillian Anderson. I really didn’t expect it.
‘There are so many highs and lows with this industry – that was definitely a career high.’
Jodie’s debut show ‘Is She Hot?’ previews at Pleasance London on 4th July at 7.40pm, and can also be seen at the Edinburgh Fringe at Pleasance Courtyard.
Metro has reached out to TikTok for comment.
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