Sep 5, 2021, RT.com
-by Eva K Bartlett
They walk among us, and apparently proliferate on social media: narcissists who will do seemingly anything for a like or a click. Luckily YouTuber and comedian Joey B Toonz is here to help us all look and laugh.
Recently I had a rude awakening to something that was inexplicably trending worldwide. Seeing the tweet of a comedian and social commentator I follow, I learned of the bizarre ‘milk crate challenge’. While many people around are struggling to get by, or are under lockdown, a surprisingly significant number of people were filming themselves trying to walk over a pyramid of milk crates.
Being generally oblivious to such time-wasting and stupendously idiotic fads, I decided to speak with the guy whose tweet brought it to my attention.
Joey Borelli, or as he is known on social media, Joey B Toonz, is an American comedian, illustrator, animator. Before starting his social commentary, he worked in the film industry, and toured film festivals with his comedy-based animated shorts.
In recent years, he started doing scathing critiques of some of the most bizarre and narcissistic trends and people on social media.
I came across him sometime last year, stumbling upon his hilarious videos highlighting the narcissism so prevalent on social media platforms nowadays, a series titled ‘Narcissists and social media’.
During our conversation, he explained his drive to do social commentary.
“There has just been non-stop idiocracy happening. We’re living in a comedy goldmine right now. I’m basically trying to highlight the idiocracy of what is going on in the world right now, saying some of the stuff that we accept as normal is the problem.”
I, myself, am not on TikTok, so have remained blissfully unaware of the insanity that reigns there. But Joey B is acutely aware.
“I discovered TikTok two years ago. I said to myself, what the hell is this?” he said, noting not only the narcissism prevalent on the platform, but also the general lack of talent or creativity of some extremely popular “influencers.”
“These kids are twirling their arms around, but anybody could do this. It’s not like these people are salsa dancing or doing some kind of complex ballet routine. And they’re getting sponsors and they’ve got millions of followers. Meanwhile, there’s a guy painting like Leonardo da Vinci and he’s got 300 followers.”
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