Cape Town - Senegalese Khabane “Khaby” Lame now has the most followers on short-form video hosting service TikTok, with 142.8 million, the Guinness World Records official site confirmed in a statement on Thursday.
Happy flight 🤣✈️ pic.twitter.com/GwUgvGwP8l
The 22-year-old silent comedian surpassed Charli D’Amelio (USA), who has held the record since March 2020.
Khaby’s parodies of so-called ‘life-hacks’ have racked up millions of views and propelled him to worldwide fame after losing his job as a factory worker at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the official site with ultimate record-breaking facts and achievements wrote:
“With national lockdowns in place, Khaby created his TikTok account as a way to cure the boredom of being stuck indoors.
Short and simple videos = contributed to @KhabyLame 's internet fame. Shorter #videos drive #engagement, spark curiosity and redirect audiences to content within the longer video. The new generation of content creators have mastered this principle pic.twitter.com/AF1yAKPKjm
— Snackable AI (@SnackableAI) June 10, 2022
Khaby was forced to move back into his parent’s home in Turin, Italy.
The comedy star moved to Chivasso, Italy, with his family when he was a year old.
His first videos featured himself dancing, watching video games and using the app’s various filters, though he didn’t receive many views.
That all changed in November 2020 when one of Khaby’s videos went viral.
Delighted to meet my 🇸🇳 compatriot @KhabyLame today. Great to have your support on #FIFAGreenCard for the Planet initiative. pic.twitter.com/LMO54Ir03c
According to the Guinness World Records site, in response to another user’s needlessly complicated life-hack video, Khaby silently demonstrated a simpler solution to the problem. With his now-iconic hand gestures and stare of disapproval, Khaby had found a winning formula.
In 2021, the young TikToker became the first person in Europe and the second person in the world to reach 100 million followers on the popular short-form videos application.
16-year-old Charli D'Amelio became the first TikTok user to cross the 100 million subscriber mark in November 2020.
IOL