Man Who Leveraged Mishap For Viral Fame Forgot He’s A Raging Sh*tbag

The internet giveth, and the internet taketh away. That’s the lesson I learned from the viral Cinnamon Toast Crunch shrimp fiasco (and not, as one might expect, to stop buying General Mills cereal). In a story with more twists and turns than the swirls on the offending cinnamon squares, the latest development—and I’m going to need you to hold all expressions of shock until the end—is that the guy who gained a good 24 hours of mild internet fame from exposing General Mills’ alleged f*ck-up might have made it up, and might not be a good person. And you thought the biggest surprise was that this guy is married to Topanga!

What began as a (pretty much literally) wild tale of some guy who inexplicably found disembodied shrimp tails in his box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and then proceeded to deal with a subpar customer service interaction from the giant corporation who made the cereal has now become a whodunit, with the new prime suspect being Karp himself. If you’re asking, why would he make this up? The prevailing theory seems to be: for internet fame. I mean, I guess maybe he could get a Cinnamon Toast Crunch #sponcon deal from this, but what’s really the end game?

As a fun aside (that very well may be related to this whole saga; I just can’t figure out how yet), Karp’s own wife, the one Topanga, once did an ad for Cinnamon Toast Crunch flavored Coffeemate in March 2020.

Fishel clarified in a follow-up tweet that she was “never sponsored by CTC”, explaining, “That was an ad for Coffeemate when they did a collab with CTC.” She added, “We were BIG FANS until we found shrimp tails yesterday.” Adding this piece of evidence to my Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shrimp string board.

But the real milkshake duck of it all began when artist Brandon Bird tweeted, “Just fyi, the shrimp tails guy is both a marketing professional and someone who’s lied to my face without flinching.” He clarified his position in a follow-up tweet, “If he told me he found cereal in his cereal box, I wouldn’t take his word.”

From there, ex-partners of Karp started tweeting about their experiences dating him. One called him “a manipulative gaslighting narcissistic ex-boyfriend” and alleged he once said “he was surprised I hadn’t killed myself because my life was so worthless”. Another woman described him as “the most abusive person I have ever been with”. Former colleagues accused him of lying, stealing ideas, and contributing to an insensitive and toxic work environment.

Karp, who, when the shrimp tale first went viral, was tweeting updates multiple times per day—everything from retweeting jokes about the situation to informing followers he was taking the offending cereal box to a lab for testing—has remained silent since the emotional abuse allegations came to light.

I and my tinfoil hat will be following developments closely, because while we don’t have definitive answers (or the results of this supposed lab test), we do know that this story is—wait for it, and I’m sorry to say this but somebody has to—fishy.

So before you go exaggerating, outright fabricating, or simply leveraging a personal anecdote for internet fame, perhaps consider the skeletons in your closet. It’s a story we’ve seen play out time and time again: with one viral tweet (or series of viral tweets), man goes from internet darling to ousted toxic piece of sh*t in about 24 hours or less. Take Bean Dad, who posted a 23-tweet series about how he made his daughter stare at a can opener for six hours rather than teaching her how to use it to open a can of beans, only to have his racist tweets exposed. Or Zoom Cat Lawyer, who was accused of leading a targeted harassment campaign, culminating in a raid, of a woman with whom he’d allegedly had a sexual relationship. Then again, if these guys did weigh the price of fleeting Twitter fame against their reputations before hitting “send”, then we would not get to witness these beautiful pieces of perfect internet theater play out.

If reading this story has got you wondering, “what happened to ?” the answer is probably something along the lines of, “he was quickly exposed for being a dirtbag.”

Images: Luke Jones / Unsplash

General Mills Partners With ‘Fear Factor’ For New Collection Of Cereal Box Toys

NEWS RELEASE

*Please note the information contained within this email is embargoed until Thursday, March 25 at 8am EDT*

Contact: General Mills, Inc.

On the heels of our massive viral marketing success, General Mills is excited to announce that we have partnered with the iconic Fear Factor franchise to release a limited-edition collection of cereal box toys. Since it premiered more than 20 years ago, Fear Factor has delighted and terrified audiences in dozens of countries around the world, and their knack for the unexpected and outrageous is exactly what General Mills values in a collaboration. The crustacean is already out of the bag about the Cinnamon Toast Crunch surprise, which will be hitting grocery store shelves this week, and the Fear Factor collection will soon be rolling out across four addition iconic General Mills cereal brands. Here’s the full list of General Mills x Fear Factor products, coming to a store near you this spring.

Cheerios

Everyone knows Cheerios. Your dad Everyone loves Cheerios. And what’s not to love? Cheerios are made from 100 percent natural whole grain oats, and are the only major cereal proven to help lower cholesterol. And now, Fear Factor is adding a special ingredient to take Cheerios to the next level: fingernail clippings! Just like the Cheerios you’ve been eating since you were in a high chair, fingernail clippings are part of a heart-healthy diet. Whose fingernail clippings are these, you ask? Have fun guessing!

Honey Nut Cheerios

Honey Nut Cheerios have all the great qualities of Cheerios, but with a little something extra. So we knew we needed to add something extra extra to stand out. For this one, the Fear Factor team drew inspiration from the cereal’s beloved mascot, BuzzBee. New and improved Honey Nut Cheerios will be sprinkled with bee carcasses, in an homage to the source of that delicious honey flavor. They add a crispy crunch and a unique flavor—just watch out for that stinger! And that’s not all. A very limited run batch will contain not just carcasses, but actual live bees. They’ll likely be very angry, so these specially-marked boxes will also include protective beekeeping gear, to keep you safe while you’re enjoying your balanced breakfast.

Cocoa Puffs

Some people on Twitter surmised that some of the contents of the viral Cinnamon Toast Crunch box were rat turds, and they were right. Unfortunately, during the packaging process, some of the, ahem, special surprises got cross-contaminated, and General Mills takes complete responsibility for this unacceptable mistake. With that out of the way, we can officially reveal that rat turds will be mixed in with every delicious batch of Cocoa Puffs. This was a natural fit, because the rat turds Fear Factor has sourced are nearly identical in shape, size, and color to your favorite chocolatey breakfast cereal. We just know you’ll be cuckoo for vermin droppings.

Lucky Charms

Finding a way to improve Lucky Charms was a tall order—every bite is already full of colorful surprises. But the psychotic freaks behind Fear Factor knew exactly what to do. For a limited time, each box of Lucky Charms will be bestowed with special “pot of gold” marshmallows, but now there’s an extra surprise at the end of that rainbow. We’ve decided to infuse real beard hairs from leprechauns in every bite! (In the sourcing process, we had some difficulties locating actual leprechauns, so we substituted for beard hair from redheads who won’t shut up about how they’re 25% Irish.) Either way, it’s magically delicious!

*Please note the information contained within this email is embargoed until Thursday, March 25 at 8am EDT*