To comedian Ben Gran, Facebook was a barren wasteland — a place to violate the sanctity of friendship. It was in this cyber space that the Newton native was reintroduced to the craft he began honing while preforming sketch comedy as a student at Newton Senior High School.

“I started writing jokes on Facebook,” Gran said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I was writing bitter, off-color jokes with the idea that I could alienate people so much they would de-friend me.”

But then came the hits. More and more, Gran’s jokes began to catch on.