A Tribute To Jordan Firstman And His Perfect Impressions On Instagram
He's the First Man to make me laugh.
During quarantine, writer and comedian Jordan Firstman started doing impressions on Instagram, and his popularity exploded. This is a love letter to him, and those impressions [Law and Order noise].
Not to be a “I knew about this cool thing before you” type, but I knew about Jordan Firstman before you. Especially if this article is the first you are hearing of him, I definitely knew about him before now. I’ve been a fan for ages, through his appearances on podcasts like ‘Las Culturistas’, and through his writing on shows like ‘Search Party’ and ‘The Other Two’ (both great).
He was also the brains behind one of my absolute favourite things to happen in the past year, with the Gay Men’s Chorus singing about gay things from movies at the Spirit Awards, famously finishing with an ode to Laura Dern.
But it’s his impressions, first appearing in April when he was in lockdown, that have really connected with an audience. His follower count has grown to 600k, and fans include Chrissy Teigen, who reposted Firstman’s wonderful impression of ‘banana bread’s publicist.’
Calling them ‘seasons’, Firstman now posts a bunch of impressions at once each time. I think the impressions are so successful because they are all extremely well conceptualised. They can be abstract and silly, or extremely specific. They can be a person, a concept, or an inanimate object. But each time it is something that we immediately recognise, or have experienced, being reflected back in a funny 20 second video by a handsome man who is good at acting.
For example, I shared one from this season recently that is an impression of mosquitos when someone says “mosquitos love me” because I am someone who mosquitos DO love, but I am also thrilled to be torn to shreds for being the person who says that.
I think they are especially hitting hard because just about everyone is having a hard time in one way or another, and getting to tune out for a bit and watch something funny and dumb can turn a day around.
at this point I feel like all I'm living for is the next batch of Jordan Firstman's impressions
— Honey Dijon stan account (@___courtney____) September 4, 2020
I want to watch Jordan Firstman’s new impressions so badly but I also want to save them for a little low moment to get me through 💔
— no chance hackerman (@jo_bazz) July 29, 2020
Also they are just funny. His “impression of a straight man” is just incredibly simple, hilarious in its repetitiveness, and simply perfect.
He also does my favourite thing anyone can do and commits to the bit: accidentally actually destroying his own laptop for this one. Worth it (to me).
You can check out the rest of his impressions on Instagram, but I also highly recommend watching when he goes Live. He can be chaotic, you never know what is going to happen, and he occasionally does a segment where he reads out secrets that followers have shared with him.
you: jordan firstman's instagram impressions is the only thing that keeps me going
me, an intellectual: jordan firstman's ig stories readings of his followers' secrets is the only thing that keeps me going— jared richards (@jrdjms) July 31, 2020
During these trying times, when there is a severe lack of laughter and gossip in our lives, he is truly doing God’s work.