Comedian Elyse Myers' TikToks Are As Real As It Gets

In Elite Daily’s Life Behind the Likes series, we talk to the people you know on the internet to find out who’s really behind the screens. In this piece, we talk with comedian Elyse Myers, whose authenticity keeps you laughing on TikTok.

What would you do if you met up with someone you matched with on a dating app and they proceeded to order 100 tacos at a Taco Bell drive-thru — and then asked you to pay? This is exactly the kind of ludicrous situation Elyse Myers has found (and continues to find) herself in. The 28-year-old comedian on TikTok is known for entertaining her 4.1 million followers with wacky yet relatable stories about awkward moments from her life.

It’s not just Myers’ seemingly endless supply of anecdotes that keep you glued to her TikTok account; it’s how she tells them. In a refreshingly stripped-down approach, Myers shows up on the app just as she does in real life, often sporting a comfy hoodie or baggy tee, a messy bun, and a coffee in hand to help fuel her tales. “There's a lot online and in life that’s so fast,” Myers tells Elite Daily. “I think people feel drawn to me because it feels like I'm just hitting pause through their screen and saying, ‘We're just going to sit for a minute. I'm going to tell you a story about my life, and then you can go back to all the craziness.’” She speaks earnestly in her TikToks, with a dry, deadpan tone. Straying from the app's abundance of effects, her only visual aids are a string of strategically placed emojis and GIFs, with personal photos making appearances from time to time.

I’m genuinely opening up my life to people to see all of the things — my family, music, storytelling, my love for reality TV, my ADHD — all of it.

Myers’ Coffee Talk videos are just as relatable as they are funny, whether she’s recounting her public speaking snafus (like when she quoted Forrest Gump for an assignment that called for her to pick a presidential quote) or navigating corporate email threads (she accidentally sent “I’m diseased” instead of “I’m deceased” in reply to a joke from her high-level managers at a global food service company).

Like many of us, she got into TikTok during the darkest parts of 2020 — but it was in October 2021 that she struck comedy gold with one of her Coffee Talk videos. It’s what most of the internet may know her for: her infamous bad date story in which she bought a man 100 tacos at a Taco Bell drive-thru (he forgot his wallet). When they drove back to his house to eat, he yelled “Let’s feast!” at the top of his lungs. His dad showed up, grabbed a taco, and asked if she wanted to see his studio; what followed was a very awkward silence, and then Myers left the house, with all of the remaining tacos — after all, she did buy them. As of March 2022, the video has 22.6 million views and 3.3 million likes.

The Taco Bell date story is characteristic of the friendly storytelling and quick wit that runs throughout her videos. It’s a winning combo — the video propelled her to 1 million followers in just a week and a half. “My fear of just being a flash in the pan kind of faded, and it was like, ‘Yes, I can continue to connect with people this way,’” she says of the moment.

Myers’ candor isn’t only about getting a laugh — she also speaks honestly about practicing positive self-talk, her anxiety, and ADHD. “I really want people to get a complete sense of who I am,” she says. “A lot of the common advice from people [about content creation] is to find your niche and then just stay there,” says Myers, who also films parodies, flexes her reality TV knowledge, and can even sing and play the guitar. “I’m genuinely opening up my life to people to see all of the things — my family, music, storytelling, my love for reality TV, my ADHD — all of it.”

Myers grew up playing instruments like viola and guitar, as well as practicing singing and songwriting. But despite her love of the arts, she decided to pursue web development instead, taking courses in October 2018 from Skillcrush Academy, an online coding school that trains women to work in the tech industry and other male-dominated fields. That same year she started a website design firm, Myers Web Development, and got married to her now-husband, Jonas. The year before they tied the knot, Myers had moved to Omaha, Nebraska (which she currently calls home), to be with her then-boyfriend after a seven-month long-distance relationship.

She didn’t post consistently on TikTok until a video of her son, August, went viral in summer 2021. “Introducing our 6 mo to our furniture because idk how to entertain babies,” she captioned the video, as August lays under an ottoman and then casually says his first word, “Mama.”

It feels like this world has opened up to me in such a way that, like, nothing is impossible now.

With that momentum behind her, she began posting short stories and “one-off sentences [she] thought were funny that lived in [her] head 24/7.” Her following steadily grew as viewers began to take notice of her dry humor and reassuring vibe.

After the Taco Bell video, the celebrity world took notice as well: She’s been featured on the Rachael Ray Show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest, and in Forbes. Myers says she found a close friend and mentor in comedian Leslie Jones. Reese Witherspoon even dueted Myers’ “Reese’s Toast” TikTok recipe. (Myers also films cooking videos where her instructions include steps like measuring chocolate chips “with your heart.”)

“I was honored. I lost my mind,” Myers says of the duet. When Witherspoon reached out to Myers afterward, she (in a moment of very relatable excitement) couldn’t help but tell the Oscar winner that she thought they’d make good friends — to which the star replied, “I think the best of friends.” Recalling the pinch-me moment, Myers laughs, “I just was like, ‘I'm done!’ It feels like this world has opened up to me in such a way that, like, nothing is impossible now.”

After juggling her website design firm and content creation for much of 2021, Myers pivoted to creating on TikTok full-time in December 2021. While she sells merch (including “absolutely not” tees and hats, a nod to one of her catchphrases) and recently launched a Patreon, the majority of her income comes from brand sponsorships, of which Myers says she’s highly selective. She’s worked with Peacock, Dunkin’, Hulu, and (of course) Taco Bell, among others.

Because this is how Myers pays the bills, she finds it hard sometimes to distinguish work from play on TikTok. She says a typical Coffee Talk video can take up to three hours just to edit, while shorter ones, such as her a cappella songs, take about an hour. But that’s not where her job ends — she also spends hours a day responding to comments and checking her DMs, both on TikTok and Instagram, where she has a cool 1.1 million followers.

“I've really committed to focusing on giving attention back to the people that have given so much of their day to me,” Myers says. “But I have to be really clear with myself about what is work and what isn't. Because while it’s fun, it is work, and I have to just let it breathe for a bit so I can enjoy my own life and be present where I am.”