…If you put all of my comedy together, it would taste like your grandmother’s homemade caramel cake — sweet and comforting. But the overarching theme would just be, “It’s all going to be okay.”
We’re all going to be okay. There’s still laughter in the world, and I like to say there’s laughter for those who search for it, just like they say there are flowers for those who search for them. There’s laughter for those who are looking.
I tell my kids that when they’re having a problem with someone. There’s a little girl in my son’s class that he doesn’t particularly like. I told him, “Tomorrow at school, I want you to find positive things about her.” And he said, “Well, that’s going to be impossible.” I said, “No, it’s going to be harder to find things you don’t like about her if you’re looking for things that you do like.”..
I had the pleasure of talking with Ellen Skrmetti. Ellen is a comedian and social media personality known for her quick-witted humor and Southern charm. Skrmetti has built a loyal following through her viral Instagram account @JustSkrmetti, where she posts short comedic sketches that blend relatable life moments with sharp observations. Originally from Ripley, Mississippi, Skrmetti’s journey to comedy took an unconventional path, beginning with a love for performance in her youth that was derailed by early stage fright but rekindled later in life.
Skrmetti was raised in a small town between Tupelo and Memphis, which she humorously describes as living in an “Elvis sandwich.” Despite her small-town roots, she had big dreams of performing. In high school, she participated in beauty pageants and school plays, though her ambitions were cut short by a bout of stage fright during a local pageant. After that, Skrmetti vowed to stay off the stage, despite a persistent passion for making people laugh.
She attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where she studied fashion merchandising and marketing, but the pull toward comedy remained ever-present. Throughout her early adult life, Skrmetti continued to think about stand-up comedy, though she didn’t actively pursue it. It wasn’t until her 40s that she decided to finally face her fears and return to the stage. Encouraged by her husband, who gifted her comedy writing classes for her birthday, Skrmetti took the plunge into stand-up, performing for the first time in early 2020.
Her timing was unfortunate, as the global COVID-19 pandemic soon shut down live performances across the country. Rather than see this as a setback, Skrmetti pivoted to the digital space. She enrolled in online comedy classes with Second City, the renowned comedy institution, and began creating sketches from home. Posting regularly on Instagram, Skrmetti tapped into her southern upbringing and everyday experiences as a wife and mother, crafting short, humorous videos in which she playfully “called” Jesus to ask for advice or air her frustrations. Her humor struck a chord with a growing online audience, and by the spring of 2022, her account had gone viral.
Skrmetti’s humor is both light-hearted and deeply relatable, often touching on topics such as parenting, menopause, and the quirks of Southern culture. Her comedic style is grounded in her ability to find the absurdity in everyday situations, offering viewers a humorous escape from the challenges of modern life. She blends self-deprecation with sharp wit, all delivered in her signature southern accent. It is this blend of warmth and wit that has helped her cultivate a dedicated fan base and draw attention from the broader comedy world.
Despite the digital nature of her rise to fame, Skrmetti’s heart remains in live comedy. She initially trained in stand-up, and while the pandemic delayed her in-person career, she has since returned to performing on stage. Her ability to translate her humor across different mediums — whether through social media sketches or stand-up performances — has made her a versatile figure in the comedy scene. She frequently references the importance of resilience and adaptability in her journey, noting that her success has come from a mix of hard work and serendipitous timing.
Skrmetti’s personal life also plays a significant role in her comedy. A mother of two and wife of over a decade, she draws from her experiences managing family life in the South, blending them into her material in ways that resonate with audiences across the country. Her humor often touches on universal themes, such as navigating relationships, aging, and the ups and downs of daily life, but always with a uniquely Southern twist.
In addition to her growing success as a comedian and social media personality, Skrmetti has expanded her career into writing. Her debut book, Hey Jesus, It’s Me: I Have Questions, Comments, and Concerns, released in 2024, captures the essence of her comedic voice in a collection of essays that explore topics familiar to her fans. The book delves into the stories behind her viral Instagram sketches, offering a deeper and more personal look at the experiences that inspire her work.
