Khabane Lame, the most popular man on TikTok without saying a word

(CNN) – When Italy first went into quarantine for coronavirus last year, Khabane Lame had just lost his job at a factory near the city of Turin.

He spent his days locked up in his parents’ home in Chivasso with his three siblings, looking for other jobs. One day, he downloaded TikTok and started playing with the app in his room. posting videos of himself under the name Khaby Lame. And little by little, an amazing career was born.

At first, like many TikTokers, he created clips of himself dancing, watching video games, or doing comedic stunts. Then earlier this year, he started poking fun at the life hack videos flooding social media platforms – reacting to them with a wordless shrug or an exasperated look – and struck a chord.

Now Lame (prounouced Lah-MAY) is the most popular man on TikTok, with 114 million followers. The only other person in front of him is dancer Charli D’Amelio, a teenager from California who posts funny videos, often with her older sister Dixie.

And Lame, 21, does it all without saying a word. On TikTok, his silence says it all.

“I came up with the idea because I was watching these videos circulating and I liked the idea of ​​giving it some simplicity,” Lame told CNN in a recent video interview.

“The type of gesture came by chance, but the silence did not. I thought of a way to reach as many people as possible. And the best way was not to speak.”

His videos have a unique style

Lame is a slender Senegalese with long limbs and an expressive face. In most of his clips, he satirizes videos of people performing overly complicated tricks by responding with a simplified and more logical way of doing the same task.

In one video, Lame peels a banana with his hands in response to a video of someone carefully cutting a banana with a knife. In another, he reacts to a video of a woman noisily peeling a cucumber with her teeth using a vegetable peeler to perform the same task.

Their reactions epitomize the term “head shaking,” or HMS for the internet short for making an expression of disapproval. After his common sense approach to a task, Lame spreads his arms with his palms up, as if to say duh. Sometimes he rolls his eyes or shakes his head.

These quiet, yet expressive reactions have made him one of the most recognized digital creators on social media.

“Maybe because my facial expressions are funny and they make people laugh, this simplicity makes people laugh and I love it,” Lame said.

A marketer says the popularity of Lame’s videos shows how non-verbal communication can transcend language barriers and make connections between cultures.

“You don’t have to speak to be seen or understood,” said Christina Ferraz, founder of the marketing agency. Thirty6five, based in Houston. “His exasperation is identifiable and the feelings are universal.”

Send a message that life doesn’t have to be complicated

Lame’s deadpan humor has attracted fans around the world, who regularly send him videos of people performing simple tasks in complicated ways.

“They know that I am the one who solves the problems, so they label me or mention me and say, ‘Khaby it’s your turn, solve this problem because we need you,'” he said.

His stoic facial expressions have also made him a meme star, with his face posted in reaction videos on social media.

Unlike other social media stars, Lame’s videos are not overplayed. They appear organic and use simple actions and images to convey humor, increasing their authenticity and reinforcing their point of making life less complicated, Ferraz said.

She also believes that its content resonates with people because it rose to prominence during a time when the world was locked in by quarantine.

“People were looking for both escapism and connection on social media,” Ferraz said. “The lack of verbal communication allows the audience to focus only on their actions, and no other meaning can be applied other than what they are doing or expressing literally.”

For her, Lame’s videos reveal “how often we make life more difficult or complicated than necessary. I think most people prefer to simplify things.”

Lame is one of the fastest growing content creators on TikTok. It gets an average of almost 200,000 followers per day and it’s on its way to outshine the platform’s most popular star, according to Social Blade, which tracks social media analytics.

But Lame said that’s not why he started posting videos.

“I don’t care if I’m the first, second or fourth most popular on TikTok. I started making videos because I wanted to make people laugh in that quarantine period,” he said.

“And I continue to make videos with the same ideals. I am happy for my achievements, but those are not my main things.”

His popularity has opened international doors for him

Like his popularity, Lame’s background spans different continents.

He was born in Senegal and moved to Italy with his parents when he was one year old. He spent most of his life in public housing, which he attributes to protecting him from racism and exposing him to the world beyond Italy.

“We were people of all ethnicities there, so we would protect each other a lot. There was never a problem of racism,” he said.

While he is not yet an Italian citizen, he is fluent in Italian and said that he considers the country to be his home. He applied for citizenship and while waiting for the process, he said that it has been difficult for him to travel to events in the United States and other countries with his Senegalese passport.

But the inability to travel has not affected his fame. His popularity – which also has 47 million followers on Instagram – has opened the doors to partnerships with international companies including Netflix, Italian food company Barilla and Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11. Lame has several other collaborations in the works that it cannot yet disclose, he said.

Lame declined to say how much money he makes from collaborations, although the biggest social media stars can make millions of dollars a year from their content.

He said his biggest purchase since he became famous is an iPhone 12 in order to record better videos. “I’m not buying anything crazy,” he said.

But his life is far from what it was — just 18 months ago — when he was an unemployed young man living with his parents. He says his mother and father are proud of his success.

“It was unexpected (for them) as it was for the rest of the world. So they came to their senses (that I was famous) quite late.

And I also. You don’t realize what is happening to you, “he commented.” They had no fixed idea of ​​what they wanted me to become as a child; the important thing is that he was happy and had a good job. “

Lame now lives with his agent in Milan. His posts get the go-ahead from celebrities, including his idol, actor Will Smith.

And as more TikTok stars sign deals with film companies, Lame hopes to achieve a childhood dream and work with Smith on a project.

Meanwhile, he will continue to destroy ridiculous life hacks, with his expressionless silence.