Stelio Kontos

Part of a series on American Dad!. [View Related Entries]

PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.

This submission is currently being researched & evaluated!

You can help confirm this entry by contributing facts, media, and other evidence of notability and mutation.

About

Stelio Kontos is a minor character in the animated comedy series American Dad!. Stan Smith's bully who beat him up during school years, Stelio Kontos is hired by Steve Smith to protect him from his father. The character and his memorable theme song became a subject of various memes online in July 2024.

Origin

On April 25th, 2010, episode 16 "Bully for Steve" of season five of the animated series American Dad premiered in the United States.^[1] In the episode, character Stelio Kontos, Stan Smith's childhood bully of Greek ethnicity, is introduced. The character is hired by Stan Smith's son Steve Smith to protect him from his father who is bullying him at school. As Stelio Kontos arrives to Steve's school to beat up Stan, his theme song plays (scene shown below).

The character made appearances in several later episodes of the show.^[2]

On February 3rd, 2020, DeviantArt^[3] user Dinodavid8rb posted the earliest found meme featuring the character, a Welcome to the Salty Spitoon. How Tough Are Ya? meme that garnered over 60 favorites and 5,200 views in four years (shown below).

STELIO klinko's Welcome to the Salty Spitoon. Stelio!! Stelio Kontos! ♪Stelio!! Stelio Kontos How tough are ya? MOM klinko's STELIO STELIO klinke Holy Shrimp... No way! It can't be... but you're... Uh, right this way, sorry to keep you waiting. STELIO S

Spread

On June 8th, 2021, TikTok^[4] user @the_bleu_on3 uploaded a remix of Stelion Kontos' music theme, with the video (shown below) gaining over 150,000 views and 8,400 likes in three years.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6971536875009953029

The character did not achieve a significant presence in memes until 2024. On February 7th, 2024, X^[5] user @Duplighost_ posted a clip from the 2010 episode, commenting, "Stelio Kontos is my GOAT". The clip received over 2,800 reposts and 19,000 likes in six months.

On July 17th, 2024, TikTok^[6] user @Mr.jumbo_Wasookey posted a slightshow based on the 2020 Salty Spitoon meme which used the 2021 remix. The post garnered over 1.5 million views and 129,000 likes in two weeks.

Following the post, in late July 2024 the character achieved popularity on TikTok, where he was powerscaled against various characters and inspired other memes. For example, on July 19th, 2024, TikTok^[7] user @loneditria posted a fancam of Stelio Kontos that received over 1.2 million views and 65,000 likes in five days (shown below, left). On July 24th, 2024, TikTok^[8] user @thesandwich_0 powerscaled Stelio Kontos against a variety of Dragon Ball characters, with the video gaining over 2.7 million views and 240,000 likes in ten days (shown below, right)