Khaby Lame attends a purple carpet on the 79th Venice Worldwide Movie Pageant in 2022.
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Kate Inexperienced/Getty Photos
Khaby Lame, well-known for his silently hilarious TikTok persona, was detained by immigration officers final week, in accordance with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Lame, 25, rose to fame whereas dwelling in Italy, turning into the most-followed persona on TikTok by creating comedy skits and skewering ludicrous “life hacks” promulgated on-line. He presently has 162.2 million followers on the platform.
Lame attended final month’s Met Gala in New York Metropolis, throughout a go to to the U.S. Officers say he overstayed his visa — however was allowed to depart the nation after initially being detained in Nevada.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Seringe Khabane Lame, 25, a citizen of Italy, June 6, on the Harry Reid Worldwide Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada for immigration violations,” an ICE spokesperson stated in an announcement to NPR.
Requests for remark from Lame and his administration firm weren’t instantly returned. His TikTok and Instagram accounts haven’t talked about his being detained.
ICE says the content material creator legally entered the U.S. on April 30 however remained within the nation past the date his visa allowed.
When requested for particulars concerning the visa — reminiscent of its period — NPR was informed: “The knowledge offered within the assertion is all now we have out there.”
“Lame was granted voluntary departure June 6 and has since departed the U.S.,” the ICE spokesperson stated.
Such departures are discretionary, in accordance with ICE’s pointers, and don’t entail “a elimination order and associated immigration penalties.”
Lame was born in Senegal and raised in Italy — of which he turned a citizen in summer time of 2022.
On the time, Lame was being been touted because the “king of TikTok,” after turning into the most well-liked account with greater than 140 million followers. However he informed Italian media that he hadn’t but been capable of grow to be a citizen within the nation the place he had lived since he was 1. Quickly afterward, a authorities official introduced Lame would obtain Italian citizenship.
Lame’s rise to fame began within the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, when he started to submit movies to TikTok, in accordance with an interview with La Repubblica. He rapidly turned a sensation, his quiet however dramatic on-line persona drawing comparisons to the comic Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean character.
Final fall, Lame even created a skit that blended footage of Mr. Bean — in an airport — with video of Lame portraying a safety officer.
Discussing Lame’s broad attraction, Payal Arora, a digital anthropologist at Utrecht College within the Netherlands, informed NPR final December that — together with being humorous — Lame likes to place social media influencers of their place.
When Lame produces movies highlighting the absurdity of influencers’ life suggestions, Arora says, his message to common folks is, “Hey, dangle on. They’re the idiots, not you. You are doing the conventional factor.”
