Nikocado Avocado (Nicholas Perry), a well-known US internet personality, shocked the internet when he revealed his weight loss of 250 pounds (110kg).
Perry often posts a mockumentary, which involves eating large amounts of food on camera while interacting with viewers. For nearly eight years, her viewers have seen her gain weight, share details of many suspected health complications, and interact with commentators and other YouTubers.
The twist? She appears to have been posting prerecorded content for two years while secretly slimming down – a feat she calls the “biggest social experiment” of her life. What can we learn from examining this moment in the world of content creation?
Anyone Can Create Content, For Any Reason
The internet and specifically social media has made it easy and affordable for anyone to create any kind of content for platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
The motivations for creating such content are varied. While many do it for fun and connection, others are influenced by money and fame. With more than four million subscribers on her (main) YouTube channel, Perry is definitely making money.
However, monetisation schemes for content creation platforms reward popular content – not the quality of the content, or even its veracity.
YouTube's recommendation algorithm favors likes and comments. So content designed to evoke strong emotions works well. It doesn't matter if the viewers are friends, fans, or enemies, the revenue from advertising is the same.
This perhaps explains why Perry's videos have become more unique and provocative over the course of her YouTube career (with My New Diet As A Disabled Person and Jesus Is Coming Soon, He Spoke To Me being two examples of very intense content).
As Perry told a podcaster in 2019:
The Moral Psychology of Misinformation
In her Two Steps Ahead video, Perry revealed that she was actively duping her followers in a supposed social experiment where she monitored her viewers like “ants in an ant farm”:
Despite her deception, the comments and resulting media coverage mostly praised her for her weight loss and clever trickery.
In the "post-truth" era, most people expect some dishonesty on the internet. But what is particularly interesting is how misinformation is also overlooked – and therefore reinforced, even if it is recognized as false.
According to the researchers, misinformation seems more unethical to us when it aligns with our own politics – and our willingness to give some misinformation a "moral pass" is why politicians can lie openly without their image is damaged.
The fact that Perry's cheating was rooted in her drastic weight loss – something viewers have been begging her to do for years – may help explain why it didn't have a negative impact on her and the his image.
Most of the top comments on Perry's videos directly or indirectly praise his experiment, with some likening him to popular TV villain characters.
This experience is a timely reminder that seeing is no longer believing when it comes to the online world. Perry told NBC News:
Hoaxes and Speculations
Perry's big confession isn't the first example of hoax content designed to make a point. In 2015, a journalist created elaborate, but clearly falsified evidence for a “chocolate diet” for weight loss that fooled news outlets and millions of people.
But such hoaxes often cause collateral damage while trying to make a point. Now there is speculation as to how Perry lost the weight. Viewers questioned whether she used drugs for weight loss, with some calling this method "cheating."
This discourse further exacerbates fatphobia and the false dichotomy between "fat" and "thin".
The Audience Effect
While the thousands of comments on Perry's videos bring him a large income, they are far from harmless.
Pick any video of his and you'll see a lot of disgust and “concern” in the comment section. Much of this is “concern trolling,” where commentators claim to be concerned but are enemies.
Concern trolls aim to disrupt dialogue and lower morale. Comments like “I'm just worried about your health” may seem supportive but may be far from it.
Importantly, concerned and judgmental comments are not only seen by content creators. They are part of a larger discourse and also affect the way others interact with viewers' content.
Weight stigma and aggressive comments against overweight people remain common online, exacerbating the damage of fatphobia.
Overweight and Weight Loss Commodification
Perry's content focuses on eating large amounts of food. Such food performances can be part of fat activism and rejection of shame, but they can also be part of the fetishization and commodification of overweight and overeating.
While this content may bring benefits in reducing sadness and avoiding binge-eating for some, for others it may provide motivation for restrictive or uncontrolled eating.
In Australia, the weight loss industry will be worth more than $500 million by 2023. But “going on a diet” is not just about biology or nutrition. It's also about culture, politics, and marketing.
Weight gain and loss have become entertainment, with programs like The Biggest Loser fueling weight stigma and fatphobia while making big bucks.
In the modern age of user-generated content, Perry and other creators no longer need a production company to exploit public interest in body-size politics for money and fame.
This story is not just about haters and internet fame. It reflects our collective social behavior, and changes in norms of consumption, criticism, and authenticity.
When the line between performance and reality is blurred to make a point, there may be benefits, but we must not forget the harms.
