Man Who Was Once Jobless Now Earns Millions Making Funny Videos Where He Does Not Say a Word
- Khaby Lame, a Senegalese young man, lost his job at a factory in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic
- Khaby started spending time on TikTok, and he has become a global sensation, despite never saying a word in his videos
- The young man who said his sole aim is making people laugh now makes good money and wants to buy his mother a house
A young man rendered jobless by the COVID-19 pandemic has beaten the odds to become one of the world's most recognisable TikTok stars.
Source: UGC
Born in Senegal, 21-year-old Khabane Lame, alias Khaby boasts over 100 million TikTok followers, yet he has never said a word in his videos.
Khaby, based in Italy, is the second most followed person on TikTok in Europe and became famous for reacting to other people's ridiculous videos.
The TikTok sensation, whose reactions have transcended language barriers, has amassed over 1.5 billion likes on his videos.
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Jobless
In a past interview with the New York Times, Khaby divulged that he worked in a factory but lost his job in 2020 because of the pandemic.
With lots of free time on his hands, Khaby started doing TikTok videos reacting to other creators’ content.
Khaby would react to videos of TikTokers going to extreme ends to perform simple tasks by doing the same task straightforwardly.
Despite his father urging him to look for another job, Khaby focused his energy on the social media platform it bore fruit.
Recently, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg commented a thumbs-up emoji on one of Khaby’s Instagram posts.
Making people laugh
According to Khaby, he did not start doing TikTok videos to become a celebrity.
“I got into it to make people laugh,” said Khaby, who cites Will Smith and Eddie Murphy as his idols.
Life in Italy
Khaby was born in Senegal but has been living in Italy since he was one. However, according to the online sensation, he does not have an Italian passport or citizenship.
“I don’t need a piece of paper to define myself as Italian,” he said.
Khaby further divulged that while black Italians like footballer Mario Balotelli have faced racism, he has never experienced it.
"I’ve never had such a problem. No one has ever dared insult me because we were a united group and have a lot of respect,” Khaby noted.
Rich
Courtesy of his TikTok videos, Ladbible estimated that Khaby is now worth over KSh 100 million.
The down to earth celebrity informed the New York Times that his dream is to buy his mother a house.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that a TikTok influencer headed online to share all the secrets to her success. Now her full-time job, Star Holroyd makes her money off the social media platform in four simple ways.
The young woman has an impressive 693,000 followers on the app, and over 25.5m likes altogether on her content.
She became popular last year after posting relatable videos about memories from school and certainly got people laughing after giving them an education in British slang words.
Source: Legit.ng
Joseph Omotayo (HOD Human-Interest) Joseph Omotayo has been writing for the human interest desk since 2019 and is currently the head of the desk. He graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, with a degree in Literature in English in 2016. He once worked for Afridiaspora, OlisaTV & CLR. He is a 2022/2023 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking fellow. He can be reached via: joseph.omotayo@corp.legit.ng.
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