Against my better judgment, I love the internet. Even though most of the time it feels like a prison that my mind is trapped in, the internet did introduce me to my love of standup and sketch comedy. And in turn, when I uploaded some of my own standup and sketch, it got me some paid writing work and a meteoric rise to the lower middle of the Australian comedy scene.

But it is definitely a prison.

Luckily, like a prison, if you’re willing to really work hard and consistently (I’m not), it is also a place where you can make a few cents a day to buy noodle packets and powdered water flavouring. There’s also some work in Australian TV comedy, but that’s drying up so fast my lips feel chapped.

The best comedy out there is made with no audience but the creators in mind. And I’ve crawled here through the sewer of social media clutching the best stuff I’ve found.

1. Jack Druce’s advert for his home town

Jack Druce is a gentle and hilarious Australian Canadian man. I have chosen this sketch of his because I love it and it is a broader people-pleaser of a Druce sketch, a good gateway sketch for getting into Jack. But like many of us, Jack is someone you can tell has seen way too much comedy and he needs an odder and meatier sketch concept to get him laughing. Ideas such as a Mrs Doubtfire movie review that asks “Why did they have to make her so hot?”, a documentary on a tech company that feeds dogs to other dogs and podcasters deciding who the NBA GOAT is based entirely on what the players do in their dreams. Jack also has a spectacular standup comedy special called Rat Paradise.

2. Comedy Bang Bang – Bob Ducca’s list of ailments

After love and food, Comedy Bang Bang is the third greatest joy of existence. It’s a podcast where host Scott Aukerman interviews one real person (celebrities are back!) and two or three guests who are stupid characters. It is just a bunch of comedy people, playing with each other, making each other laugh. It’s the best. I laugh more at this podcast than anything else.

This is the clip I turn to every time I’m supposed to be writing comedy and my mind is mush from looking at computers and/or parenting. Its character Bob Ducca (played by Seth Morris) listing the endless problems with his failing body. For me this is pure comedy. It’s just silly word combinations and imagery. Best of all, it is completely meaningless.

Also, I just love that a lot of the CBB guys are now over 50 – it’s nice to know silliness doesn’t just fade away with age.

3. Jena Friedman’s interview with John McAfee

I’ve loved Jena Friedman ever since I heard about her Edinburgh fringe show called American Cunt on the Comedian’s Comedian podcast. She has a bunch of great Conan sets, she’s a former producer on The Daily Show and one of the best joke writers I’ve ever seen.

In this clip, you really get to see just how good she is as she interviews the now deceased computer programmer/US presidential candidate John McAfee in his compound, surrounded by armed security and charmingly mocking him to his face.

4. Casey Frey’s Scroception

This one took me a watch and a half to fully grasp what was going on, but I feel that difficulty makes it so rewatchable. I don’t know much about Frey, but he comes across as effortlessly funny and one of his sketches has apparently innovated how music videos are made. But look at this sketch: it’s so minimalistic and his performance is so good. It’s maybe one of the best sketches of all time.

5. Laura Davis – Bisexual?

I remember a late-night show I was once hosting with my friend Pat Burtscher and there were two disruptive ladies in the crowd who were on a hen night. Laura was up next and I don’t know if anyone was actually physically holding them back, but I could see this “Let me at ’em!” intensity building inside. When we called Laura up on stage, it was like a rottweiler breaking its chain to tear apart an assailant. Laura is so funny and intense on stage – there’s no topic too dark they can’t handle. Laura does tragedy very well. If you’re ever in a city where they’re doing a show, make it a priority to go see it.

6. Tim Heidecker – Tim’s Kitchen Tips

For my money, and I don’t have much, Tim is probably the best comedy performer possibly ever. Some might watch this and not see it as comedy, and I feel that’s probably where the comedy is. Something about how his line between mockery and being genuine is so thin that it particularly highlights the fakeness of people in the real world. I think that’s it. But I don’t know. I just love him and he has made so much work, with his On Cinema universe, old Tim and Eric stuff, his album about drinking piss with the Yellow River Boys, it would take a lifetime to get through.

7. Werner Herzog on languages

This is simply one of a thousand clips of Herzog I could post. Tim Heidecker uses a wafer-thin line between comedy and reality, but Herzog simply is a comedy character. He is so committed to the bit, that he is the bit. Also, listening to him speak is so inspiring – he makes me want to create stuff, whether he’s on the BBC arguing that he’s not a film-maker or him admitting he makes up facts for his documentaries.

8. Xavier Michelides’ Bunnings videos

When I first started standup, Xavier was my comedy crush. He’s a fantastic standup, but he comes from an improv background so his jokes are full of characters and scene work. I love that he’s found a big audience with these Bunnings faceswap videos. If you like it, there’s a lot more where that came from.

9. Jimmy Carr’s ‘darkest jokes’

I’ve always liked Jimmy Carr’s one-liners. But I guess like all comedians, after years of watching them, you know their moves and the jokes no longer surprise you.

But this bit feels like performance art. To be one of the biggest comedians in the world, with all the writers money can buy, then build up with such believable genuineness how edgy you’re about to be, and then reveal these tepid molestation and 9/11 gags we’ve all heard thousands of times. It’s a spectacular swing and a miss. I genuinely don’t know if he did this intentionally, but it’s my favourite bit of comedy he’s done since Carrot in a Box.

10. Andy Matthews – The Ballad of Mitchell Bert

I have to be honest, Andy is my comedy husband. Like a lot of the people on this list, he is dangerously underappreciated. He’s funny in a prewritten context and off the dome. In a just world he would be our almighty dictator crushing us every day with his hilarious iron comedy fists. Or at the very least he’d be financially stable. He’s written kids books, written jokes for Shaun Micallef, hosted radio shows. He can do anything, as shown by this bush poem he wrote about a farmer playing StarCraft.

• Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall is on X and Instagram and you can hear him on the Two in the Think Tank podcast with Andy Matthews.