As her profile continues to grow, Skrmetti remains focused on bringing joy to her audience, whether through live performances, social media, or writing. Her career, which began in the unlikeliest of circumstances during a global pandemic, is a testament to her creativity, resilience, and ability to find humor even in the most challenging of times. With plans for more live shows and additional writing projects, Skrmetti’s journey from small-town Mississippi to viral sensation and author is far from over.
Yitzi: Ellen, it’s an honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us a story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Ellen: Yes. So, I was born and raised in a very small town called Ripley, Mississippi. It’s between Tupelo and Memphis. So, I was raised in what I like to call an “Elvis sandwich.” I also joke in my book, but it’s true, that William Faulkner’s great-grandfather is buried behind our Pizza Hut.
I went to college at the University of Southern Mississippi because everyone in my hometown either went to Mississippi State or Ole Miss, and Southern Miss was as far as I could get away from home without paying out-of-state tuition.
I studied fashion merchandising and marketing. In my senior year of high school, I went to the Miss Tippah County pageant, which was a preliminary for Miss Mississippi and Miss America. I was always in plays and singing in choirs, but the night I did my talent competition, I got stage fright for the first time. I remember praying, “Dear Lord, if you get me off this stage, I will never get on another stage again.”
For years after I graduated college and started my professional career, I kept thinking about how much I wanted to be a stand-up comedian. But there was always a little voice in the back of my head saying, “No, remember, you said you’d never get on stage again.” It wasn’t until I was in my mid-30s that I heard another voice say, “I never took that bet. You were just a scared 18-year-old kid. I’m not holding you to that.”
My husband and I lived in Jackson, Mississippi, for 13 years, then moved to Nashville for one year. We’ve been in Birmingham for nine years now. For my 41st birthday, my husband got me stand-up comedy writing classes. I took those classes with the intent of facing my fear of stage fright. After all those years of avoiding the stage, I had convinced myself I had stage fright and it couldn’t be overcome. But I took the classes, and the first time I got on stage was on a Thursday night. I absolutely loved it.
But when I got home that night, the next morning, Alabama shut down for COVID.
I remember thinking, “Well, that’s it.” Of course, part of me thought, like everyone else, “It’s going to be two weeks, and then we’ll get back to normal.” We all had that “two weeks” moment. I still get emotional thinking about it. But the silver lining was that Second City started offering online comedy classes, which they never did before. Pre-COVID, my husband and I had even talked about me taking one of their five-day intensives, where I’d take a week off work and go to Chicago. We were seriously considering it.
When they started offering online classes, I jumped on it. It changed my approach to writing and comedy. I found a comedy family, and I’ve even sent my book to some of them. In one of those classes, my comedy teacher said, “Guys, we’re getting so many people who are internet famous or Instagram famous, and they’re getting booked in clubs, but they don’t quite know the joke structure. They’re just doing their skits on stage. You guys are going to be ready when your time comes.”
That made me think, “Wait a minute, I need to be doing sketches.” So, I started turning my stand-up material into sketches because I felt that my audience wasn’t necessarily going to be in a comedy club, but they would enjoy having fun and come see me elsewhere.
I started posting sketches on January 3rd, 2022. Every day, I would pray, “Lord, do something so big it could only be You.” I didn’t pray for the quantity of followers; I prayed that the right people would find me. We’ve all heard stories of people getting discovered online, like Justin Bieber on YouTube, and I thought, “Lord, if you just send the right people, I could blow up without needing half a million followers.”
The growth was slow — so slow. I went from 700 followers to 1,000 between January and the end of August. I thought, “This is not good.” No one was going to ask me to give a speech on how to grow your audience.
