Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, best known for competing on two dozen seasons of MTV’s “The Challenge”, will be under fire on 4 February for a message posted on X (formerly Twitter).
It all started days earlier, when he shared several messages about the competition between “challenge” cast members and members of “Big Brother”, “Survivor” and other reality shows. On 3 February, Taylor Hale, the winner of season 24 of “Big Brother”, posted about him.
“That yellow Fruitman put a tweet on his profile at 8 am and said he was looking for engagement, and at 3 p.m. did you all give him exactly what he asked for? I don’t want to hear any word if he somehow pops up in every show in the conversation, “Hale, who was the first black woman to win the CBS reality show, written. The Devenanzio account answered with six banana emojis, followed by a gorilla emoji.
Almost immediately members of the reality TV world of social media took to express their disapproval of what a racist tweet seemed to be. Devenanzio, however, was not aware of the message, he explains Variety.
Step Up Social, an agency for making marketing and content, had taken over his account to promote the coming launch of a Meme Munt. “I went back and forth with this company for a few days, where I put together tweets that I approved to be posted from my social media accounts. What I did not approve was that they go villain head and start to respond to others, “says Devenanzio. Once he was warned by friends who asked what was going on with the tweet, he immediately contacted the CEO of the company. Although it has been removed since then, the damage has been caused.
“There are certain emojis who are symbolic of different things in the crypto world, one is the guerrilla emoji, one is the Aapemoji. They symbolize power and symbolize in full power. In short, they made the unwise step to tweet one of these emojis in Taylor. So, immediate action was taken, “he says. “I don’t take this situation at all. As soon as I was informed of what happened, I contacted Taylor because my greatest concern was to make sure she had as much clarity as she could have had … I wanted to make sure she knew the truth. “
Hale tells Variety That Devenanzio put out his hand on February 5 and walked on her what had happened. “I assured him that I did not believe the tweet intended to be racist,” she explains.
On February 7, the Hale company e -mailed with a statement, a statement that had already been Share via social media. “We sincerely apologize for the unauthorized content of a recent tweet posted on behalf of Johnny Bananas by our desk that was designed to promote the $ banana cryptocurrency. The Gorilla and AAP emojis are often used in the crypto space to symbolize the retention of currency and were central to branding and marketing of the $ banana coin, ”wrote the message. “Given the nature of the answer, however, it is clear that the content was inappropriate and does not reflect the values of our desk or our client. We regret all the damage that this may have caused and assess our internal processes to ensure that this does not happen again and we work closely with Johnny to tackle the situation and restore trust. “
Then she tells VarietyHale told Devenanzio everything she needed was that he would publicly post that it was a misstep they had discussed. “This would exempt him from being accused of being accused of racism and removing the influx of messages from his fandom and saying that I look like a male gorilla – a racist trope to black women.”
Devenanzio waited a few days to make sure he knew all the facts before pronouncing himself.
“I would never want anyone to think I was able to be so cruel and offensive within a million years. I wondered: “am I not saying anything or am I going to do this?” I think if there is one person in the world who thinks this tweet could possibly represent who I am, that’s one person too much, “he explains.” I regret every violation that caused it, and me Appreciate those who have taken the time to wait until I have made my statement to look for the truth before I, in the opinion and the character murder. “
The delay, however, ensured that Hale received a whole series of “real racist messages from people who claim to be fans,” she says. “I don’t hold Johnny responsible for the insensitive tweet, but I hold him responsible for the response. Public Lack of Respect must be confronted with the most direct public apology by the same medium. I believe that Johnny and I can agree that we want to let the story of racism rest and that the temperature is being knocked down on all sides. “
Devenanzio is “strongly considering legal steps” against the marking team because of the damage it has caused.
Devenanzio has been on reality TV since 2006 when he debuted at ‘The Real World’. He organized NBC’s “1st look” from 2018 to 2023 and has won seven seasons of “The Challenge”. In 2024 he participated in season 2 of Peacock’s ‘The Traitors’.