Ben Smith Remembers YOBA At BuzzFeed

Interesting.

This is also our impression of him. We used almost these exact same words to describe Baked Alaska in our podcast yesterday. He is nothing but an attention whore who wants to be famous.

New York Times:

“He fit in as well as anyone did at our Los Angeles studio, a place full of ambitious misfits with an unusual gift. They knew how to make web videos people wanted to watch.

His real name was Anthime Joseph Gionet, though he preferred others. His value to BuzzFeed was clear: He’d do anything for the Vine, the short video platform that had a brief cultural moment before being crushed by Instagram and Snapchat in 2017.

Once, he poured a gallon of milk on his face and a clip of it drew millions of views, back when mostly harmless stunts amused millions of American viewers on the platform. …

And so the language I heard from Mr. Gionet, now 33, on his livestream last Wednesday was familiar. “We’ve got over 10,000 people live, watching, let’s go!” he said excitedly. “Hit that follow button — I appreciate you guys.” …

Still, it’s not clear what Mr. Gionet actually believes, if anything. And really, I’m not sure I care. …”

YOBA’s natural calling in life is clowning himself. He will do anything for the content including running into the middle of the Capitol Siege. He is not a “white supremacist” or a “terrorist.”