But then I did the sketch “If the Queen Died in the South.” My husband loves Premier League soccer, and we used to watch games at a London-themed pub in Birmingham. One weekend, he told me there wouldn’t be any games because the Queen had passed. I said, “Oh my Lord, if that lady had died in my hometown, she’d be kicking up daisies by now.” In the South, we bury people so fast. While someone’s still alive, we’ll call the family and say, “Y’all should come on, it’s not looking good.” I don’t know if it’s because we didn’t have refrigeration back in the day, but we’ve got it down to a science.
So, I did this sketch, “If the Queen Died in the South,” thinking it might get 5,000 views. That thing blew up and went viral. Ever since, I’ve been rolling. But I learned so much from all those months of writing when no one was really watching — when I had only about 1,000 followers. Then, I went from 1,000 to 100,000 followers in just a few months.
Yitzi: Amazing origin story. So, please tell us the next part of the story. What happened after you got “discovered”? What happened next?
Ellen: So, I love to tell people this. My brain had run dry, and I re-posted a reel I had done in the summer, back when I had almost no followers. It ended with the verse, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” but I added, “But I don’t want to.” I re-posted it, and it did really well.
A few weeks later, I got a DM from a lady who said, “I just saw your video, you were very funny, and you make me laugh. I would love to talk to you about writing a book.”
In my mind, I thought back to when I was a kid, and how every little girl got that letter from Barbizon telling us we could all be models and get discovered at the mall. Do you remember that? We were all convinced we’d get discovered at the mall, just like New Kids on the Block and Debbie Gibson, who were always performing in malls. So, I remember praying, “Lord, if this is the Barbizon of publishing, please help me sniff it out. I don’t have time for a scam.”
But she wasn’t a scam! She’s a true, major, amazing agent. I call her my Fairy Book Moth. She helped me craft the book proposal for Hey Jesus, It’s Me and got me in front of top publishers. I ended up with Hachette, where I truly feel at home. I love working with them. Hey Jesus, It’s Me just came out last week.
Once the book was finished, I had to remind myself that while I’d gotten really comfortable doing everything on Instagram, my original dream was stand-up. So, I called Bruce Ayers, who owns the Stardome here in Birmingham. That’s where Steve Harvey got his start, and pretty much every big comedian has come through the Stardome and worked with Bruce.
Bruce has a small room, and he let me rent it for $500. I gave him a $250 deposit, and he said, “We’ll take the rest out of your check. We’ll sell the tickets for $10, and after the rental fee, you can keep the rest.” We sold out four shows that weekend! I was like, “Bruce, I cannot do another show!” But Bruce would always let me come back and work my material in the small room at the Stardome.
Then, other clubs started calling him, asking, “Who is this girl? Should we book her?” And Bruce would say, “Yeah, you should book her.” My manager was actually partners with Bruce at another club, and he asked, “Who is this girl selling tickets on a Wednesday?” Bruce said, “Her name’s Ellen, she’s a hard worker, and she needs a manager.”
So that’s how I got my manager. Now, we’re just putting one foot in front of the other and trusting that God will continue to light the steps on this journey.
Yitzi: Can you share one of your favorite stories that you share in the book?
Ellen: Yes, hold on, let me think… One of my favorites, and it’s actually one my husband really connected with when he listened to the audiobook. He told me he cried twice because both of his parents have passed away. My mother-in-law was from Upstate New York, and I love telling stories about her because it’s going to be really great for my kids to be able to read about her and know her.
Before my father-in-law passed away, the last thing I told him was, “I just want you to know that my kids will know you, and my kids will know your wife.” He took my hand, kissed it, and said, “Thank you so much for that.” I think it’s so important for people to know their past.
One of the greatest things my mother-in-law ever did — she did two things, actually — first, she was a naval nurse, and my father-in-law was a Marine. He was one of her patients. That’s how they started dating, and they had a long-distance relationship. Now, most Southern women would have hinted around, saying things like, “Oh, so-and-so just got engaged. I hope that’ll be me,” or “If I’m going to have a spring wedding, I’ll need to get engaged soon.” But not my mother-in-law. When my father-in-law got off the plane, she said, “If we’re not engaged by the time you leave, you’re not coming back.” And he just put his arm around her and said, “Well, let’s go find you a ring.”
