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The Unseen Star of the Villa
On the Love Island USA, the man who is recording all the madness that the contestants are going through keeps laughing at himself. The three guys on the show are in a super-serious chatting quest, while the man is… Ninety percent of the time he is not taking it seriously.
The voice that the viewers hear and which sometimes gets really annoying because of the daily drama is the narration of Iain Stirling, a Scottish stand-up comedian who surprises the whole audience by becoming the show’s secret weapon. It’s him who is constantly doing the perfectly timed, crack-the-laugh-of-the-day commentary on the various things happening in the show from the back tattoos that question the taste of the person and the dry-humping that is so awkward that no one can understand what they are doing to the mosquitoes that are daring to interrupt the “private” moment.
In a show where everyone is posing to be influencers and showing their perfect abs, Stirling is the only one who has got the people’s attention and he has done it without ever being in the villa.
Finding the Funny Without Being Cruel
Before the Season 7 reunion, Stirling delved into his one-of-a-kind Love Island career, explaining how he went from ‘hot people being brought down a notch’ to finding ‘sympathy for the villains’ all the way to exposing ‘the hilarious sausage process’.
Stirling gave a candid reply when he was questioned if his typical method of highlighting the absurdity of the show was always his way or if he’d initially been more serious.
As he confessed, his first impulse as a young stand-up was basically to tear the show apart with pure and exuberant mockery. “Look at these idiots!” was the very first thing he came up with. However, he received some very wise advice from the show’s co-creator, Mark Busk-Cowley, who indicated the mistake in that viewpoint. “You can’t do that because it’s not nice,” he remembered being told, “but more importantly, it’s one tone. If you start there, where do you go from there? All you can do is be more aggressive and more cruel.”
The Art of Observational Comedy, Villa-Style
So, rather than just acting out like children, they came up with a clever, funnier way to work. “We’d look for those little shots in the back, those little moments that maybe people didn’t notice,” he told. The main objective was to identify with the audience, to become their voice from the inside. “And if someone’s got a ridiculous outfit on, or their own name tattooed on their back, it brings you in with the viewers when you say something. They’re like, ‘Thank God. I thought that was just me!’” It’s a manner that he really gets by saying “doing observational stand-up but about a really specific show.”
He admits that at the beginning of the UK version, their antics were heavily restricted. They wanted to jest like, “Oh, the challenges are terrible. You should switch over to Comedy Central right now, there’s quite a good program on there,” but knowing they were unable to do so. Well, the challenges of this season were indeed something such as a dairy farm-themed event where the contestants spat milky fluid down each other’s throats and another which dressed the cast like sexy lumberjacks and had them gyrate on a log-shaped see-saw.
“You obviously can’t say that,” he chuckled. “But in the US, we were actually the opposite – they liked what the UK show did, so they brought us over to their side.”
The Golden Rule of Roasting
In a place where every recoupling is dealt with as if it was something very important, Stirling’s role as the voice of reason is very necessary. And he had a golden rule that was the foundation of his every ridiculous remark.
“You’re never mean to someone,” he said, “but you can be mean to what someone has done.” It is a comedic and very lighthearted way to handle comedy which does not target a group of people but rather focuses on the reaction of one particular person, which he sees as “free rein.”
Moreover, as the Stirling admits very jokingly, the contestants “doing the fun of beautiful people p[er]haps in the most annoy[ing] way makes me feel…good.” Obviously, the contestants, while in a sincere quest for love, are a veritable goldmine of comedic material.
It is a phrase that most viewers would agree with and, as the interviewer pointed out, “they are able to handle it.”
He is the question that how is it possible for him to be simultaneously the witty observer of two different countries?
For the very first time, he is both UK and US versions of the show narrator at the same time. “A bit crazy,” he said, “but quite a nice way to do it.” “I am the kind of person who would rather smash it all out in one big lump,” he said, explaining that the intense, concurrent schedule actually allows him to have a bit of a summer.
A Mad Dash: Juggling Family, Stand-Up, and the Villa
What does the voice of the villa’s mad dash through his day actually look like? To describe it in one word: hectic. Every day without fail, he is in the booth from 12 p.m. to 3 a.m.
He is, however, not a total shut-in. He successfully pulls out a very important halfway break to have dinner with the family and put his daughter to bed. In a move that he admits that many people would consider “crazy,” he often takes that break to go into the city secretly and perform his stand-up routine. It is not a matter of choice for him; it is a must. “I have to do stand-up,” he repeated, “if not, I’ll go completely mad.”
Indeed, a comedian can’t be solely fed on the melodrama of Huda and Jeremiah; he needs a venue to joke about something new—to make fun of anything. So, is the villa madness his cause to have an outburst at home? Is he dashing to his wife post-shift to talk about the latest shocking breakup?
The All-Knowing Voice of the Villa
Actually, no, not at all. He even admits that this was the first time the American version got so big that it started showing up in his wife’s social media feed.
His wife, ex-host of Love Island UK Laura Whitmore, was getting so curious that she was sending him messages like, “What’s this ‘mamacita’ thing?”—a reference to the now-famous moment when Huda told Nic that she was a single mother and he… totally got it wrong.
Interestingly, Stirling sees his separation from the rest of the world as vital for both his mental health and his work quality. He has even invented a complete different personality for the voiceover: a character who is ridiculously and totally enthralled by the islanders and their every move, but only inside the villa space.
“If he met any of them in real life, outside the context of the villa, he’d have no idea who anyone was,” he explained, because for that character, “the villa’s all that matters.” He loved that he was that completely separate, all-knowing “voice that only knows what’s happening in that villa” and that was why he was so good at it.
