One of my colleagues has this theory: Those who know Rizler may not have been surprised that Kamala Harris lost the presidential election. For those unfamiliar with the name Big Justice, the election results may have come as a complete shock.
Back in March, Florida-based father-son duo AJ and Big Justice posted a TikTok expressing their enthusiasm for Costco Wholesale and its food court products. The pair, and the wider world of relatives and non-relatives like Rizler, have since become viral sensations, cementing their status as Internet celebrities. of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“Costco Guy, Rizzler, and this kind of heterosexual coded mediaverse is representative of how siloed media consumption on the left has become,” says Christian Paz, senior political reporter at Vox. . As a result, some progressives “may have missed a little bit of the political evolution that this country has been through,” Paz suggests.
It asks, “Can the rise of the Costco Guy (who is by no means explicitly political) help explain the cultural landscape shaped by straight bros that foreshadowed Donald Trump's victory?” It raises the question. Or is their presence on the internet something more benign, a throwback to the early days of YouTube, when ordinary people got airtime by going viral? Ellen?The answer is a little complicated.
Costco Guys Movie World History
Although they officially became a viral sensation in March, the Costco Guys' celebrity has been years in the making. The New Jersey native and patriarch of the family, Andrew Behumo (aka AJ), was a professional wrestler who was known as “America's Power Child, Eric Justice'' before retiring and taking up mortgages. About 10 years ago, he started a family YouTube channel called All Befumo'd Up, featuring his wife Erica, daughter Ashley, and son Eric (aka Big Justice). The channel featured mundane but heartwarming content, similar to what you would see on a reality TV show, such as cooking a meal or attending an event. the avengers We held screenings and sang Christmas songs.
Since 2022, Befumo has primarily been making videos on TikTok (@ajbefumo) with Eric (nicknamed Big Justice after the wrestling figure), with occasional appearances by Ashley and “Big Justice's mother” Erica. I am doing it. Early videos showed father and son watching a baseball game and reviewing local restaurants using a food rating scale known as the “Boommeter.” Delicious food is going “boom”! Underwhelming or downright awful food is a “doom”! — That's unusual.
They also recorded performing regular errands with unusual enthusiasm, such as going to a retail chain store. But that level of excitement in depicting the suburban middle-class experience is part of their appeal. While many famous vloggers film their tropical vacations and helicopter rides, the Costco Guy treats a trip to Party City like a special occasion.
These videos racked up hundreds of thousands of views and earned him several sponsorship deals. But it was this spring that their affinity for Costco gave them their ticket to Internet stardom. On March 1, they posted their own version of the viral “We are X, of course we are Y” trend about their love for the wholesale chain. “We are Costco people,” Big Justice says at the beginning of the video. “Of course, I'll go shopping while eating chicken grill.''
By July, they released their Beastie Boys-esque theme song, “We Bring the Boom,” featuring Erica and Ashley, which currently has 14.4 million views. Since then, it has incorporated Costco and its very limited food court menu into much of its content, asking guests to rate the store's “Double Chunk Chocolate Cookies” and accompany them on a shopping trip. They have released several remixes of “We Bring the Boom”, most recently including a Christmas edition. Ashley and Erica also come from the background of AJ and Big Justice videos and created their own page @ashleyandmamajustice in October, where they primarily rank and review desserts.
Despite how ordinary they seem, viewers still feel like they're looking at something out of the ordinary and singular. Their eyes are wide and their gaze unflinching as they stare into the camera. It's like being held hostage and forced to read from a teleprompter. Their enthusiasm may be serious, but their demeanor is unnatural and formal. Rap songs are definitely cringeworthy.
In the months since they first made headlines, the label “Costco Boys” has expanded beyond the Befumo family to include their most frequent collaborators. The most notable among them is child influencer Rizler (aka Christian Joseph). His father started posting his videos on TikTok in 2020. His father named him Rizler, based on the slang word “riz”, short for charisma. Since then, he has popularized the “Liz Face,” a half-serious, half-smirk facial expression similar to the alt-right meme/pose known as the “Chad Face,” or more broadly, the “Gen Z Lip Sync Face.” Ta. AJ said in an interview that he reached out to Rizler's father about collaborating after a TikTok of Rizler joking around in an ill-fitting Black Panther costume. Other frequent guest appearances include Cousin Angelo, who may or may not actually be related to the Behumos, and a TikTok dancer named Jersey Joe, who posts videos of himself dancing to Jersey Club music. It will be done.
Do Costco guys really belong to the “internet fraternity”?
Since his rise to fame, Costco Guy has acquired a dubious reputation on social media as a Trump supporter, if not an avatar of the increasingly MAGA internet. The evidence is mostly superficial. They live in Florida. They spend much of their time in big-box stores that are closely tied to the American suburban experience. Their logo and products feature the American flag prominently.
“There's a lot of content in their content that seems Republican-coded,” says EJ Dixon, senior culture writer at The Cut. “The main reason is that they are part of the white male demographic in the states that overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Another aspect is that the Star-Spangled Banner image very early in their careers In fact, AJ was creating content in front of the Star Spangled Banner when he was working in the mortgage industry.
Other examples raise even more eyebrows. Their fan base, at least based on the account's commenters, skews heavily white and male. One Costco Guys livestream comment included multiple lines of the N-word in all caps. Logan Paul knows them.
But unlike Paul, the Behumos have largely and purposefully avoided politics on their path to fame. In an interview with internet reporter Taylor Lorenz, AJ said presidential candidates have approached him about working with him, but that politics is “not in their wheelhouse.”
Possible political endorsements aside, Dixon, who profiled AJ and Big Justice in Rolling Stone in July, doesn't think this explains everything about their popularity.
“I think people are really enjoying watching this guy and his kid just goofing around and creating this incredibly stupid content together,” Dixon says. “Many people find their content reasonably engaging.”
She also claims that their videos may be more subversive than what progressives online praise them for. This means that fathers and sons spend a huge amount of time together, showing their love and bond to each other through food. She compares them to Andrew Tate, a bona fide right-wing talent who “built his brand in the confines of an overbearing and reserved father.”
The fact that AJ is monetizing his time with his family is not without criticism. Behind-the-scenes footage of AJ giving Big Justice some tough guidance went viral in August, leading some to believe he was the stage dad. Still, the image of fatherhood he promotes is one of loving and practical ones.
“nevertheless [A.J.] “He projects his masculinity with his looks and his training, but in a way he's doing the opposite by just goofing around in front of the camera and spending a lot of time with his kids,” says Dixon. .
Either way, the Costco Guy exists in a lineage of influencers and celebrities who ultimately attract straight, white, right-leaning male fans. Several events this year, from the conservative appropriation of Sidney Sweeney to the overnight success of Hawk Two Girl, have shown that it's not up to public figures to decide who to appeal to.