Another story I love is from when she came to meet his family. My husband is second-generation American — his grandfather came from Croatia — so his family is a big, proud Croatian family. They also refer to themselves as Yugoslavs. When my mother-in-law visited, my father-in-law, who was usually a gentleman, turned into this guy who started bossing her around, trying to act cool in front of his huge family. He told her to go get him a glass of milk. So, she went and got a glass of milk, but then she poured it over his head and said, “How was that?” The whole family erupted in laughter, saying, “Oh my gosh, we love her! She’s ours!”
To me, that’s one of the most scrumptious family stories there is. I love sharing it because even though she’s passed away, my kids are going to get to read that and know that the spunkiness comes from both sides of the family — not just mine, but their dad’s too.
Yitzi: It’s been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Do you have a story about a humorous mistake you made when you first started in your professional comedy career, and the lesson you learned from it?
Ellen: Oh man, so many. One thing I had no idea about was what I was supposed to wear on stage. Men just wear T-shirts and pants, easy. But for women, it’s all over the place — some wear sparkles, some wear T-shirts and pants, and I’d be thinking, “Wait, should I be like Joan Rivers?” So, I started buying all these big sparkly jackets with fur, thinking that’s what I should wear. Then I realized, “Okay, well, those don’t really look good on me.” So, I started buying sparkly tops.
Now, I’m learning just to dress as myself on stage and be myself, because that’s who the audience came to see. I was trying so hard to look like other female comedians instead of just being me.
Yitzi: We love hearing stories where someone whose path is a bit further ahead opens a door or creates an opportunity that changes someone’s career or trajectory. I know you shared a similar story earlier, but do you have another one like that, where someone did that for you, or where you did that for someone else?
Ellen: Absolutely. I think you’re going to love this. It’s so precious and so true. So, we always say that Mississippi is a club, not a state, because we all know each other. We can connect to anyone in like, six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Actually, I can get to anyone in three. What people might not realize is how much talent comes out of Mississippi — so many people from the state have gone on to do big, amazing things.
One of my good friends is best friends with Tate Taylor, who directed The Help and Girl on a Train. He’s just an all-around creative human. He did a movie — something about Yuma County — and Bridget Everett was in it. Bridget is incredible. Well, my friend and her daughter were in New York and ended up having dinner with Tate and Bridget Everett. And, you know how friends talk about you in rooms you aren’t in? Well, I’m at home, my kids are asleep, and I’m sitting there trying to write jokes. All of a sudden, I get a video message.
It’s Bridget Everett. She says, “Ellen, I’m at dinner with these friends of yours, and they’ve told me all about how you’re a mom with two kids, and how you’re just sitting at your house right now writing your jokes. I love that. I just want you to know: dreams don’t have deadlines.”
She told me someone had said that to her, and it helped her hold onto her own dreams. Then she said, “I just want to share that with you.”
When COVID hit and everything stopped, I thought it was over for me. The clock is ticking on my age, and I felt like I was running out of time. But that message from Bridget helped me remember that dreams don’t have deadlines, and that it was going to be okay. That one message really pulled me through, and it reminded me that it was okay to still be aging while the world had stopped.
Yitzi: You have so much going on, you’ve done so many great things. Can you share with our readers the exciting things you’re working on now? Please tell us… While we have to buy your book, please tell us what else you’re working on?
Ellen: Well, first off, I think everyone should buy the book because it’s like a warm hug. I wrote it to make you laugh, and to just give you a little bit of joy. I had someone comment on my page, he said, “I’m a gay Jewish man, and I love you.” And I replied, “Well, I’m a straight Christian, and I love you right back.” Then I had a lady come to my book signing who said, “I’m your only Jewish fan.” And I told her, “No, you’re not!”
