WATCH: South Dakota TikToker Shows Off the Funny Side Of Ranch Life

The last couple of years have seen an explosion in the popularity of short video comedy on social media platforms like TikTok. You'll find people making videos about almost anything.

Do you want to watch funny cats? Plenty of those. Car repair? You'll be ankle-deep in how-to videos. Just want to laugh and follow someone who has an interesting life? You're in luck, TikTok is full of those.

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South Dakota Farmer's Daughter Videos

Like South Dakota's own Ashley Binger. She is a self-described "farmer, rancher, daughter & mama." She makes super funny short videos about her life on a South Dakota cattle ranch.

People are loving her wit, fun attitude, and positive representation of rural life. There's a reason she says, "it’s tough bein the funniest person i know."  😃

Ashley has nearly two hundred thousand followers on social media with her videos are getting thousands of views each.

I have to give credit to my wife who found Ashley's videos and brought them to my attention. Neither of us are 'farm kids.' But we both grew up farm-adjacent in rural Nebraska towns and know a lot of farm families.

More her than me, she's an old hand at detasseling and setting up irrigation pipes. I have been on several farm field trips and more than a few...um...clandestine beverage-centric social gatherings out in fields and along dirt roads.

Comedy About Rural Life

What is really great about Binger's videos is the positive portrayal of rural South Dakota life. Like the best creators from any background, she mines her unique experience and presents it in ways that people from any background can find entertaining and relatable. That's a fancy way of saying we learn that we all are the same.

Larry the Cable Guy-style humor can be funny, but I love it so much more when comedy and entertainment about our midwestern lives is not the 'look how dumb country people are' type.

Creators like Binger and Charlie Berens, another social media star who makes very funny videos about life in the Midwest, give us the opportunity to laugh at ourselves and bond over our shared culture.

Berens may be in Wisconsin, but you feel him whether you live in Madison or Sioux Falls. I mean, we all love beer and cheese curds.

It's easy to fall for the tired trope about the internet being bad for society. But, the access that the internet provides allows talented local people to reach an audience in ways they never would have before.