A Self-Made Star Shows One Way to Crack the Gen Z Code

A recent video by 21-year-old YouTube star Liza Koshy had her in mustache and wig to play a favorite character, the heavily accented Jet Packinski. She deadpanned silly answers to questions like “Favorite type of flower?” (“Gluten free”) and “How would you describe yourself?” (“Using adjectives”).

It was a parody of Vogue magazine’s 73 Questions video series with celebrities. Ms. Koshy’s parody has notched 18 million views—even more than the 16 million views racked up by a real Vogue episode with pop music superstar Taylor...