Johnny Bananas denied sending a Gorilla emoji tweet to former Big Brother winner Taylor Hale, which caused severe backlash on social media.
Last week, several X messages went on The Challenge winner’s X account, which may have been attempting to drive engagement ahead of Bananas’ new cryptocurrency venture.
Some messages mentioned or criticized reality TV shows, including CBS’s Survivor and Big Brother.
“That yellow fruit man pinned a tweet to his profile at 8AM saying he was looking for engagement, and by 3PM you all gave him exactly what he asked for? I don’t want to hear a single word if he somehow pops up on every show in the conversation,” Hale wrote in an X message about Bananas.
That message (below) received a reply from Bananas’ X account, which had several banana emojis followed by a gorilla emoji.
Following that reply message, which eventually got deleted, many individuals expressed their disapproval and outrage on social media.
Bananas says he didn’t send or approve of the tweet reply to Hale
Bananas told Variety that Step Up Social, a marketing and content creation agency, ran his social media and sent the tweet without his knowledge.
“I went back and forth with this company for a few days, putting tweets together that I approved being posted from my social media accounts. What I did not approve was them to go rogue and start responding to others,” he said.
Those tweets were part of his effort to launch a new cryptocurrency meme coin, which also received backlash from online critics claiming it might be a scam.
“There are certain emojis that are symbolic of different things in the crypto world, one being the guerrilla emoji, one being the ape emoji. They symbolize strength, symbolize going in full force. Basically, they made the ill-advised move to tweet one of these emojis at Taylor. So, immediate action was taken,” Bananas said.
He said he also contacted Hale and gave her “clarity” on what had happened with Step Up’s messages on X. Bananas said he wanted her to know the truth.
“I assured him I did not believe the intent of the tweet to be racist,” Hale said, per Variety.
Hale said a public apology could’ve prevented reactions
Hale won Big Brother 24 and became the first Black woman to win a reality TV competition. She told Variety that after Bananas contacted her, she suggested to him that a public post would clear up misconceptions about what had happened.
“This would absolve him of being accused of racism, and help remove the influx of messages from his fandom saying I look like a manly gorilla — a racist trope against Black women,” she said.
Hale indicated she’d received “actual racist messages from individuals that claim to be his fans.”
The gorilla tweet reply initially happened over a week ago. Bananas told Variety he wanted to get all the facts before publicly addressing the matter.
The MTV star also indicated he was considering taking legal action against Step Up Social because of the harm their messages caused.
Viewers last saw Bananas on The Challenge: Battle of the Eras. For MTV’s Season 40, he reached the show’s final and finished third place amongst the men’s competitors.
He and Hale have shared links or screenshots of the Variety article on their X accounts so others can find out what happened and see their statements.
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