Sally Slices

Submission 5,806

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About

Sally Slices, also known as Salvatore Mandreucci or the Pizza Guy on TikTok, is an Italian-American TikToker known for his motivational content about owning a pizzeria in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He uses the same sound called "Jugaste Y Sufri (Slowed + Reverb) – Alwet" in most of his videos and many of them deal with being hurt, moving on and prevailing through hard times. Many online have created ironic content and parodies of him asking, "Who hurt him?" He started posting on TikTok in mid-2019 as well as having a presence on Instagram.

Background

Salvatore Mandreucci is the co-owner of Corleone Pizza & Grill^[1] in Philadephia alongside his father, Marcello Mandreucci, who originally made pizza in Bordentown, New Jersey (shown below, pictured left).^[2] Marcello Mandreucci studied the style of pizza made in Corleone, Sicily, from a man who frequented his Italian hometown of Carini, Sicily when he was a boy.^[1] He traveled to America at the age of 16 with his parents and went into the pizzeria business. He gave birth to his son Salvatore who eventually joined him in the business once he was old enough.

Online History

On August 30th, 2019, Salvatore Mandreucci posted his first TikTok^[3] to the account sallyslices, earning roughly 41,000 plays and 7,000 likes over the course of three years (shown below, left). However, Mandreucci didn't start posting en masse until February 2021. On February 10th, 2021, he posted a video^[4] that had text overlay reading, "Guys i own a pizzeria in philly / Im trying to get big on here to share my beautiful pizza with the world." Over the course of one year, the video received roughly 6,200 plays and over 300 likes (shown below, right).

On March 8th, 2021, sallyslices posted a TikTok^[5] that, at the time, was his most-viewed video and drastically increased his engagement. It was a sketch video about a Karen calling his pizzeria and over the course of one year, it earned roughly 1 million plays and 269,100 likes (shown below, left). On June 21st, 2021, he posted a video^[6] that showed a new sign on his store that read, "Sally Slices / The TikTok King / Corleone to the Moon," being an indication of his growing confidence. The video received roughly 912,600 plays and 70,700 likes in one year (shown below, right).

On August 22nd, 2021, sallyslices posted a TikTok^[7] that had a text overlay reading, "Rock bottom will teach you lessons…" with the tone of the video being sentimental and motivational. Over the course of 11 months, the video received roughly 2.5 million plays and 327,000 likes (shown below, left). Due to the success of the aforementioned video, sallyslices started to follow this style more often, whereby in 2022, the majority of his videos were sentimental and motivational. For instance, on May 19th, 2022, he posted a video^[8] that showed a montage of him making pizza, earning roughly 15.9 million plays and 2.7 million likes in one month (shown below, right).

Reactions and Parodies

As sallyslices appeared on more and more TikTokers' "For You" pages, he started to become a cliché on the platform. Many started to simply reference him as "That Pizza Guy." For instance, on May 26th, 2022, the TikTok^[9] account formulagym posted a video with a tweet screenshot reading, "Whoever hurt that pizza guy deserves hell," earning roughly 7.2 million plays and 1.1 million likes in one month (shown below, left). On May 29th, 2022, TikToker^[10] almond_mx5 posted a similar video, receiving roughly 1.8 million plays and 202,700 likes in four weeks (shown below, right).