Johnny Elbows

About

Johnny Elbows, also known as Johnny Elbow, Johnny Thornington or @jonnythorington, is a special needs TikTok personality often featured on the profile of TikToker The UnderFaker (@bigboyofomaha) whose based in Omaha, Nebraska. Johnny Elbows first went viral in 2022 for a video of him hitting the Griddy which was made into many memes, such as one with a caption reading, "God just be making anybody." Videos featuring Johnny Elbows became increasingly viral in early 2023, including one of him doing a roar. Thereafter, many fancams and fan edits of Johnny Elbows emerged, spawning a cult fandom on the app. In May 2023, Johnny Elbows said on a TikTok Live that a little girl had a "cute butt" resulting in a controversy that made The UnderFaker cut ties with him.

Online History

Johnny Elbows is a nickname for Nebraska resident Jonny Thorington who started posting to his personal TikTok account @jonnythorington in early 2023. His first TIkTok^[1] was uploaded on April 26th, 2023, gaining roughly 152,000 plays and 5,200 likes in one year (shown below, left). He continued his habit of posting later that year, uploading his second TikTok^[2] on August 8th, 2022, earning roughly 37,500 plays and over 570 likes in nine months (shown below, right).

Johnny Elbows Griddy Video

Despite having his own TikTok page, Johnny Elbows didn't achieve virality on his own. Instead, he went viral on the TikTok page of @bigboyofomaha who started filming videos with Elbows in July 2022. Their relationship with one another is currently unknown.

On July 2nd, 2022, TikToker^[3] @bigboyofomaha filmed a video of Johnny Elbows doing the griddy dance to the song "Right Foot Creep" by NBA YoungBoy, gaining roughly 17.5 million plays and 1.7 million likes in 10 months before being deleted on May 19th, 2023 (reupload shown below, left). The video marked the first viral instance of Johnny Elbows content. On the same day, TikToker^[4] @bigboyofomaha uploaded a video of Elbows doing the "Helicopter! Helicopter!" TikTok trend, gaining roughly 5.2 million plays and 303,700 likes in the same timeframe before being deleted on May 19th, 2023 (reupload shown below, right).

Soon after, the video of Elbows hitting the griddy was used by other TikTokers. The first discovered, viral instance was a video uploaded by since-deleted TikToker @selenanator123 in early July 2022, which set the video to a Goofy Ahh Uncle Productions remix of "Right Foot Creep," gaining roughly 583,900 likes before its deletion, evident in TikTok^[5] reposts of the video in July 2022. Months later, on December 15th, 2022, Instagram^[6] user @rudesalt added a Snapchat caption to the video reading, "god just be making anybody," gaining roughly 245,800 likes in five months (shown below).

Johnny Elbows Roar

Going into early 2023, TikToker @bigboyofomaha continued posting Johnny Elbows content including many screen-recordings of their FaceTime calls in which Elbows told stories.^[7][14] TikToker @bigboyofomaha also started going Live on TikTok with Elbows, most often in a public park. Many screen recordings of their Lives posted by other TikTokers went viral in early 2023, specifically one showing Elbows doing a roar, which was first posted by TikToker^[8] @pskizzle on May 7th, 2023, gaining roughly 7.6 million plays and 750,400 likes in 12 days (shown below, left). During the same Live, TikToker^[9] @that.brownie.square posted an edit that showed Elbows with a stain on his shorts that many in the comment section thought were feces, gaining roughly 46,900 plays and 3,000 likes in 11 days (shown below, right).

May 18th, 2023, TikTok Live Contoversy

On May 18th, 2023, TikToker @bigboyofomaha went Live again with Johnny Elbows seemingly in the same public park. On the same day, TikToker^[10] @bryansalazar8480 posted a screen recording of the Live, showing a moment where Elbows remarked on a little girl's butt in the park, calling it "cute." TikToker^[10] @bryansalazar8480 highlighted the moment as controversial and received roughly 256,800 plays and 21,500 likes in less than a day (shown below, left). Due to the moment on his TikTok Live, TikToker^[11] @bigboyofomaha posted a response video in which he condemned Elbows' statement and claimed that he was going to stop making content with him and also delete all of his previous content with him. The video, uploaded later on May 18th, gained roughly 34,200 plays and 2,300 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).

Following

By May 19th, 2023, Johnny Elbows had amassed roughly 14,700 followers on his TikTok^[12] account. Meanwhile, TikToker^[13] @bigboyofomaha had amassed roughly 113,500 followers by May 19th, 2023.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References