I’m an artist, which is to say that if I’m online I’m either curating my public persona or desperately trying to fall asleep. Like so many of my millennial counterparts, the devolution of my synapses has rendered me passive and foie gras goose-like online – algorithmically confined to a corn-based slurry of For You-funnies until my liver is buttery and unctuous (read: I fall asleep).

Most of the things that make me chuckle online are to be found in those last little social media culs-de-sac – Instagram’s Close Friends, finstas, group chats – where we can really revel in what we miss most about the internet: laughing at the misfortunes of those we like least. For obvious reasons I can’t share those, but for the purpose of this listicle, here are some videos that I slovenly return to about … once a month.

1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Mark Twain prize acceptance speech

The award acceptance speech is a beautiful paradox in our culture – a role for which performers covetously vie, and yet we as an audience merely accept. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ comedy finds apotheosis in this format, which perfectly sublimates her intellect, wit, physicality, ego, but most importantly, her generosity – what most performers accept as a self-congratulatory moment of professionally sanctioned regard, she has surrendered for our own entertainment.

2. The James Franco roast

I would really like to see the return of the Comedy Central Roast format. Andy Samberg is a highlight of the Comedy Central Roast of James Franco: his is a perfectly calculated leaning-in to the handsome and goofy charm that made him SNL-famous, pitched through a character that no one expected: the scorned bottom.

3. Steven Sondheim tribute

Stephen Sondheim’s 80th birthday tribute, Sondheim! The Birthday Concert, features a pitch-perfect performance by Patti LuPone of Ladies Who Lunch from the musical Company. As she delivers the line “Does anyone still wear a hat?”, her head turns slowly towards a figure seated in the dark: Elaine Stritch, the Broadway legend who originated the performance in 1970 – in her signature newsboy hat.

4. Kate McKinnon impression of Jessica Lange’s ‘Hell is knotty pine’ scene in American Horror Story: Coven

Kate McKinnon’s Jessica Lange impersonation is uncanny. pic.twitter.com/EQ138LPa8R

— Tyson Armstrong (@tysonarmstrong) July 16, 2018

There were too many Kate McKinnon videos in my first attempt at this list, so I’ve distilled them down to this scene from Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, in which she does an impression of Jessica Lange in American Horror Story: Coven delivering her “knotty pine” performance, AKA this generation’s no more wire hangers.

5. Kate McKinnon as Debette Goldry

OK just one more Kate McKinnon video – a grand dame performance I would describe as “Judy Garland granted sentience by Shirley MacLaine and styled by Debbie Reynolds”.

6. Sarah Silverman’s sister hates this joke

“I know that I’m your show, but you have to understand like … you’re my show.” Sarah Silverman is one of my favourite comedians because she’s never just setting up a punchline. Every element is carefully considered, inspected, timed and turned over.

7. Sabrina Brier: ‘When your best friend runs into your ex’

Does Sabrina Brier need an introduction? I think that single video that she releases is immaculate, and despite her fame she has maintained a consistency in her content that is very rewarding – from the relatability of her scenarios, to the Shein-like styling, to her commitment to Arial font, she’s elevated the loyal-but-basic best friend archetype into something sublime.

8. Amanda Chantal Bacon

This is a bit of an oldie and I think the creator, Jarrett Sleeper, mostly makes workout videos now? It was based on this Harper’s Bazaar “everything I eat in a day”-type diary/profile of the (ridiculously named) Amanda Chantal Bacon, founder of LA health-food company Moon Juice. The diary itself is hilarious and was probably orchestrated to leverage readers’ Goop-fuelled hysteria around wellness culture but Jarrett animates the material into a performance which is perfect, not just because it is deranged, but because it is scripted verbatim from the original article.

9. Lana Del Rey accepting the visionary award

0:31 is a timestamp that all Geminis, myself included, attribute much of their personality to.

10. Azealia Banks makes music for gays

Azealia Banks is perfectly composed in a Anna Wintour/Louise Brooks bob. If a gay man ever responds to your question with “I guess”, they are thinking of her.

• JD Reforma’s latest work, Butterfly, commissioned by Sydney Opera House for Shortwave – New Digital Commissions: Outlines 2023, is available to stream free now.