Podcast: Sam Weidt and Millennial TikTok

Sam Weidt (@samweidt) joins the podcast this week!

We talk about his viral NYC advice TikToks and bond over having all had nervous breakdowns in the 14th Street Barnes & Noble.

Then, we discuss how our film degrees and work experience in the industry shape our view of TikTok. Sam realized he could leverage his understanding of digital marketing and sketch comedy formats to create a template for his TikTok content. His editing skills and some pretty suped up audio equipment help too.

We find out how people react to his videos—from non-New Yorkers who think the city must be awful to people genuinely concerned that he would recommend Olive Garden to tourists.

Sam tells us about his own For You Page. His content is more diverse than most. He’s fascinated by technical and visual “how-to” accounts (posted under “favorite creators” below) and spends more time watching these accounts then other comedians.

Millennial TikTok

Millennial TikTok became popular once the pandemic hit and a wave of millennials joined the app. Since then, there’s been this sort of rivalry slash camaraderie between Gen Z and millennials on TikTok.

Angie Cocuzza (@acooz31) sums up Gen Z vs millennials well in many of her videos.

In general, millennials just find TikTok confusing. Watching videos is one thing, but creating and editing content is more difficult than Gen Z makes it seem. And it’s extremely hard to search for videos or find specific content. It takes me way longer than it should to create these blog posts.

Every generation has their own language. Gen Z uses the visual mediums that they’ve grown up with to use emojis and body movement as their own language too.

Favorite creators

Bbtronics (@bbtronics)

Bbtronics on TikTok takes us through repairing broken electronics like this Nintendo Switch.

Manolivisuals (@manolivisuals)

Manolivisuals uses TikTok to show us how he builds these awesome custom keyboards.

Frank Caliendo (@frankcaliendo)

Frank Caliendo brings his hilarious impressions to TikTok and smartly relies on the unique engagement abilities of the app to create new bits based on his followers’ comments.

Matthew Friend (@matterday.night.live)

Matthew Friend serves up his impressions of Rami Malek, Tim Cook, Howard Stern, and more on TikTok.

Lightning Round: Sam Weidt TikTok advice

We end the show with a lightning round of Sam improvising some advice to our listeners about TikTok: 

• What advice would you give to someone who hasn’t downloaded the app yet?
• What advice would you give to someone who is afraid to post a video?
• What advice would you give to someone who only likes TikTok dancing trends?
• What advice would you give to someone who makes you watch a Part 2 of a video?
• What advice would you give to someone who is using TikTok as a dating app?
• What advice would you give to the US government about TikTok?

Follow Sam at @samweidt on TikTok and @samwhiteweidt on Instagram. Find him on Twitch at samweidt.