If Franz Kafka were to reconceive "The Metamorphosis" for our era, he might decide to ditch the novella in favor of a series of surreal TikToks — Gregor Samsa as eyes and mouth green-screened onto a picture of a roach jacked from the web.
Kafka is long gone. But thankfully, we have Kendria Bland, a Mississippi comedian who does a semiregular bit on TikTok about the travails of a pack of domestic roaches who like to party behind the refrigerator and sneak Popeyes when the humans aren't around. One defiant arthropod, Roachkeishiana, refuses to scuttle when the lights come on and crafts a wig out of hair she finds in the bathtub. "You know how many times I got stepped on?" she says with a haughty hair toss. "I'm still here."
The skits bring together a complex array of sight gags while winking at the tropes of 'hood films and sensationalist talk shows. But the production values couldn't be more lo-fi: Bland plays every role with different wigs and uses TikTok's editing tools to green-screen herself twerking on a kitchen table and fighting a pair of beetles. The crude special effects won't win her an Oscar, but on TikTok, perfection takes a backseat to wit.
