If you post a rude comment about Carissa Codel’s appearance, there’s a real chance she’ll read it — right back to you, on camera.
After being hit with a wave of nasty remarks about how she looks, Codel, a Missouri news anchor for CBS affiliate KOLR (Ozarks First), decided to flip the script. She launched a video series where she reads these comments out loud in her polished anchor voice, and it’s now taken off across social media.
She debuted the series in August, standing in front of a screen showing comments like “shawty obese” and “no oink oink oink” while delivering them as though they were part of a regular newscast. The clips are shared on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where she has already racked up more than 1 million likes.
“Honest opinion, touch up the bangs, lose 15 to 20 lbs. Go get ‘em,” Codel reads in the very first installment, posted on Aug. 17. “Now that fills a frame,” she continues, moving on to the next insult.
Referencing another jab, she jokes, “As you guys can see from this graphic here, pig emoji.”
“Built for breeding,” she reads at the end of that video, before adding her own sign-off: “Tonight at 5.” The punchline sparks about 10 seconds of laughter from Codel and someone off-camera.
Since then, she has kept the series going under the title “Reading Viewer Comments,” now up to 14 parts. The most recent installment, posted on Dec. 1, pulled in more than 2 million views and 200,000 likes on TikTok alone.
For Halloween, Codel created a special themed edition. She dressed up as Sabrina Carpenter — a celebrity she’s often compared to — and only read comments that mentioned the pop star, whether they were digs or compliments.
“Guys, when did Sabrina Carpenter eat Sabrina Carpenter?” she reads in the video, wearing her costume and holding an espresso martini. Later, after reading, “If Sabrina Carpenter had a bakery,” she jokes, “My mom is going to be like, ‘Carissa, you cannot post this.’ ”
In a statement, Codel explained what pushed her to start the now-viral series.
“I started making those videos after I got a few comments on one of my reports. I personally thought they were hilarious and showed how often women in this field are scrutinized for their appearance. I wanted my video reading the comments to stand out, so that’s where the newscaster voice came in,” she said.
“I feel like we can all hear how silly troll comments sound when they’re read out loud,” she added. “I never thought that they would go as viral as they have, but I’m so thankful for the support. I truly feel grateful for the little community that’s been built.”
Codel also talked about the project on Attention Addiction, a podcast co-hosted by her mom, Codie, in the Nov. 2 episode.
She explained that she was “thinking ‘Okay, well. For my job, we have to be really, really big on social media, ‘cause that’s where news is going, right, it’s all going digital.’ ”
Her mom admitted that her first instinct was pure “mom fight mode.”
Upon seeing the comments, Codie said she thought, “‘Ah, I’m coming at you. Don’t talk about my kid like that.’ ” She continued, “So fight mode was happening inside of me, and I called her up, and she was like, ‘Oh no. This is great. This is great, because people just keep wanting to comment ‘cause they want to get mentioned.’ ”
Codel’s coworkers have joined in the support as well. Her fellow morning anchor, Angela Luna, posted a video where she hugs Codel and lip-syncs to a viral audio clip saying, “Scram! Leave her alone! She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
Luna captioned it: “When people leave weird comments for your co-anchor.”
