With her mother and brother (pictured), Emma Rosenthal ’18 (at left) built @ItsTheRosenthals, a slice-of-life comedy brand that now has 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 838,000 on Instagram.
After graduating as a double major in media and communication and theatre, Emma Rosenthal ’18 entered a master’s program for comedy screenwriting in Chicago. The final semester of the two-year program was supposed to take place in Los Angeles — and then the pandemic hit. She found herself at home with her mom, Robin, and her brother, Sam. Like millions of other people, they discovered TikTok and started posting. Unlike millions of other people, a video they created went viral — a video of Robin ranting over a puzzle.
“We looked at the three of us and said, ‘Emma’s got the comedy writing and editing background, Sam’s got the business side of things, and Robin is a born-to-be star,’” Emma recalls. “We’ve got a dream team here.”
The three built @ItsTheRosenthals, a slice-of-life comedy brand that now has 1.7 million followers on TikTok and 838,000 on Instagram. The channels are successful enough that they’re Emma’s full-time job. The Rosenthals’ most viral videos — filmed at the grave of Robin’s husband and Emma and Sam’s dad, Mark, who died of a heart attack in 2010 — have been covered by USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and NBC’s “TODAY Show.”
“A lot of people don’t talk about [grief] when they’ve lost a loved one. I think that we’ve shown people that the best thing you can do to honor your loved one is to talk about them.”
Muhlenberg Magazine: How did the cemetery videos come about?
Emma Rosenthal ’18: For Father’s Day 2021, a day that’s usually sad, we decided, “Let’s go get dad’s favorite food, and stop by the cemetery, and go on a hike.” And we were like, “Where are we gonna eat this food? Let’s just have a picnic at the cemetery.” Since we were already making content, we thought, “Let’s film a little.” At one point, my mom throws a French fry at the grave and says, “Here, Mark, have a fry” — which turned out to be an iconic line. I remember my mom said to us, “Do you guys think we got anything for TikTok?” And my brother and I were like, “Probably not.” Then I watched the footage later, and I was like, “Oh, yes we did.” Once we posted that video and saw how many people it resonated with, we were like, “Okay, we can really dive into who we are and peel back a couple more layers to our family.”
A still from one of the family’s most popular videos, a Father’s Day “pool party”
MM: How are grief and comedy connected for you?
ER: When I was 14, I found joy after my dad died in watching stand-up comedy. That was what drew me to comedy originally. I wanted to be the person to make somebody else laugh and bring them out of their grief, and that is what we’ve done. The messages that we get from people are completely overwhelming. The amount of people who have said “this is the first time I’ve smiled since my dad died” or “my mom would have loved this” … it has normalized grief, and grief should be normalized. A lot of people don’t talk about it when they’ve lost a loved one. I think that we’ve shown people that the best thing you can do to honor your loved one is to talk about them. There are very few people still in my life who knew my dad, but one of the most amazing things for me is that millions of people know my dad’s name.
MM: What does your mom think of her newfound fame?
ER: She absolutely loves being recognized. She loves when people come up to her. It’s a new career that she never expected. And I never expected to be in business with my family or doing what I’m doing right now at all. This has been the absolute most fun thing for my mom. She says it’s really special, and I agree, that the three of us get to see each other so often, and that we work together and we talk every day.
