Khaby Lame, a Senegalese living in Italy has now become the most famous social media influencer in Italy.
By hitting 24.3 million Instagram followers, the former factory worker last night beat Chiara Ferragni who has been the most famous latest fashion, lifestyle and beauty trends Instagrammer in the country.
Khaby Lame’s TikTok account is the third most-followed TikTok account in the world paving his way to becoming the most famous influencer.
His videos became known for being short comedy skits where he sarcastically points people who complicate simple tasks for no reason at all.
Without uttering a word, Lame manages to point out sarcastically at very simple ways of doing things which people apparently ignore, choosing to complicate life by going for the most complicated ways.
Mr Lame, who was a factory worker in the northern Italian industrial town of Chivasso lost his job in March 2020 during Covid-19 lockdown.
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During that period he spent many hours daily posting videos to TikTok under the name Khaby Lame.
Samir Chaudry, a founder of The Publish Press, a newsletter covering the creator economy, told New York Times that the secret to Mr. Lame’s success was his universal exasperated everyman quality. “His content almost debunks or mocks the overproduced trends that happen across social media, whether it’s life hacks or other things like that,” Mr. Chaudry said. “He almost represents this authenticity over production. I think that’s very appealing at scale to people, this feeling of someone not trying too hard, it’s something that feels authentic.”
While many media outlets erroneously refer to Mr Lame as an Italian, the young man is one of the more than 1.5 million children and young people living in Italy without Italian citizenship.