Joe Mele: How me and my Dad blew up on TikTok Instagram: Joe MeleIf you\u2019re on TikTok, you\u2019ve probably seen a video or two by Joe Mele. If you don\u2019t recognize him, you\u2019ll recognize his dad, whether it\u2019s for his strong Long Island accent, his references to \u201cTikTak\u201d or his uncanny resemblance to the restaurant critic from Ratatouille. Joe never set out on TikTok to get eight million followers when he posted his first video in December 2019, but it\u2019s a milestone he is about to reach. It\u2019s more followers than a large percentage of the creators who reside in collectives in Los Angeles, even a large majority of members of The Hype House (their newest member Olivia Ponton has 3.1 million followers). And what Joe has that stars such as Addison Rae, Charli D\u2019Amelio and Lil Huddy don\u2019t is his \u2018pops\u2019. Joe\u2019s dad, Frank Mele, first appeared on his TikTok in his eighth video, and viewers immediately recognized that accent. There were comments like: \u201cYour pa talks like Ray Romano\u201d, and \u201cWe need to protect his Dad at all costs.\u201d By incorporating his dad into sketches, Joe built up his following to more than seven million in under seven months. And it wasn\u2019t just his dad\u2019s \u201cboomer\u201d energy and New Yorker vibe which kept viewers hooked. In January, after countless commenters saying how much he looked like the restaurant critic in the Disney movie Ratatouille, Joe finally dressed his Dad up in that same outfit, with the right makeup. And it is Joe\u2019s most popular video to date with 50 million views, 12.6 million likes and 86,000 comments. Joe thinks this video alone gained him an extra million followers. Blowing up on TikTok can change your life It launched Joe into making TikTok his lifestyle. \u201cAt first I thought it would be all fun and games, that I could post whenever I want,\u201d Joe said. \u201cBut now that we have such a large following, I think it takes a lot more time and effort.\u201d Frank might be the star, but Joe is the brains behind the account: \u201cNormally he\u2019s like \u2018alright Joe what are we doing today?\u2019 I tell him, then we shoot.\u201d Joe now dedicates a large part of his day to keep up his social media presence. While it\u2019s summer, and he doesn\u2019t have to study, he spends his day writing skits and updating his social accounts, filming, and editing. He will often earn money through product promotions, and the offers come thick and fast; that\u2019s 10 to 15 a day. For Joe, it\u2019s a hobby, but he\u2019s keen to turn it into a career. With internet fame also come die-hard fans. Getting attention from his audience was weird to Joe at first: \u201cPeople were asking \u2018Joe do you have any siblings?\u2019 or like \u2018what\u2019s your mum look like?\u2019 and I was like \u2013 well why do you guys even care?\u201d The internet sensation was even given an offer to live in a creator house in Los Angeles, but he turned it down. Why? Because that\u2019s not his style. Outside TikTok, Joe\u2019s just a normal guy from a small town in New York State. He started posting as a joke and didn\u2019t realize it would blow up. He says that as the momentum began \u201cAt first a lot of home town people were like \u2018oh look at Joe Mele \u2013 he\u2019s trying to be somebody,\u201d but he says the reality is that his friends don\u2019t treat him any differently. \u201cEvery once in a while when I hit those milestones, when I hit 3 million, 6 million, 7 million, they\u2019ll always send me that text \u2013 like hey man, congratulations, I\u2019m really happy for ya!\u201d What\u2019s next for Joe Mele? TikTok gave Joe his internet fame, but like for many of the app\u2019s biggest creators, he has expanded outwards to other platforms. The threat of the US banning the app (because of its Chinese owners) makes that a necessity. When he\u2019s not filming sketches with his dad, Joe plays piano, saxophone, clarinet, and guitar, and he writes his own music. Or he works out with his friends or goes fishing with his dad. What about the possible end of TikTok? Frank says: \u201cRegardless of what happens, this won\u2019t be the end of our videos\u201d and Joe says: \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to make the content that you guys love\u201d, on Joe\u2019s Instagram and YouTube channel. But for now, Joe continues to amass millions of views on his TikTok daily. As Frank says \u201cJoe, I don\u2019t have time for this!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Joe Mele: How me and my Dad blew up on TikTok Instagram: Joe MeleIf you\u2019re on TikTok, you\u2019ve probably seen a video or two by Joe Mele. If you don\u2019t recognize him, you\u2019ll recognize his dad, whether it\u2019s for his strong Long Island accent, his references to \u201cTikTak\u201d or his uncanny resemblance to the restaurant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}