Sam Lanier Picks His Favorite Sketch Group Mate

Despite living in these frankly precedented times, we are fully existing in the future. And a futuristic lifestyle calls for a modern approach to our traditional “Follow Friday� column. We at Vulture have pivoted from our Luddite ways, opting for a more interactive digital angle on what was once mere text on a web page. We want you to get to know our favorite up-and-coming comics, writers, and generally funny social-media presences face-to-face (or at least screen-to-screen). So we hope you enjoy our new and improved Instagram Live–based version of “Follow Friday.�

This week, I sat down with esteemed “brother of a guy I went to college with� Sam Lanier (Adult Swim, Simple Town, getting his location doxed by showing us the view out his bedroom window), who specifically asked me to highlight his poignant thoughts on race in animation. I will not. He told me about his journey into becoming an animator, daydreamed about the moment he’ll be able to send memes to his infant nephew, and shared his controversial method of picking his favorite sketch-comedy group mate (it varies week to week). He also described his platonic ideal when it comes to comedy boys: “My type of boy is like a sensitive, sweet, kind of quiet comedy boy whose feelings are easily hurt and who’s very kind — that kind of thing. I think because of, like, Pete Davidson and stuff, that’s now a kind of boy people like and is in the Zeitgeist and in popular culture. But I was really into that before it was popular.�

You can find Sam on Twitter at @samuel_lanier and Instagram at @samelanier.