Joey Salads
Joseph Saladino is an American YouTube personality and prankster from New York City. His main channel, Joey Salads, has a total of 500 million video views and 2.5 million subscribers.[1][2]
Joey Salads | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Born | Joseph Saladino New York City, New York, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Occupation | YouTube personality |
Website | joeysalads |
YouTube information | |
Channel | |
Years active | 2012–present |
Genre | Comedy |
Subscribers | 2.5 million |
Total views | 500 million |
Personal life
Saladino grew up in Prince's Bay, Staten Island, New York City.[3][4] His former boss, the manager of a local pizzeria, has stated that Saladino "tweaked operations" to force the restaurant to run more efficiently.[1]
Saladino attended classes at the College of Staten Island, but claims to have "learned nothing" there and dropped out to pursue his YouTube career.[3][4] He was removed from social media platform Twitter in May 2020. A spokesperson from Twitter stated, “the account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of our platform manipulation and spam policy.”[5]
Career
YouTube
Saladino registered the Joey Salads YouTube account in 2012, and uploaded roughly one video per week. Many of his early videos were Jackass-style pranks,[3] though his content became more political following Donald Trump's bid for President in 2016.[1] He has described his videos as "edgy" and "dumb pranks" made to entertain.[6]
Saladino has admitted to staging pranks on more than one occasion.[7] He has been criticized for faking his prank and social experiment videos, as well as for promoting a narrative that portrays African Americans as violent.[8] In his video "Black people don't like Trump", published in 2016, Saladino leaves a car with Donald Trump campaign stickers in a mostly African American neighborhood. Then several African Americans appear, break into the car, and break its windows. After receiving backlash from critics including h3h3Productions for misportraying black Americans,[9] Saladino admitted the video was staged with actors and apologized.[10]
Congressional campaign
In 2019, despite having no professional political experience, Saladino began campaigning for the Republican primary in New York's 11th congressional district, which encompasses Staten Island and a small section of Brooklyn.[7] His campaign raised a total of $66,704.22 during this time.[11][12] Saladino withdrew his candidacy on December 13, 2019,[13][14] and stated his endorsement for fellow Republican candidate Joe Caldarera.[14] He has been accused of running to boost his public profile.[15]
Saladino was incorrectly identified as attending the "Unite The Right" protest at Charlottesville after a photo of him wearing a swastika armband began circulating on Twitter. Saladino was in Jamaica during the event, and the image was taken from a prank video he had uploaded to YouTube months beforehand.[16][17][18]
He filed a formal complaint against congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in response to the congresswoman blocking him on Twitter, citing a ruling that prevents elected officials from censoring speech on public forums.[19][20][21]
References
- Kelly, Makena (July 11, 2019). "How Joey Salads could meme his way into Congress". The Verge. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "Joey Salads's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Marantz, Andrew. "Joey Salads Gets Out the Vote". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "Controversial YouTube prankster Joey Salads folding congressional bid". silive. December 13, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "Joey Salads permanently suspended by Twitter". The Daily Dot. May 12, 2020. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- Burch, Sean (August 16, 2017). "Trump Fan Misidentified as Charlottesville Protester Speaks Out About Death Threats, Lost Business". TheWrap. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "Controversial YouTube 'personality' Joey Salads running for Congress". NewsComAu. August 1, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Sommer, Will (May 3, 2019). "Joey Salads, YouTube Star Famous for Racist Pranks, Launches Congressional Bid". The Daily Beast. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- "How Pranksters Are Ruining Society..." YouTube. October 18, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- Wendling, Mike (October 19, 2019). "'Black people don't like Trump' video was staged". BBC. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- thewritingbum (July 24, 2019). "Far-right trolls are getting paid to help Joey Salads run for Congress". The Daily Dot. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "SALADINO FOR CONGRESS - committee overview". FEC.gov. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "Joey Saladino". Ballotpedia. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Adams, Rose. "Controversial Youtuber ends bid for congressional seat". Brooklyn Paper. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Chávez, Aída (October 11, 2019). "Twitter Tips the Scale Toward Incumbents by Refusing to Verify Primary Challengers". The Intercept. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Kaser, Rachel (September 28, 2017). "The consequences of online vigilantism". The Next Web. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Victor, Daniel (August 14, 2017). "Amateur Sleuths Aim to Identify Charlottesville Marchers, but Sometimes Misfire". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Sommer, Will (September 16, 2019). "MAGA Heads Have a New Scheme: Running for Congress". The Daily Beast. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- "YouTube Star Turned Congressional Candidate Joey Salads Sues AOC For Blocking Him On Twitter". Porter Medium. July 9, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Paul, Deanna. "Ocasio-Cortez faces lawsuits for blocking Twitter critics after appeals court ruling on Trump". Washington Post. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
- Mays, Jeffery C. (July 10, 2019). "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Sued for Blocking Critics on Twitter". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 9, 2020.