Liver King

Submission 24,647

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About

Brian Johnson, known online as Liver King, is a creator and influencer on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube known for his health, diet and lifestyle content based around ideologies of "ancestral health and living." His appearance aids to his virality, having large muscles, tan skin and a thick beard. Additionally, he refers to his audience as "Primals." He started posting content to TikTok and Instagram in mid-2021 despite speculation that he started sooner. He is also known for his degree in biochemistry regarding supplemental nutrition, as well as aligning with alpha, Chad and Sigma Male discourse in memes. Eating raw meat is also an essential part of his content, similar to Raw Meat Experiment. In late November 2022, emails were leaked that revealed Liver King was taking $12,000 worth of human growth hormones (HGH) every month. HGH is often mistaken for steroids, however, they are ultimately parallel substances. The reveal led to controversy and viral discourse in the bodybuilding and fitness community.

Background

Liver King's real name is Brian Johnson. According to his website called liverking.com,^[1] Johnson "has dedicated the past 20 years to reviving the primal patterns that progressed the sole surviving species of genus Homo." He goes on in his about section to emphasize the meaning of "ancestral living." Essentially, it means to live simply in regards to how one eats, sleeps, lives and exercises.

According to Johnson, his name is Liver King because, "our early ancestors always favored the Liver first," regarding the liver as a "nutritional powerhouse" in what it does for the human body. For Johnson, taking care of one's liver is first and foremost and he lists ancestral heritage as evidence of this.

Johnson also claims that he has a degree in biochemistry. He states that he wrote a thesis on the chemistry and biochemistry of supplemental nutrition. He also labels himself as a "primal blueprint certified health coach" (shown below).

Additionally, on his website, Johnson has available an eBook written by him called, "The 9 Ancestral Tenets." He also has an interactive part of his website that lists them all: Sleep, Eat, Move, Sheild, Connect, Cold, Sun, Fight and Bond.^[2]

Online History

Liver King started posting content on August 19th, 2021, to both his Instagram and TikTok accounts. There's speculation that he started posting content sooner but his first, still-accessible videos were each posted on the 19th. For instance, his first Instagram^[3] post received roughly 249,300 views and 8,500 likes over the course of six months (shown below, left). His first TikTok^[4] received roughly 315,300 plays and 14,100 likes in the same amount of time (shown below, right).

On August 24th, 2021, he posted his second TikTok^[5] that received a lot of attention, gaining roughly 1.5 million plays and 152,500 likes over the course of six months (shown below, left). The virality of this TikTok effectively gained him a following on the platform. It is possible that he went back and deleted TikToks posted prior to August 2021 in order to portray a clean slate for this new audience, however, this is just conjecture. On September 6th and 7th, 2021, Liver King posted two TikToks that each earned over 2 million plays (shown below, center and right). Each demonstrated what he deemed, "Super Barbarian Training."

On October 19th, 2021, Johnson reposted his original video to YouTube, earning roughly 102,000 plays over the course of four months (shown below, left). By December 2021, Johnson had grown a large enough following to garner attention from other fitness content creators. For instance, on December 19th, the YouTube channel Garage Strength posted a video titled, "Liver King | The UNTOLD Truth," where the video's host, Dane Miller, analyzed and critiqued Johnson's 9 Tenets. Over the course of two months, the video received roughly 220,330 views (shown below, right).

As Liver King grew a following going into 2022, he started to be parodied online. For instance, on December 17th, 2021, TikToker^[6] londonlaz posted a Liver King parody, earning roughly 383,200 plays and 26,800 likes over the course of two months (shown below, left). On the contrary, Liver King also started to grow a fandom where other TikTokers that he called his "Primals" started posting their own content mimicking him. For instance, on January 7th, 2022, TikToker^[7] millerkopp posted a video of him and his friend imitating and idolizing Liver King's videos, earning roughly 961,300 plays and 115,900 likes over the course of two months (shown below, right).

Podcast Appearances

In May 2022, Liver King was a guest on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast. The most viral clip from the podcast was uploaded to YouTube^[16] on May 11th, 2022, titled, "LOGAN PAUL ALMOST PUKES EATING LIVER KING’S RAW MEAT!" earning roughly 1.3 million views and 18,000 likes in six months (shown below, left). On September 29th, 2022, Liver King was a guest on the H3 Podcast with Ethan Klein and Hasan Piker. In two months, the YouTube^[15] video received roughly 1.1 million views and 33,000 likes (shown below, right).

Liver King HGH Scandal

On November 28th, 2022, the fitness YouTube^[10] channel More Plates More Dates posted a roughly hour-long video titled, "The Liver King Lie." The video started off with an introduction to Liver King's online history, background and "primal" philosophies. Then, at the 31:57-minute mark (shown below), the video transitioned into a segment called "The Emails" in which the host, Derek, surfaced redacted emails between Liver King and an unnamed bodybuilding coach that allegedly showed Liver King buying approximately $12,000 worth of human growth hormones (HGH) every month. HGH is often mistaken for steroids, however, they are ultimately parallel substances.^[11] Over the course of two days, the YouTube video received roughly 1.4 million views and 85,000 likes.

Following the release of Derek's YouTube exposé, the news spread across social media. For instance, on November 29th, 2022, the Twitter^[12] account Outkick tweeted the news along with screenshots of the emails, gaining roughly 75,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Many internet personalities reacted to the news,^[14] such as YouTuber Cr1TiKaL who quote retweeted ^[13] Outkick's tweet,^[12] writing, Can’t believe the Liver King lied, I was just about to get on the raw testicles diet too. Shame," gaining roughly 82,700 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Reactions

Liver King Throwing a Spear

On October 11th, 2021, Liver King posted a photo to his Instagram^[8] of him throwing a spear with the camera capturing him mid-throw. The post received roughly 24,300 likes over the course of four years (shown below, left). The now-suspended Twitter user acompleteredo then used the image in a tweet that captioned it, "baby in stroller spoted," reposted to places like iFunny^[9] (shown below, right).