The Clubhouse Paradox — Will Mannon

Last night I glimpsed the future. I also saw the distant past.

Evening, just before bed. Jump on Clubhouse. Decide to try my luck with "7th Layer of Hell", a comedy gameshow room. I love good standup, but my Clubhouse time has been more NFT than lol so far. That changed last night.

Alone in a dark apartment, I couldn't stop laughing. Full-blown, funniest-person-you-know, laugh-out-loud type laughter. This is rare. Hilarious YouTube clips rarely draw more than a chuckle when I'm watching alone. Not last night.

One by one, contestants tossed out their best Dad joke. These would bomb. That's when Clubhouse magic kicked in: the moment the joke ended, the ~40 other contestants instantly started roasting the joke-giver, based solely on their picture. Delightful chaos ensued. Roasts were flying like a t-shirt toss on gameday. The jokes were all over the place: direct hits, kinda-sortas, total duds. But the audio-only format allowed for a blizzard of one-liners like I've never heard before.

Most rounds lasted 60 seconds, then on to the next. Then came Emilio. This guy had been the class clown all night. The room was ready. After his Dad joke, the Emilio zingers started flying and didn't stop. Roasts rained in, Emilio clapped back. I couldn't stop laughing. Clever jokes, silly jokes, out-of-left-field jokes. Emilio loves jorts. Emilio sings Christmas carols year-round. Emilio puts potato chips in a bowl before he eats them.

Last night, I glimpsed the future. This endless spray of jokes is an entirely new form of funny: crowd-sourced comedy, in its full messy glory. The night was only possible thanks to Clubhouse, an entirely new category of human interaction. New tools produce exciting new possibilities.

Last night I also saw the distant past. In five years the same 7th Layer of Hell clip will feel like a crackly Jack Benny broadcast from 1933. The pace of change that's coming will astonish us all. Just imagine what virtual formats will exist in 2026, 2035, and 2050.

That's the Clubhouse Paradox: we're watching a new medium emerge at lightspeed pace. Innovative rooms crop up that we’ve never seen before. It's breathtaking. And yet, it's just fuzzy FM compared to what's next.