Jimmy Rees making everyone giggle in his re-invention as a viral comedy star

Dressed in colourful pyjamas and talking in his high-pitched screech to owl puppets like Hoot, Hootabelle and Hootogadget, Rees was beamed into thousands of households each evening on TV show Giggle and Hoot on ABC Kids.

He was even described as a "sex symbol" by some mums.

In one of the great entertainment re-inventions, Rees said goodbye to Giggle and Hoot in 2020 to focus on becoming an adult comedian through a series of self-produced online videos.

Rees' witty comments about state border restrictions during COVID (Meanwhile in Australia) caught fire.

Then followed his Brighton Ladies skits and POV (point of view) videos where a "sassy" check-out assistant scanned through a long list of observations relating to specific age-groups or vocations.

It was simple comedy gold.

Today the 35-year-old father-of-three is more popular than ever, boasting 1.3 million TikTok followers and 157,000 on YouTube.

Rees' "What SHOULD be on the test to become a nurse" video has been viewed 21.6 million times on TikTok. And most of his viewers wouldn't even know Rees once danced and sung with a bunch of puppet owls.

"I thought it would take a lot longer for me to prove to the world that I was funny, or I could do something different," Rees tells Weekender.

"It happened really quickly and people started enjoying my videos.

"What I found really is if I've got a couple of million followers across all the channels, the vast majority of those people wouldn't have seen Giggle and Hoot, that's the point."

Initially Rees was concerned about being typecast as a children's entertainer when he quit Giggle and Hoot after 11 years.

"Initially everyone was like, 'You know what Jimmy Giggle is doing now?'," he says.

"But as time goes on less people know me as Jimmy Giggle and now know me for what I'm doing now and they're shocked to learn I used to dress up in pyjamas and talk to a puppet owl for a living."

Last year Rees took the step from the world of online creating to performing in front of live audiences.

It wasn't completely foreign territory. Rees had previously toured Giggle and Hoot around the country and he performed in amateur theatre and pantomime shows growing up.

His popular videos such as POV and The Guy That Decides Everything contain quick edits and multiple characters, so Rees says bringing the show to the stage was a challenge.

"I wanted to try to keep the pace of that, but do it live on stage," he says.

"Last year I managed to do that and it was so funny just having all the props on the table. Trying to do it as quick as I could was actually funnier."

Rees is described as a "comedian", but it's a label that still sits awkwardly despite his massive online audience.

"Everyone says, 'So you're a comedian?' and I don't know if I put myself in that category," he says. "It's the definition, you know.

"In my mind a stand-up comedian is someone who has done those rooms where there's five people in it and they've gone to open-mic nights and worked their way up and they have a tight five minutes and an hour show and they write material and it's all the art of going from one story or joke to the other.

"All that art form is something I'm still learning."

While Rees' brand of comedy is targeted at adults, he maintains some barometers that applied to his days as Jimmy Giggle.

His satire can be cheeky, but it's never nasty and its devoid of the shock-and-awe gags that's become commonplace among many stand-up comedians.

Rees even beeps out swear words in his videos.

"I don't really find that intriguing, being controversial for the sake of it, or trying to push people's buttons and knowing that you're doing it," he says.

"I'm not that kind of person. When I think about it, there is a temptation to try to stand out from the crowd. I think that's why so many people try to do it.

"As I've found, you can make a decent living making videos online."

Jimmy Rees brings his Not That Kinda Viral Tour to Royal Theatre, Canberra (September 9); Wollongong Town Hall (September 15); Civic Theatre, Newcastle (September 17) and The Star, Gold Coast (October 1).