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The drama is popping, just like the balloons on Netflixs new dating show, ‘Pop the Balloon Live!’ The premiere had everybody talking, but not for the reasons you would think. ‘The Challenge OG’ Johnny Bananas is catching HEAT after a wild comment he made about a woman’s feet during the April 10 episode. The internet is NOT letting him slide after believing his remark was for a Black woman.
In a live episode of Pop The Balloon, which aired on Thursday, April 10, Bananas tried his luck landing a date with one of the eight single women. Yvonne Orji was serving as the show’s host. However, things went wrong when all of them decided to pop their balloons, showing their lack of interest in him.
Amid the backlash, Bananas decided to address the viral moment in a tweet shared to X on Friday, April 11. In his post, he accompanied his tweet with a screenshot taken from the episode, in which he seemingly points to the woman next to the Black contestant. The woman in question, who is White, is wearing a green outfit, which he says prompted him to make the tree comment.
“Hey morons, I was actually talking about the WHITE girl whose toes were hanging over her shoes who is literally dressed like a fucking tree,” he wrote. “Its wild how fast some people can twist a moment into a false narrative. Theres real racism out there, weaponizing fake outrage for clicks cheapens it.”
TheRoomies were just as vocal as they sounded off in the comment section.
“Wasnt feeling it I went and tuned right into Wednesdays real episode on YouTube,”@__theloveshegives commented.
Additionally, another commenter shared their thoughts on the show, which started out on YouTube and is now on Netflix. “Idk why any woman would go on this show its like a public humiliation ritual, @quotesforleos said.
However, others sided with Bananas, convinced that he was actually talking to the woman standing next to the Black female contestant.
The user @pinkerbell404 wrote, Y’all just by watching this clip you can tell he was talking about the White girl bc he said she got really pretty toes first white girl then he goes you got pretty toes to the black girl and THEN he made that comment to the third white girl dressed like a tree!”
This aint Johnnys first time in the hot seat, though. On February 3, Bananas sparked controversy by sending gorilla and banana emojis from his account to ‘Big Brother’ winner Taylor Hale on X. At the time, he was responding to her tweet about him.
Hale, who made history as the first Black woman to snatch the ‘Big Brother’ crown in 2022, had tweeted, “That yellow fruit man pinned a tweet to his profile at 8 AM saying he was looking for engagement, and by 3 PM you all gave him exactly what he asked for? I dont want to hear a single word if he somehow pops up on every show in the conversation.”Bananas account then responded with six banana emojis and a gorilla one.
In the midst of the backlash, he told Variety it was a marketing team slip-up for his $BANANAS crypto coin. Additionally, the reality star added that he was shocked by the incident and quickly contacted Hale to resolve the issue. He claimed he was even thinking about suing the agency, Step Up Social, for the chaos they caused his brand and reputation.
“I would never in a million years want anyone to think that I was capable of being that cruel and offensive. I asked myself, Do I not say anything or do I address this? I think if theres one person out there in the world that thinks that this tweet could potentially represent who I am, thats one person too many.”
Meanwhile, Hale said she didnt think Bananas meant it to be racist. However, she also side-eyed how long it took him to speak up publicly. Sis had to deal with a flood of nasty messages from his fans for TWO DAYS while he was figuring out his next move.
