For two Utahns and millions of fans, it’s definitely a laughing matter

SALT LAKE CITY — Every day, thousands of people from across the globe turn to two Utahns for a laugh, but they’re not comedians — one is a yoga instructor and the other is a middle school teacher. They make people laugh by laughing themselves.

Sasha Bainson and Nate Holcomb met nine years ago in graduate school at the University of Utah. He remarked about her red braids.

“I think that’s literally the first thing I said. It’s like, ‘I love your braids,’” Holcomb said.

Very quickly, they became fast friends, self-described “platonic soulmates.”

“For some reason, we were meant to find each other. And we did,” Holcomb said.

“It was that first interaction hangout and where you were like — here’s my stuff, here’s my like trauma. You laid it all out,” Bainson said. “For me, that was huge, you know, because he was so open so instantaneously.”

They spent much of their free time together, some of it playing games — using their phones and online social media filters to decipher gibberish, unscramble words, guess Disney movies — and laughing about it, loudly.

“I loved that I could meet, I love that I met someone who could compete with me when it came to volume levels,” Bainson said.

“In a restaurant, we always ask for the corner table away from people,” Holcomb said. “To the outside years we come across as loud, but to us, we’re just passionate.”

They would record their games to share with family and friends on Instagram, and a year ago, posted a few videos on TikTok.

“We’re just being goofy and stupid and hysterical,” Holcomb said.

Literally overnight, they’d shared it with five million strangers, as well.

“(I posted) it April 5 at night or like April 4 at night. And then I woke up the next morning and we were already going viral,” Bainson said.

“I remember, like, five or six million (views) by the end of that first day,” Holcomb said.

Now, @SashaandNate, mostly videos of the two on a couch playing games and at the piano sight-reading music (badly), is a TikTok hit. Their most popular TikTok video has been viewed more than 30 million times, much of the credit going to their loud, long infectious laughter.

“I sound like a tea kettle. Hers is the most guttural,” Holcomb said.

“Guttural,” Bainson added at a time when, no doubt, that’s what people need to hear.

“Some of the first things people mentioned were the laughter, so I think people just needed to laugh,” Holcomb said.

@Kaitlynn wrote, “I choked on my Dr Pepper, and it went through my nostril.”

“My face hurts from laughing so hard!” Briguy1989 commented.

“Oh wow no words you 2 make my day better,” X Sammie X Coolin wrote.

“I think we are no exception. We are subject and fall into the same slum[p]s because of the perils of the world around us,” he said. “We have learned through experience just through each other, how true the statement, laughter is medicine, truly is.”

Many fans, though, are also drawn in by the obviously strong bond between the two.

“I WANNA HAVE A FRIENDSHIP LIKE THIS!” wrote P0mp0n kid.

“We love each other, and we love our relationship, and we’re so glad that other people now do,” Holcomb said.