The Omnipotent, All-Knowing Voice
So what is the actual job description that the disembodied voice of Love Island has? Stirling himself explains in simple words the task as “Omnipotent, totally ignorant to any external factors.”
But what is the method of achieving such a godlike view? It is a competition with time. Stirling with his crew have to see a version of the episode that is as near as the final product in the human way, and he spins his comedic gold on the spot. He claims that in an ideal world, he would complete his work by 7 a.m., but that would scrap his night’s rest.
What if we talked about the first episodes, the islanders getting acquainted with each other? Are the conversations so lifeless as they show in the series? Stirling says that conversing in a dull fashion is just a brilliant insight of the viewer experience, and in fact, they were not really bored with the conversations. He supports his point by saying that conversations are boring because audience hasn’t emotionally invested yet.
Imagine: at the end of the season, you’ve got every word hanging on. But at the beginning of a new one, “it’s just two people you don’t know or care about having a chat.” He also asks us to give a little bit of support to them. “They have never been on TV,” he adds. “They have cameras everywhere, and they are in this new place.”
When a 10 Becomes a 6: The Villa’s Ultimate Mind Game
In addition, he provides a curious psychological perspective on why those first conversations can be awkward to the bone. He understands it as people actually attempting to create new versions of themselves right then and there.
“For example, I really find it puzzling that each and every one of the villa people, approximately, were the best-looking one in their college, the best-looking one in their town, the most attractive one in their state, some of them,” he said.
Their whole persona revolves around being “‘The good looking one’ — that’s their thing.”
Only then do they become the villa residents, the place where everyone is a 10 out of 10. “And then suddenly they’re at the villa, and there could be the least attractive boys amongst them,” he added.
“And that must be such a mindf**k,” he said, summing voices of internal commotion that come to mind. At that moment, they have to come to terms with a horrifying existential riddle: “‘Okay. So, I’m not the good looking one. Then what am I?’”
From Cringe to Cowboys: Finding the Comedy Gold
And as they franticly look for their new personality, they have to think of the big questions themselves: “Am I humorous?”
It is pure, unfiltered, and unintentional that this is going to be a people scrambling for their new personality. “Nothing is more cringy than the first date,” Stirling said. “And in this new place where you don’t know who you are, you are having a first date.” Still, things are a bit awkward at the beginning no wonder. However, as he wisely remarked, “it always gets there.”
So, who was his favorite islander to narrate this season? For Stirling, it is not so much about the person but rather their job. He has spotted a big difference between the two versions UK and US.
In the UK, islanders talk about anything but themselves, quite ironically, they give their names, where they come from, and what they do for a living. Meanwhile, in the US, “they are more into the past i.e. where they are from e.g. if they are Scots or cowgirls which is not good for puns and gags.”
His comedic sweet spot? A contestant with a funny job.
“The moment the show has a cowboy, I’m just totally thrilled,” he admitted. “An elevator salesperson, that would be perfect for me.” With both cowboys Taylor and elevator saleswoman Olandria, he was able to score this season.
Actually, this is the only thing his team does in the way of real prep before the season is kicked off. “We’ll just get the jobs of everyone and write as many jokes about their jobs as we can for the pre-season.”
The Makings of a Compelling TV Personality
One of the key things that make a person great in a show such as “Love Island” is the very same quality that you find in the most legendary characters of a sitcom. All of the most loved figures in the history of sitcoms have something in common they are all built around a lifelike, but not very obvious, a quirky kind of flaw. The ending of most sitcoms happens when the main character decides to face and understands his or her flaw.
On the other hand, the most remembered “Love Island” characters are also very close to the main fictional heroes of sitcom, i.e., they have a similar core weakness. At first watching them repeating the same mistakes might be annoying. But after a few times of seeing that same pattern, that irritation can turn into an instant of empathy. You can find yourself thinking, “I was in that exact situation.” This, in turn, is when you recognize that their narrative is a reflection of your journey.
Huda could be considered as a model example. In the beginning of her season, many viewers reported that they could not relate to her in any way. However, as the show progressed, people realized that her inflexibility was actually due to her being very principled and upright.
That’s when you felt a genuine change rather among female audience, who started to experience this collective epiphany: “Oh my God, I am Huda.” It’s at that time of recognizing your own past behavior in a contestant that true affection starts to develop. We all have gone through that experience, just that probably not in front of millions of people.
Then there is a case of Amaya, who is blessed with a nonpareil, spontaneous comedic talent of distorting her words. Her skill of turning and inaccurately stating words is something that can hardly be achieved. Imagine putting a group of professional comedy writers in a closed room for a year and they will still not be able to write what she improvise in a fraction of a minute.
A Professional’s Perspective on the Spectacle
I can’t take a stand and say that I adore it every single year. My zeal is no doubt a thing of fits and starts. But the last two or three seasons have been so brilliant that they are almost like the show turning me into a fan of the whole phenomenon.
I certainly had some tough times with the show, but when I look at the large scale, its impact on my life has been stunning. It has even made me a reality TV fan. I was averse to it all, but now I binge on the ‘Housewives’ and ‘Selling Sunset’ is my new addiction.’
However, the truth seems to be that I am not really a fan of ‘Love Island’ in the sense that I don’t watch it just for fun. As a great job as it is, it, however, changes the way I see it. When a very dramatic situation is unfolding on the screen, my mind is elsewhere.
I am doing the completely opposite work of spotting an insect in the background that I can jokingly call my on-set pet. You don’t get to enjoy as much of the pure entertainment when you watch it through a professional filter.
