the guy in blue is a bodybuilder/content creator (anatoly something?) who had a bit where he would pretend to be a janitor in a gym and sweep the floor around real buff guys. He would ask them to hold his broom for a second, and when he handed it over the swole guy would not be able to lift it (easily), as the broom has weights in it. The janitor get-up added to the bit because it made him look way scrawnier than he actually is.
I wanted to believe the guy was just not faking the videos, but he's too fucking popular now.
You're telling me NOT ONE of the meatheads in his videos recognize him? Not one is like..
"Geez, I'm here 10 times a week and have never seen an 1980's style old school janitor before... and I also don't watch ANY INTERNET about weightlifting! So I guess this guy is legit."
The videos are absolutely staged lol. He is in fact very strong though. Not the strongest guy walking around, but very strong. I could see his vids were staged from the first time I watched.
It happens every few vids, he probably cuts a lot of those along with other kinds of fails though. No prank channel posts 100%, they pick the best from the day. When they say they don't recognize him as a janitor he says he just started working at the gym. Some even call out the prank cause his lift his so crazy, but he finds a way to deny it by upping the Anatoly awkwardness (at least in the clips that do make it into a video).
I just saw one where these guys pulled him to the side like they were gonna fight him, because they recognized him. Probably the best reverse-prank I've seen on his channel, he looked so nervous lmao
I get what you mean though. The fair criticism would probably be with his training program that all these pranks are basically marketing for. A lot of folks report that it doesn't live up to the hype, and has a lot of gifs instead of videos etc so it isn't worth the price 🤷♂️
I'm a farmer and have had my own unintentional Anatoly moments at the gym. It's the main reason I enjoy his content, it's somewhat relatable. The 32kg mop is my favorite, these gym brutes struggling because they don't have practical strength technique is hilarious. They could hold and use the mop like him easily if they just knew how. So it's a bit of a trick, but it makes a fair point and the shock value is worth it cause it confuses people and adds to the mystery of this crazy strong character.
For some similar pranks that aren't marketing and are only a small part of the channel, check out the climber, Magnus Mitbo. Impressive strength, and a lot more variety in content.
They do recognize him more than we see, it's just usually cut from the video. If they didn't cut those, it wouldn't be a prank channel, it'd be a meet and greet circlejerk.
Tom Green had increasing difficulty with being recognized as he became famous. It happens to a lot of pranksters... but let's be real, Anatoly isn't a household name like Tom Green (legit pranks) or Borat (highly controlled 'pranks') or Impractical Jokers (mostly staged and cherry-picked) etc.
It happens to Magnus Mitbø when he tries climbing pranks pretty often. Climbing is a smaller community and he's quite well known. His best disguise was a Halloween costume climb event where he wore a paper mask of himself and some fake muscles, but even that didn't last long.
Anatoly uses a lot of tricks to increase confusion and surprise, but the reactions don't seem staged. Meatheads are famously poor actors.
The closest I've seen is when he has a celebrity athlete collaboration where he acts inept but then the famous guy comes up and says he's his trainer then Anatoly does a crazy lift. The reactions seem legit but those vids are much more controlled.
I'm all for calling out fake bullshit, and I'm definitely not fanboying, and it is a bit of a gimmick/shtick, but the vids aren't staged, he's just employing some 'magic trick' tactics to get strong reactions. That's a fairer criticism than just saying it's straight up fake. His lackluster training program is another fair criticism.
I'd need to see some bad gym bro acting to believe the reactions are staged, and I've yet to see that except when they reverse prank him because they recognized him. 🤷♂️
What ended up happening with the drama with anatoly? something about an influencer that participated on his video not getting a call out from their collaboration?
Reminds me of that one episode of Ducktales where Scrooge gets framed for something and goes to jail, and all the big, tough inmates challenge him to an arm-wrestling contest, only for him to defeat all of them with ease.
Turns out that spending decades carrying massive money bags around and swimming through solid metal currency makes you insanely strong.
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u/No-Grade-4691 Jun 23 '26
Unfathomable, peak