Larri Merritt's Hype House Birthday Party

Overview

Larri Merritt's Hype House Birthday Party refers to a party thrown at the influencer house, hype house in late July 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic for TikToker Larri Merritt's 22nd birthday. The party hosted a number of unmasked influencers such as James Charles, Nikita Dragun, Charli D'Amelio and Tana Mongeau. The party drew criticism online for not abiding by social distancing recommendations during the pandemic and caused many of the influencers in attendance to apologize.

Background

On July 22nd, 2020, TikToker Larri Merritt or Larray was thrown a birthday party at the hype house which was featured in various influencer's Instagram stories. That day, Twitter user and YouTuber @tyleroakley^[1] tweeted, "hi @jamescharles @NikitaDragun @tanamongeau @larrayxo @charlidamelio @dixiedamelio & any others who have been partying in large groups – please consider social distancing, mask wearing, & using your huge platforms to encourage responsibility during a worldwide pandemic" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 47,600 likes and 6,900 retweets in five days. That same day, many Twitter users began responding to "happy birthday" tweets written by those who attended the party. For example, Twitter user @umidk111^[2] responded to @NikitaDragun by tweeting, "happy birthday to larray but partying during a pandemic is not cute especially when there’s no masks or social distancing. it’s funny how influencers love to preach about wearing masks and staying safe and go to parties every other day with huge crowds" (shown below, right). The tweet accumulated over 1,200 likes in five days.

Developments

On July 22nd, 2020, Larri Merritt^[3] responded to Tyler Oakley's tweet by saying, "i understand 100% where ur coming from & it was a dumb thing to do. I will do better & will actually take this shit seriously. appreciate you tyler much love" which received over 6,400 likes in five days (shown below).

On July 26th, Twitter user @defnoodles shared a video of Tanna Mongeau while at the party with Erika Costell saying, "Listen, we don't fucking care" (shown below). The video garnered over 1.1 million views, 8,900 likes and 2,900 retweets in a day.

That same day, James Charles uploaded the vlog video "A Day In The Life with James Charles" to his YouTube channel which followed Charles during the day of the party. Clips of the party were taken out and replaced by an apology (shown below, left). The video gained over three million views in a day. That day, Keemstar uploaded a video describing the controversial party at the hype house (shown below, right). The video acquired over one million views in a day.

On July 26th, Twitter user @erikacostell,^[4] who was featured in Mongeau's Instagram stories, released an apology and garnered over 5,100 likes and 460 retweets in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References