As one of the few women in the world leading a real-reaction prank channel, she produces original formats that have contributed to more than 1.2 billion organic views across platforms
Public prank comedy is one of the most visible genres on social media, but its development has been shaped mostly by men. For years, the people creating and leading real-reaction videos were overwhelmingly male, which influenced both the style of the content and the norms of the field. Women appeared on screen less often and were rarely the ones directing the formats. This picture began to change when Elizabeth Grabowski co-founded a Canadian real-reaction comedy channel called TheButtingHeads in 2015. Since then, she has been the channel’s primary creative force, acting on camera while also filming, editing, and directing the formats that define the channel’s authentic style.
Over the past ten years, TheButtingHeads has grown into one of the most recognizable prank channels. Several of her formats, like Working Out In The Mall, Whisper Pranks, Passing Love Notes, and Awkward Phone Calls, became recurring series that helped establish the channel’s identity. In one of her biggest viral hits, Funny Runner, Elizabeth performs an exaggerated, goofy run through public space, prompting spontaneous reactions from people around her. The simplicity of the concept and the genuine reactions resonated with viewers, making Funny Runner one of the channel’s top-performing formats. The series alone has surpassed 100 million views. Similar dynamics drive many of the channel’s videos, which often reach tens of millions of views organically. The broader growth came from cross-platform expansion. In 2025 alone, TheButtingHeads reached 648 million organic views on Facebook and 592 million on Instagram, bringing the brand to a total of more than 1.2 billion annual views across platforms. Facebook engagement increased by approximately 187% from 2024 to 2025, with the channel’s following surpassing 2.6 million. All of this performance was achieved without paid promotion, relying on the appeal of original concepts and real public reactions. In a creator landscape where large-scale virality is often concentrated in the United States, maintaining this level of organic reach from Canada underscores how unusual her presence is within the digital comedy field.
These numbers reflect not only popularity but a creative authority that is unusual in prank comedy, especially for a woman. Videos conceived and performed by Elizabeth have been licensed internationally by Jukin Media and featured on programs such as Totally Weird and Funny, Inglorious Pranksters, FailArmy, and Science of Stupid, along with multiple national broadcasts on RightThisMinute through ABC Network Syndication. On YouTube, the team earned the Silver Play Button after surpassing 100,000 subscribers, underscoring the channel’s sustained audience engagement. While many prank creators rely on shock, escalation, or confrontation to attract viewers, Elizabeth built a brand around an entirely different emotional structure, which aligns with broader cultural shifts toward authenticity and human warmth. At the same time, she remains one of the few women, and the only one in Canada, leading a real-reaction prank channel of this scale, which underscores both her rarity in the field and the degree to which her work deviates from genre conventions.
Reflecting on the early years, she notes that the genre “definitely felt male-dominated then and honestly, it still does,” explaining that women are often less encouraged to take comedic risks in public or to embrace the possibility of making a fool of themselves on camera. That contrast became central to how audiences perceived her work. The presence of a woman leading non-staged prank scenarios reshaped the rhythm of the interaction: instead of anticipating confrontation, strangers often responded with curiosity or surprise. Elizabeth believes this dynamic played a role in the channel’s early virality. “I think our videos blew up because it was unexpected to see a woman leading these fun, goofy public pranks in a space usually dominated by guys,” she explains. “The overwhelming response was positive, and people loved seeing how the public reacted differently to a female doing these videos versus a man.”
That difference extends beyond perception and into the core of her creative approach. Her videos rely on a tone that distinguishes them from traditional prank formats. Her humour is playful, self-aware, and grounded in lightness rather than provocation. “The joke is on me,” she says. “We never intend to put strangers in uncomfortable situations. The goal is always to create something light, fun, and genuinely joyful. I go into every video with the intention of making people laugh, not making them angry or awkward, and I think that intention really comes through.” However, as Elizabeth notes, maintaining this tone in real public settings is not always simple. Filming non-staged interactions requires long shooting days, repeated attempts, and the patience to wait for authentic moments that cannot be scripted. That patience can still yield sudden results. In early December, a newly released video sparked an unexpected spike in reach, with a single clip crossing the 70-million-view mark and accelerating audience growth in a matter of days.
This perspective also influences how people engage with her during filming. The emotional temperature is lower, the reactions are more genuine, and the humour emerges from shared spontaneity rather than tension. Her presence remains unusual in the genre, but what distinguishes her work now is less the novelty of a woman leading pranks and more the tonal signature she created. As she puts it, “You don’t see a lot of women doing this style of comedy, and that alone makes the content feel more original. My humour leans playful, approachable, and confident, and I think that really influenced the kinds of pranks that took off. A lot of the formats work because they flip expectations.”
Her impact on the genre extends beyond her own channel. Several of the formats she developed have been replicated by other creators, reflecting the way ideas travel quickly across the digital landscape. While imitation is common in online comedy, it also signals that her work has shaped broader trends in real-reaction content.
Taken together, her trajectory illustrates how a genre can evolve when approached from a different lens. Elizabeth did not attempt to redefine prank comedy through critique or reinvention. Instead, she just performs it in her own way, guided by instincts that contrast with the genre’s dominant norms. Her presence reveals that risk-taking can be light and fun rather than aggressive, physical humour does not need to rely on confrontation, while authenticity can scale to hundreds of millions of views when paired with strong creative direction.
By the time her videos reach audiences seeking a moment of relief, they reflect the distinct creative perspective that positioned her as an outlier in the genre from the start. That her work resonates across a culturally diverse audience reflects how naturally her formats appeal to the viewers worldwide, where no two interactions look the same. In a field where few women exist, her results suggest that the future of prank comedy may look profoundly different from its past, more inclusive in who gets to perform, more varied in tone, and more reflective of audiences who rely on humour not only to laugh, but to escape.