My comedy is for everyone, no matter your faith or background. I want people to read the book and know that God is in everything, and it’s just meant to remind you of the good old days. I talk a lot about growing up and things from my childhood. I really believe the book will help everyone have a better day.
That’s also the approach I take with my Instagram page. It’s free of politics and fighting — unless we’re talking about SEC football, then we can fight about that! But otherwise, it’s a place where you can escape. If you want to hide from the craziness of the world, you can come read my book, listen to the audiobook, or visit my page. It’s a no-politics zone. If anything political comes up, I just delete it. I want to be your free zone.
And coming up, I’m working on touring more in 2025. We’re planning a comedy tour, which I’m really excited about. I also want to write another book. I just love hearing from people who’ve enjoyed Hey Jesus, It’s Me, and I want to keep giving people fun things to read and laugh about.
Yitzi: If you could take all of your jokes and all of your writing, put it in one bucket, put it in a blender, and mix it up, what would the overarching theme be?
Ellen: Hmm, well, I would say it would taste like a caramel cake. If you put it all together, it would taste like your grandmother’s homemade caramel cake — sweet and comforting. But the overarching theme would just be, “It’s all going to be okay.”
We’re all going to be okay. There’s still laughter in the world, and I like to say there’s laughter for those who search for it, just like they say there are flowers for those who search for them. There’s laughter for those who are looking.
I tell my kids that when they’re having a problem with someone. There’s a little girl in my son’s class that he doesn’t particularly like. I told him, “Tomorrow at school, I want you to find positive things about her.” And he said, “Well, that’s going to be impossible.” I said, “No, it’s going to be harder to find things you don’t like about her if you’re looking for things that you do like.”
Yitzi: What do you think makes comedy so essential for civilization, for humanity?
Ellen: Oh, well, laughter releases endorphins. Laughter is a stress relief. My friend Jamie, who opens for me and co-owns The Punch Line, always says, “The second you can start to laugh about something is the second you start to heal.” And that’s so true. When you can laugh about things, that’s when you know everything is going to be okay.
We need people in the world who are searching for laughter and trying to spread it. I’m so appreciative of the gift God has given me to help make people laugh. It gives me energy, and it makes me happy knowing I’ve made someone’s day a little better through laughter.
Before every show, I always say a prayer, because I know there’s someone in the audience who truly needs to laugh, someone who needs a break from their struggles. I pray that whatever they need to hear, I’ll say it, and they’ll get the laughter and relief they need.
I didn’t always know I’d be doing this. But once I started taking comedy classes and seeing how making people laugh helped them feel better, I realized something. I like to say, “The devil knew that if I ever got a bright light and a hot mic, I was going to give God glory and make people feel better.” So, of course, he wanted me to feel like I wasn’t good enough for all those years, because that was the time I could’ve been making people happy.
Now, I’m just going to do everything I can to make as many people laugh as possible — just ’cause it makes him mad!
Yitzi: This is our signature question. You’ve been blessed with a lot of success now. Looking back to when you first started in comedy, can you share five things that you know now that you wish you knew when you first started?
Ellen: Yeah, absolutely. I actually made some notes on this, thinking about what I would tell any comedian starting out.
1. Don’t wait to be perfect to start. My girlfriend was so nervous for me the first time I did my show at the Stardome. She asked, “Are you ready for this?” And I told her, “Listen, just because it’s not going to be Netflix-worthy doesn’t mean it won’t be funny. People are still going to laugh. No one’s buying this set for Netflix, but we’re still going to make people laugh.” So, don’t wait to be perfect. Just get up there and do it.
2. Write every single day. Comedy is everywhere, but it’s easy to get so wrapped up in the business side of things that you forget to write. You’ve got to keep that skill sharp. Don’t let running the business side of your comedy career get in the way of the actual writing.
3. You are your own marketing firm. You’re not just a comedian — you’re in charge of selling the tickets. Clubs will book you, but they won’t always fill the seats for you. Pre-COVID, people just trusted that comedy clubs would have a comedian everyone loved. Now, with so many bookings coming from people who are popular online, the expectation is that you’ll market yourself and bring in your own audience. You’ve got to be your own marketing machine.
