Ariane Brunet wants to do good, and make you laugh
“I’m going to promote our culture, and that’s a promise!” Comedian Ariane Brunet, one of 21 creatives selected as part of the Canada Media Fund’s Digital Creators Pilot Program, talks about wearing many hats, and reaching her generation.
Comedian Ariane Brunet is one of 21 content creators who will share a total of $394,000 as part of the third edition of the Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) Digital Creators Pilot Program.
Like all selected, this 23-year-old, Montreal-based francophone produces videos and shares them on social media — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. In a funny sketch posted in March, for example, we see her buying an old, stained, and apparently smelly mattress from comedian Pier-Luc Funk.
Brunet, who describes herself on Instagram as a “femme de blagues,” or “jokes lady,” has more than 120,000 followers on social media, an audience she expects will grow. The financial assistance from the CMF will help with that growth and support a new project — videos “that make people feel good” by addressing social themes in the form of funny sketches.
But that’s not all.
“I’m working on a long YouTube video with my brother where we’re going to play music,” says Brunet. “These are videos that make people feel good. It’s really just that. I think the world needs to be entertained, and creators need support to be able to do it, even though we’ve been doing it for free for years.”
A Team Effort
Brunet’s brother, Charles Brunet — who Ariane considers her best friend since childhood — is also a comedian. She began her career by working with him, both in front of and behind the camera, and they still collaborate, like in videos inspired by their Christmas together or a family vacation. “It’s really important for me to create spaces where I can work with people I like,” she says.
Liking her collaborators is especially important since digital work is often solitary, and she considers herself a team player.
Fortunately, for six months — from April to September 2027 — the CMF grant will enable her to add several creators to her team of one, including camera operators, directors of photography, film editors, sound engineers, writers and actors.
Generalizing Generation Z
Brunet earns the bulk of her living as a TV content strategist. She isn’t planning to put her career on the back burner to become a full-time comedian. Instead, she prefers to wear several hats, including as a TV writer and an actor. Brunet also participated in the reality-TV series Big Brother: Le Piège (The Trap) in 2025.
“Digital content creator” is one of the many hats she wears, but she doesn’t love the title. She thinks “content creation” is a catch-all term.
“It doesn’t really fit me,” she says. “I’m a comedian, and it just so happens my format is digital. I don’t really like that way of categorizing it, even if I understand that we sometimes need to explain things by putting them in boxes.”
There are many ways to categorize her work. Brunet is part of the young Quebecois culture that avoids traditional media, and part of Generation Z, since she was born between 1995 and 2012. She laments that other generations think her life boils down to smartphones and the pandemic. She thinks generalizing a whole generation, her whole generation, is a form of snobbery.
“I can just be an artist,” Brunet says.
“We wouldn’t say France Castel is a boomer, you know what I mean,” she adds, referring to the 81-year-old French-Canadian actor.
Quebec Culture and Young People
Brunet has a lot to say about the traditional media available for her generation.
In an October 2025 Instagram post she denounced the meagre offerings for young people in traditional media, especially on TV. She insists we need works by and for young people, and to make them accessible, having herself grown up watching a wide variety of comedy, including the sketch show Les Appendices, the satirical soap opera Le cœur a ses raisons (Sins of Love), and the educational comedy series Les pieds dans la marge.
Brunet says people her age consume and produce Quebecois culture, but traditional media offerings are simply not sufficient or even interesting.
“There’s only one show for young people, and if young people don’t watch it, they say, ‘Well, that’s it, we tried.’ The rest of the TV programs are geared towards an age group that’s not ours. And then they accuse us of going online. Yes, because there’s something there for us,” she says.
With her CMF funding, Brunet wants to produce funny, accessible cultural commentary for all generations, as long as they know how to navigate a smartphone. Videos that make people feel good, “so the days don’t feel so long.”
“I’m going to promote our culture, and that’s a promise,” she insists.
