#169 - Aiden Carabine - What No One Tells You About Stand-Up Comedy

Aiden Carabine is a third-year psychology student and rising comedian who draws inspiration from comedy, comic books, pop culture, and storytelling, even if the world has yet to catch up to his genius. Balancing school with creative self-expression, he brings a dry, self-aware honesty to everything he does, fully aware that many consider him unfunny and his comedy career questionable at best. Still, that tension between ambition and perceived failure fuels his perspective, shaping a voice that leans into discomfort, irony, and the absurdity of taking oneself seriously in a world that rarely does.

Aiden Carabine approaches comedy and comic books as parallel universes where time does not always age kindly, and that’s part of the joke. From comic storylines that are now unintentionally hilarious to characters whose flaws are more memorable than their heroics, he sees humor in decay and misfires. Rather than viewing himself as a heroic figure refining the craft, he likens his role to a villain or anti-hero someone actively destroying stand-up comedy through relentlessly terrible sets. If he were to merge stand-up with a comic-style narrative, it would involve inventing a universally loved superhero or villain, delivering one perfect joke, and immediately becoming rich and famous without ever having to improve.

Aiden Carabine’s creative identity has been shaped most by sarcastic sitcom characters and comedians who mastered the art of saying the wrong thing perfectly, including figures like Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, and Norm Macdonald. He’s especially interested in how irony dominates modern pop culture, not just as a joke but as a shield, allowing people to say anything while pretending they don’t mean it. For him, this trend reveals something deeper about society’s discomfort with sincerity, and if he could change one thing about today’s pop culture, it would be simple: people would be nicer, even if that idea feels more unrealistic than most sitcom plots.

Aiden Carabine finds his literary inspiration primarily in science fiction, a genre that allows big ideas to exist alongside deeply flawed characters. Books like Dune have shaped the way he thinks about power, identity, and systems far larger than any one person, influencing how he views both school and comedy. When it comes to recommending something to someone who feels lost or creatively stuck, he sticks with Dune or The Secret History of the IRA, believing that dense, challenging material can sometimes be the fastest way to shake loose new perspectives.

Aiden Carabine ultimately embodies the contradiction of someone deeply committed to creativity while openly doubting his own success within it. Through comedy, pop culture, and books, he explores failure, irony, and ambition with a tone that never fully commits to confidence yet refuses to quit. Whether he’s positioning himself as a villain, a sarcastic observer, or a misunderstood creative, his work reflects a willingness to keep showing up, even when the laughs don’t at least not yet.

KEEP IT LONG TERM!