Yemeni Pirate Thirst Trap TikTok

Submission 10,131

Part of a series on Military Thirst Traps / Thirst Trap Propaganda. [View Related Entries]

About

The Yemeni Pirate Thirst Trap TikTok, also known as Timhouthi Chalamet, refers to a TikTok video uploaded by TikToker @rro1o sometime before mid-January 2024 in which the young man was seemingly on a boat participating in Houthi rebel attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea near Yemen. The video was reposted to Twitter / X soon after its virality where many joked about how attractive the man was, calling it a "thirst trap." Some also compared him to American actor Timothée Chalamet, leading to the nickname Timhouthi Chalamet. Overall, the discourse surrounding the viral video centered on the United States missile strikes on Yemen, the Israel-Hamas Conflict and the possibility of World War 3 as contrasted by the man's video akin to thirst trap propaganda. Soon after, Twitch streamer Hasan 'HasanAbi' Piker had the pirate on his stream where he revealed that his name was Rashid and that he was 19.

Origin

Starting in November 2023, Houthi forces in Yemen began attacking merchant ships in the Red Sea in protest of Israel's attacks on Hamas that resulted in the deaths of Palestinian people.^[1] The Houthis continued to attack ships through January 2024.^[1]

Sometime on or before January 15th, 2024, a TikToker named @rro1o posted a video of himself on a boat seemingly in the Red Sea amid an attack on a Western ship. In a separate TikTok (reposted by TikToker^[2] @qazwsxepojg) @rro1o is seen holding a Yemen flag and speaking of the country (shown below). As of January 16th, @rro1o's TikTok account has been deleted.

An Instagram post purported to be from an account belonging to the same person behind @rro1o, called @r42r43, posted a series of videos depicting similar scenes of men in military garb aboard a commercial ship. The earliest of these (seen below) was posted on November 29th, 2023, and received almost 1,900 likes in two months.^[11]

On January 15th, 2024, X^[3] user @comrademika reposted the video of TikToker @rro1o on the small boat in front of the larger vessel, writing, "yemeni pirates positing casual tiktok’s while the entire western imperial core are having a meltdown about their blockade on their ships is the funniest shit of 2024, surely." The tweet received over 11.3 million views and over 100,000 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on January 15th, a Community Note ^[7] was added to a similar post from X^[8] user @jacksonhinklle on the subject, which was rated helpful by January 16th. It stated that:

The ship is not Israeli, nor the video recent.

The Galaxy Leader, owned by the Japanese Nippon Yusen & sailing under the Bahamian flag, was seized by Houthi rebels on November 19, 2023.

No Israeli cargo was on the ship when it was seized, nor were any Israelis onboard.

The note linked to articles from Reuters^[9] and Aljazeera,^[10] as well as a dead link to MSN (shown below).

Spread

The tweet^[3] shared by @comrademika gained numerous viral replies and quotes that spread the video to others on the platform. For instance, on January 15th, 2024, X^[4] user @comrademika quoted the video, writing, "Timhouthi Chalamet," gaining over 57,000 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Also on January 15th, X^[4] user @al_isa_ claimed in a quote, "posting thirst traps while blockading empires is wild," receiving over 94,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Reactions and memes about the video became increasingly absurd, evident in a reply shared by X^[5] user @mameo_67 on January 15th, 2024, which used a Chad Face image to represent the Yemeni TikToker, earning over 9,300 likes in a day (shown below).

Later on January 15th, X^[6] user @DrewPavlou posted two videos from @rro1o's TikTok in which the first used filters, transitions and phonk music. The tweet received over 200 likes in a day (shown below).

Yemeni Pirate on HasanAbi Stream

On January 16th, 2024, Twitch streamer HasanAbi found and invited the Yemeni pirate on stream where he talked to him with a translator. The full-length interview was posted by the YouTube^[12] channel Hasan Reactions on the day of, gaining over 35,000 views in a day (shown below).

The Yemeni pirate's name was revealed to be Rashid and he said that he was 19 years old. HasanAbi also asked Rashid about One Piece early on to which he said that he'd been watching the anime since he was a kid.

[This video has been removed]

Clips from the stream were also posted by X^[13]^[14] user @Vorloe on January 16th, 2024, gaining millions of views in less than a day.