Stand-up comics are watching AI-generated “comedians” lift their bits almost word for word, post the clips to Instagram, and steer viewers toward paid adult pages. According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd, at least two comics have posted side-by-side videos in recent weeks showing sexy AI stage personas performing their exact routines — sometimes in matching venues and similar outfits.

Word-for-word theft, bigger audiences

Comic and content creator George Brett Olson broke down an AI Instagram account with roughly 300,000 followers that, he said, ripped off his joke and even echoed his look. The avatar also had an OnlyFans page. Olson’s bit was about AI’s threat to jobs and tech billionaires — which made the theft feel especially surreal. “AI stole my joke and my outfit,” he said, calling it “the most ironic thing that’s ever happened to me.”

A few days later, stand-up Julia Jasunas (Comics Unleashed) showed a similar comparison against an AI account with about 250,000 followers. The fake comic repeated her joke verbatim, including an aside she had tossed to someone in the room. According to WIRED‘s Ej Dickson, that account posted as Aylen Skye and pointed fans to NSFW content on Fanvue, an OnlyFans-style site that markets itself as an AI monetization platform. Jasunas told Chortle she found it “incredibly unsettling” that scantily clad AI women were performing stolen jokes, racking up engagement, then funneling people to a paid page for a performer who does not exist.

A funnel, not a comedy career

According to Gizmodo‘s Kyle Torpey, the same pattern showed up around an account posting as Tiffany Sloane (@tiffany.bbyx). Andreessen Horowitz partner Justine Moore publicly called that setup “a genius OnlyFans marketing hack” after seeing the account pull millions of views and grow to roughly 375,000 followers within weeks. The Instagram bio framed the poster as an actress; highlights pointed to an OnlyFans page. Comics who recognized their own material were not amused.

WIRED reports it has identified eight comics whose viral stand-up clips were remade by AI-generated women — often with better lighting, tighter outfits, and larger audiences than the originals. Some of the accounts also post flirty fake late-night interviews. Instagram’s rules ban impersonation, but copying a joke is another matter, and AI content is allowed if labeled. Comics say reports often go nowhere.

Meta’s answer so far

In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri said he does not think it is practical to ban AI content from the platform, arguing it will get harder to identify and is “not all bad.” He added that Meta wants to drive more traffic to original creators and that if an AI account is ripping off content wholesale, the company should figure out what it can do. A Meta spokesperson told Hibberd the same problem has shown up on YouTube and TikTok.

Jokes have historically had thin copyright protection, and the dollar stakes of a stolen bit are often too small for a lawsuit unless the OnlyFans side is making serious money. Olson told WIRED that after he called out Sloane, the account apologized in a comment, deleted the stolen video and other Reels — then left him discouragingly aware that Meta still had not removed the accounts.

The takeaway

This is not just plagiarism with a prettier filter. It is a creator-economy funnel: steal a working comic’s punchline, wrap it in an AI thirst-trap body, farm Instagram views, and cash out on OnlyFans or Fanvue. Platforms say wholesale theft is a problem worth looking at. Until they act, comics are left competing with clones of their own work — and watching the algorithm reward the copy.

Image: The Cavern Club stage set up, Mathew Street, Liverpool, 2012, photo by anpalacios (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.