{"id":448,"date":"2026-02-09T13:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/?p=448"},"modified":"2026-02-09T13:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:46:18","slug":"7-internet-influencers-who-completely-destroyed-their-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/7-internet-influencers-who-completely-destroyed-their-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Internet Influencers Who Completely Destroyed Their Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internet fame is a lot like a sugar rush: intense, addictive, and usually followed by a brutal crash. Here are seven influencers who experienced a decline so chaotic, you almost have to admire the efficiency of their self-destruction.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1. Salt Bae (Nusret G\u00f6k\u00e7e)<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>Terminal Cringe & Greed<\/span><\/i> Salt Bae is the blueprint for “how to lose your cool.” He started as a suave meme but quickly morphed into a Bond villain parody, charging $1,000 for gold-leaf steaks that critics described as “over-salted shoe leather.” The final nail in the coffin was his unauthorized invasion of the 2022 World Cup pitch, where he desperately pestered Lionel Messi for a selfie and physically grabbed the trophy. In 2024 and 2025, reports surfaced that his burger joints were closing and his profits were tanking\u2014proving that no amount of elbow salt can fix a bad reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. The Liver King (Brian Johnson)<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>The $12,000\/Month Lie<\/span><\/i> For years, Brian Johnson screamed at us to eat raw bull testicles and sleep on wooden planks to achieve his “primal” physique. He built a supplement empire on the claim that he was 100% natural. Then, a leaked email revealed the truth: he was actually blasting roughly $12,000 worth of steroids into his system every single month. The “Ancestral Tenets” crumbled overnight, turning him from a fitness guru into a punchline about modern snake oil.<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. Colleen Ballinger (Miranda Sings)<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>The Ukulele Apology<\/span><\/i> When serious allegations surfaced regarding Ballinger’s inappropriate relationships with young fans, she didn’t call a lawyer or issue a solemn statement. Instead, she uploaded a ten-minute video titled “hi,” where she aggressively strummed a ukulele and sang about being a victim of a “toxic gossip train.” It is widely considered the worst apology in the history of the internet. The tone-deaf performance didn’t just fail to clear her name; it nuked her career and became a case study in PR suicide.<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. The Island Boys<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>15 Minutes That Felt Like 15 Years<\/span><\/i> Franky and Alex Venegas (Flyysoulja and Kodiyakredd) burst onto the scene with a viral freestyle in a pool that was so bad it was good. But they misunderstood <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> they were famous. Instead of leaning into the joke, they started beefing with everyone, getting booed off stages, and trying to sell crypto scams. Their decline wasn’t a sudden explosion but a sad, slow fizzle into irrelevance, leaving them to hustle low-budget Cameos to pay the rent on that Florida Airbnb.<\/span><\/p>\n

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5. Ned Fulmer (The Try Guys)<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>Hypocrisy of the Highest Order<\/span><\/i> Ned\u2019s entire online brand was “The Wife Guy.” He built his fortune and reputation on loving his wife, Ariel. So, when he was caught having a workplace affair with an employee, the internet didn’t just get mad\u2014they got the ick. The hypocrisy was too thick to ignore. He was swiftly fired from his own company, edited out of videos, and effectively erased from the group’s history, proving that if you monetize your marriage, your infidelity becomes a business transaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

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6. Chef Pii (The Pink Sauce Lady)<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>Botulism Roulette<\/span><\/i> Chef Pii went viral on TikTok for a neon pink dipping sauce that looked intriguing but arrived at customers’ doors exploded, smelling of rot, and lacking basic FDA labels. Instead of fixing the shipping issues, she argued with customers, claimed she didn’t know what “FDA approval” meant, and accused people of sabotaging her. What could have been a million-dollar business deal turned into a cautionary tale about food safety and why you don’t mail dairy products in the summer heat without ice packs.<\/span><\/p>\n

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7. Boogie2988<\/span><\/h2>\n

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The Crime: <\/span>The Slow-Motion Car Crash<\/span><\/i> Once a beloved gaming YouTuber known for his “Francis” character, Boogie’s fall has been dark and uncomfortable. Over the last few years, he has spiraled through bad financial investments, crypto-scam controversies, and public meltdowns where he begged fans for money to pay his mortgage. He went from a sympathetic figure to a “lolcow” (someone the internet watches just to mock), culminating in a sad decline that feels less like a cancellation and more like a tragedy broadcast in 4K.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Internet fame is a lot like a sugar rush: intense, addictive, and usually followed by a brutal crash. Here are seven influencers who experienced a decline so chaotic, you almost…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","category-exclusives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gleamgrid.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}