Khabane Lame Is The Second Most Popular Person On TikTok —And He Never Says A Word
If you spend any amount of time scrolling on TikTok, you have probably come across Khabane Lame. With more than 120 million followers, Lame has become the second most followed TikToker in 2021, just after Charli D’Amelio. So what makes this guy so popular? His videos basically poke fun at common tasks and pranks making him not only relatable, but also hilarious. With his stone-faced expression and silence in all of his videos, it’s hard not to laugh.
The 21-year-old Senegalese-Italian TikToker found fame on the popular app after losing his job due to the pandemic. While searching for a new job, he downloaded the app and started to play around with it. He started out with the usual TikTok dances and video game skits, but then switched to making fun of common life hack videos found on social media.
Lame recently told CNN, “I came up with the idea because I was seeing these videos circulating, and I liked the idea of bringing some simplicity to it. The type of gesture came by chance, but the silence didn’t. I thought of a way to reach as many people as possible. And the best way was not to speak.”
His videos typically show a more difficult way to do a common task, with Lame then silently demonstrating an easier way. It’s absolute mocking at it’s finest, and in a super relatable way. His reaction to whatever “life hack” is being illustrated is probably the funniest part of it all. It’s his silence added with animated expressions that make him a household name.
In one of his most recent videos, he shows a bunch of house cats “parkouring” in a car, and then shows a simple solution when he picks up his dog and points to the open car window. In another popular video, he illustrates a challenge of funny opposite actions. And in yet another “simple task video” he illustrates what it’s like getting into the car after your sister drives it and moves the seat all the way up to the steering wheel. His expression and silence make it that much more hilarious. He hit the nail on the head with a simple concept that has since gone viral with no end in sight.
Lame’s first video was uploaded on March 15, 2020. Since that time, he’s made quite a name for himself with 120.4 million followers (and gaining magnitudes of new followers daily.) With more than 1.9 billion (yes, billion) likes, it’s clear to see that he’s the comedy relief most of us need to get through a complicated pandemic kind of life. But his popularity isn’t limited to only TikTok. He currently has more than 57 million followers on Instagram, and has an online store with his own merchandise called Khaby Shop. With no end in sight, it looks like there’s so much more fame and fortune headed Lame’s way with multiple partnerships and deals in the works.