In less than three months, an 87-year-old grandfather has amassed a large following on the TikTok app, despite the fact that most of its users are teenagers. And for a long time he was unaware of the growing fame, explains Chris Stokel-Walker.
The video summed up the exaltation that many elderly members of society have felt. Joe Allington, from Lichfield, walked the alleys of his local supermarket, opening his eyes to the empty shelves he saw.
He returned home devastated, without shopping. This was before the government imposed strict social distancing measures and then Allington began self-isolation. He didn't really need to go shopping because he had been living with his daughter and family for 4 years, but the 14-second performance has now been seen more than 42 million times on TikTok.
This is Allington's biggest success since he started posting on TikTok three months ago as Poppa Joe. To his surprise, he has amassed 1.5 million followers on a platform that is generally valued for teens.
â??I donâ??t think older people see TikTok very well,â? Allington admits. "They're all young - seven and eight years old." Like many older people who encounter smartphone apps for the first time, he thanks his niece.
Allingtonâ??s youngest granddaughter, Brooke Paintain, 15, who has more than 65,000 followers on TikTok, first posted the videos during the 2018 Christmas holidays, months after the app joined the Musical Connections platform. ly.
"She was doing these weird dances that the kids did on TikTok and she was trying to get my attention," he said. But only in January of this year was he finally convinced to dance to a video.
Allington also starred in one of Brooke's videos on January 23. As she danced around him, he addressed followers on his TikTok profile, asking him to gather 10,000 followers. Within three weeks, he had more than 30,000.
â??I just donâ??t know why Iâ??m famous,â? he explains. "I've never been like that in my life."
He combines high drama and sadness with a strange side, shedding light on serious situations. In one video, he dances to the classic Oops song in front of an image with his green screen lying on the bed after a heart attack in 2019.
Another topic in his videos is the eating of 'donuts', which have been banned since the heart attack.
There are also references to the pain he feels from the loss of his wife, who died in 2009.
"Wendy forced me to do some acting for the videos, which I did. Wendy says, 'Dad, we're doing TikTok, we're doing this today.' Then I do as I have been told. I am very convinced, "he said.
One of the biggest challenges for the app is jumping. "I don't know how to wave my arms like that," he explains. "I can't do it!" Allington had no idea he was becoming a celebrity online, so he was shocked when Wendy told him he had more than a million followers.
â??Itâ??s really surprising to think that there are so many people who know me as a stupid old man,â? he says.
None of the friends know about his success. While forced to isolate himself from his family, Allington went out to dinner with them two or three times a week and attended a local karaoke club every Saturday night. But they do not belong to the TikTok generation.
Now that he has gotten to know the app better, Allington is using it to connect with people he doesn't see during isolation, the barista's nine-year-old daughter at his local club, and for example his great-granddaughter, Sasha. . But he also uses FaceTime and Houseparty.
