People do a lot of weird things for internet fame. Most of the time those videos, tweets, or snaps disappear into the ether, but a few end up breaking into the mainstream.
That constant hope that next time it’ll be you keeps the churn of tweetstorms and YouTube challenges fresh.
Brandon Walsh is a YouTuber with a decent following, but he wanted it to grow more.
It’s hard to blame him for it, considering that his sister’s channel has more than four times the subscribers his does.
So he did what a lot of content creators do and looked for inspiration.
A popular YouTube channel by The Dolan Twins gave him his starting point.
In it, the twins got body painted clothes applied and walked around in public to see how people would react. The video got tons of views.
This was perfect, because Brandon’s mom is actually a famous body painter.
Jen Seidel goes by the name Jen the Body Painter and even went viral in 2017 when she painted a model and they went to the mall for reactions.
In fact, Jen had been contacted by the Dolan Twins when they were prepping their video.
She hadn’t been able to make a trip to Los Angeles fit into her schedule, so they ended up going with another body painter.
Although the idea embarrassed him, Brandon decided to try the challenge.
It’s extra awkward when the body painter is your mom, but she thought ahead and pre-painted a pair of shorts for him to wear.
But everything else would be his bare skin.
He didn’t make the challenge easy for her.
Any painter knows that you want a smooth canvas to work on and though Jen seems to have asked him to shave his legs, he didn’t bother.
The result is jeans that look pretty furry up close.
Considering what she had to work with, I think Jen did a pretty great job on those faux jeans and the shorts are camouflaged well.
Of course, then Jen learned that he hadn’t shaved under his arms either.
So she gave him a pair of scissors and made him trim them as much as he could.
Come on, dude, she’s doing all the work here.
It took about two-and-a-half hours to get him “dressed.”
Then they headed out into the 25-degree weather to try out the illusion at a nearby Target. I felt for him a little bit in that cold.
He almost let those cold feet get to him.
In the parking lot, Brandon began to regret his life choices, but after working so hard, Jen wasn’t going to let him back out and talked him into finishing the job.
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They headed into the store where Brandon decided to head to the menswear department.
You see, he needed to buy clothes because he wasn’t actually wearing any.
At first his coat annoyed me, but he did eventually take it off.
The wait in line at the checkout must have been extra awkward.
It’s a part of shopping that forces strangers into each other’s personal space as they all move through the narrow aisle between magazine racks and sugary guilt snacks.
At the counter, he asked the cashier if she liked the shirts he’d picked out or if she preferred the one he was wearing.
Admittedly, her double-take kind of makes the whole video worth it.
Everyone had a good laugh.
Another cashier even came over for a closer look, admitting that she thought the shirt was a big tattoo at first.
If you want to see the full process, check out the video!
