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MTV’s Johnny Bananas Denies Sending Gorilla Emoji to ‘Big Brother’ Winner Taylor Hale, Considering Legal Action Against Marketing Team: ‘I Do Not Take This Situation Lightly’
MTV's Johnny Bananas explains his X account was taken over when a message with a gorilla was sent to Taylor Hale.
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Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, best known for competing on two dozen seasons of MTV’s “The Challenge,” is under fire for a message posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Feb. 4.
It all began days earlier, as he shared multiple messages about the competition between “Challenge” cast members and members of “Big Brother,” “Survivor” and other reality shows. On Feb. 3, Taylor Hale, the winner of Season 24 of “Big Brother,” posted about him.
“That yellow fruit man pinned a tweet to his profile at 8AM saying he was looking for engagement, and by 3PM you all gave him exactly what he asked for? I don’t want to hear a single word if he somehow pops up on every show in the conversation,” Hale, who was the first Black woman to win the CBS reality show, wrote. Devenanzio’s account replied with six banana emojis, followed by a gorilla emoji.
Almost immediately, members of the reality TV world took to social media to voice their disapproval of what appeared to be a racist tweet. Devenanzio, however, was unaware of the message, he explains to Variety.
Popular on VarietyStep Up Social, a marketing and content creation agency, had taken over his account to promote the upcoming launch of a meme coin. “I went back and forth with this company for a few days, putting tweets together that I approved being posted from my social media accounts. What I did not approve was them to go rogue and start responding to others,” Devenanzio tells us. Once he was alerted by friends asking what was up with the tweet, he immediately reached out to the company’s CEO. While it has since been deleted, the damage was done.
“There are certain emojis that are symbolic of different things in the crypto world, one being the guerrilla emoji, one being the ape emoji. They symbolize strength, symbolize going in full force. Basically, they made the ill-advised move to tweet one of these emojis at Taylor. So, immediate action was taken,” he says. “I do not take this situation lightly at all. As soon as I was made aware of what happened, I reached out to Taylor because my main concern was making sure that she had as much clarity as she could have… I wanted to make sure she knew the truth.”
Hale tells Variety that Devenanzio reached out on Feb. 5 and walked her through what had happened. “I assured him I did not believe the intent of the tweet to be racist,” she explains.
On Feb. 7, the company emailed Hale with a statement, one that had already been shared via social media. “We sincerely apologize for the unauthorized content of a recent tweet posted on behalf of Johnny Bananas by our agency designed to promote the $BANANAS cryptocurrency. The Gorilla and Ape Emojis are commonly used in the crypto space to symbolize holding currencies and were central to branding and marketing of the $BANANAS coin,” the message wrote. “However, given the nature of the reply, it is clear that the content was inappropriate and does not reflect the values of our agency or our client. We deeply regret any harm this may have caused and are reviewing our internal processes to ensure this does not happen again and we are working closely with Johnny to address the situation and restore trust.”
Afterward, she tells Variety, Hale told Devenanzio all she needed was for him to publicly post that it was a misstep, which they had discussed. “This would absolve him of being accused of racism, and help remove the influx of messages from his fandom saying I look like a manly gorilla — a racist trope against Black women.”
Devenanzio waited a few days to be sure he knew all the facts before speaking out.
“I would never in a million years want anyone to think that I was capable of being that cruel and offensive. I asked myself, ‘Do I not say anything or do I address this?’ I think if there’s one person out there in the world that thinks that this tweet could potentially represent who I am, that’s one person too many,” he explains. “I regret any offense that it’s caused, and I really do appreciate those who have taken time to wait until I made my statement, to seek the truth before rushing to judgment and character assassination.”
However, the delay caused Hale to receive a slew of “actual racist messages from individuals that claim to be his fans,” she says. “I do not hold Johnny responsible for the insensitive tweet, but I do hold him responsible for the response. Public disrespect should be met with the most immediate public apology through the same medium. I believe Johnny and I can agree we’d like the narrative of racism to be put to rest, and for the temperature to be brought down on all sides.”
Devenanzio is “strongly considering legal action” against the marking team due to the harm it has caused.
Devenanzio has been on reality TV since 2006 when he debuted on “The Real World.” He hosted NBC’s “1st Look” from 2018 to 2023, and has won seven seasons of “The Challenge.” In 2024, he competed on Season 2 of Peacock’s “The Traitors.”
