Queer comedian Cameron Esposito was Zoombombed with ‘the most hardcore pornography’ she had ever seen
Cameron Esposito. (Rich Polk/Getty Images for Point Foundation)
Queer stand-up comedian Cameron Esposito has revealed that she was Zoombombed with hardcore porn, before Zoombombing was even a thing.
Having just released her memoir Save Yourself, her book tour plans were stalled by the coronavirus pandemic, and so she has had to adapt to Zoom conferences instead.
She told The Daily Beast: “Not one of the things I’m currently doing for work is a skill set I had prior to like three weeks ago.”
But one of Esposito’s early book tour conferences, a panel with other queer memoir authors and around 500 LGBT+ fans, did not turn out as she expected.
She said: “I was on with a bunch of writers I really respect, 500 queer folks who were signed in from their couches and beds and I didn’t know about the default setting on Zoom that folks could share their screen.”
Before the term “Zoombombing” had even started to be used, Cameron Esposito said she was suddenly faced with “the most hardcore pornography” she had ever seen.
She added: “I could not figure out what was happening. And I broadcast that into hundreds of people’s homes.”
Esposito also speculated on how our new way of living during the COVID-19 pandemic could affect the comedy landscape.
She said: “I’m really curious how this time we’re living in now could potentially reorder things in the stand-up world.
“Because the internet has already democratised comedy. When I was coming up, stand-up was not a democracy… People that started on YouTube were really disparaged in the hardcore stand-up world.
“Because it was like, ‘F**k you. You have to go out there and earn your stripes by suffering on stage. You can’t jump the line by making videos.’
“That is no longer true. And right now, there is no live performance. That’s a massive shift in a decade.”
Last month, an LGBT+ activist and chef was Zoombombed while simply trying to give a cooking class for her community.
J Chong was providing simple, accessible cooking classes for people in self-isolation through the LGBT+ rights organisation Campaign for Southern Equality (CSE).
The Zoom meeting was soon flooded with newcomers, who began hurling homophobic and racist, anti-Asian slurs.
Chong sent a message to her followers: “If you hear hate or are around those who continue to project hate, be the one to call them out, think about your community, family members, loved ones… The world needs it right now. We are all in this together.”
