Khaby Lame: Content Creator Rises from Joblessness to Earning Six Figures through Viral TikTok Videos
- Khaby Lame, a young man, lost his job at a factory in 2020 due to the pandemic
- Khaby started spending time on TikTok, and he has become a global sensation, despite never saying a word in his videos
- Khaby, who said his sole aim is making people laugh, now makes good money and wants to buy his mother a house
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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 Khaby 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 Ghc5.5 million.
The down to earth celebrity informed the New York Times that his dream is to buy his mother a house.
YEN.com.gh earlier reported that, Aunty Ernestina Ohenewaa, a Ghanaian woman who sells at the market, has become the newest sensation on TikTok, an app that is mostly used by teenagers.
The woman has been cracking ribs online with her creative videos in which she does lip-synch over hilarious comments made by popular people.
When she is not lip-synching, Ernestina goes on the dancefloor to display her skills which equally stir laughter on the famous app.
Source: YEN.com.gh
Linda Anderson Linda is a graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in 2017 where she studied Chemical Engineering. She made an interesting career pivot from a Quality Control Officer to a Human Interest Editor in pursuit of doing what she loves and currently has close to 2 years experience in Journalism. Linda believes in kindness, respect, and empathy towards all and is firmly on board to help Yen.com.gh achieve all its set targets and goals.
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