4. You’ll meet people along the way who will help you. Just because you don’t have a team right now doesn’t mean you won’t get one. Right when you think you’re at a standstill, you’ll get a call from someone — a manager, an agent, someone who will help you take the next step. You will meet those people along the way, so trust the process.
5. The reward is in the journey. I remember hearing this in church, and it’s true in everything. Enjoy the journey. Enjoy every second of it. Enjoy the parts where no one knows you. Enjoy the day your reel gets 5,000 views when you’ve only been getting 500. Celebrate every single piece of it, because the reward isn’t at the end — it’s in the journey itself. The journey is the reward.
Yitzi: Can you share with the readers a bit of the process that you use to write comedy? Like, do you sit down and force it out of you, or do you wait for it to pop into your head? What’s your process?
Ellen: You know, I heard a writer say once — she wrote Fleabag — and she said, “You can’t edit a blank page.” That really stuck with me. So, I’ve lived by that advice: you can’t edit a blank page. I just started writing.
I’ll think about things that have happened, maybe make comparisons to how things were in the ’80s versus now. I’m 47 with a 14-year-old and a 10-year-old, so I get a lot of material from comparing how it was to be a Gen X kid versus being a Gen X mom.
For example, my parents never knew where I was, but my daughter tracks me on Life 360 now. So I can write jokes about how we’re the ones being tracked by our kids, when we never tracked them growing up. I’ll just write down those funny little things my kids do, and then think, “Okay, how can I shape that into something?”
So, yeah, a lot of my material comes from my family. They give me plenty to work with!
Yitzi: So, this is our serious, aspirational question. Because of your great work and the platform you’ve built, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Ellen: I mean, truly, if I could spread one message that would help the most people, it would be for all of us to get off the internet. As much as the internet has helped me, I think it’s also dividing us. We are all so much more alike than we are different, but we’ve lost that connection. We’re stuck in these little echo chambers online, and we forget how to love and take care of each other in real life.
I believe the internet has created this division, and I would love for us to get back to a place of human connection with our brothers and sisters. Now that I’ve got 300,000 followers, sure, it might sound a little hypocritical to say, “Okay, everyone get offline now.” But honestly, the division it’s caused is something I hate.
Growing up, my mom was a Republican and her sister was a Democrat, and they had such healthy debates. My dad owned a business, so he liked the Republican tax cuts. My aunt worked as an ombudsman in nursing homes, and she was a Democrat because Democrats would fund services like that. They understood each other’s perspectives, respected them, and it was always about love. No one was disinvited from Thanksgiving over it.
I wish we could get back to that — where we can love each other, no matter what our differences are.
Yitzi: How can our readers purchase your book? How can they continue to follow your work? How can they purchase anything else you’re offering? How can they support you in any way possible?
Ellen: Yes. So, my book is available everywhere you get your books. Wherever you buy your books, go there. If it’s not in your local bookstore, tell them to pick it up, because I love a local bookstore, and I don’t want them to go the way of Blockbuster at all. So, get it wherever you buy your books. You can follow me on Instagram, it’s @justskrmetti. I picked that handle before I ever knew I’d be doing this. I did it because, basically, we’re related to every Skrmetti out there, since we all came over from Croatia. So, if your last name is Skrmetti or Skrmetta with an A, we are related. One of my cousins had already taken Skrmetti, so I went with Justskrmetti, because when you have a name like Skrmetti, people just call you by your last name. So, you can follow me there, and trust me, I’m promoting it until Instagram kicks me off.
Yitzi: It’s really been an honor to meet you. I wish you continued success and blessings, and I hope we can do this again next year.
Ellen: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope, Lord willing, I’ll be at a show in Maryland one day, and I hope you can come, because they’re such a good time.
Yitzi: I would absolutely love to see you perform one day.
Ellen Skrmetti: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Professional Comedian was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.