Johnny Bananas fired back at the backlash he received online after his remarks to a castmate went viral.
The Challenge star last appeared in MTV’s Battle of the Eras season, reaching the final with seven other castmates from a 40-person season.
However, Bananas didn’t add another championship, finishing in third place and receiving a smaller portion of the prize pool.
Following that, he also got snubbed as the competition show’s greatest competitor of all time, as castmates unanimously voted Season 40 winner Jordan Wiseley over Bananas.
In addition to appearing on The Challenge, he’s been going on other reality TV shows, including Peacock’s The Traitors and E!’s House of Villains.
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His latest was the Netflix dating show, Pop the Balloon, where his comments to a cast member drew the ire of some critics.
Bananas attempted to joke with women on Pop the Balloon
During Pop the Balloon, host Yvonne Orji asked Bananas which of the seven women on stage with him would most be his type.
“Let me start with the toes,” he said as he glanced down at the various women’s feet.
“She’s got really pretty toes,” he said, pointing at one of the women to his right.
“Me?” one of the women asked, seeming not to know who he meant.
“You’ve got really pretty toes,” he said to another woman to his right.
“You look like you sleep from a tree upside down,” he told one of the women standing to his right.
When he made the remarks, the video clip doesn’t show Bananas pointing to anyone specifically. Instead, it shows a few women’s feet, and someone gasped before others were heard, seeming surprised by his remark.
“Me? Was he talking about me?” the woman to his right in a blue dress began to ask, seeming upset as several other women laughed.
A clip surfaced on X (below) with the caption indicating Bananas’ comment was to the “black woman on Pop The Balloon.”
Social media commenters blasted The Challenge star
Once the clip surfaced, commenters had plenty to say about Bananas, with some questioning why The Challenge star keeps getting on television shows despite his remarks.
In the X comments, one individual asked, “Wait, what did Johnny Bananas even mean by that?”
Another wrote, “that’s a CRAZY thing to say and on tv???”
“johnny bananas stays problematic but we keep letting him on shows smh,” a commenter wrote.
Another commenter posted, “And any chance he gets he pulls out the racist card.”
“I can’t believe he said that on live tv… the audacity” an individual wrote.
Bananas fired back at critics’ online claims
Following the online backlash over Pop the Balloon, Bananas addressed the topic on X with a screenshot explaining who his comment was about.
The screengrab shows a woman to Bananas’ right wearing a green-patterned dress with her leg and foot extended before her. A red circle is shown around her feet.
“Hey morons I was actually talking about the WHITE girl whose toes were hanging over her shoes who is literally dressed like a f****** tree! It’s wild how fast some people can twist a moment into a false narrative. There’s real racism out there, weaponizing fake outrage for clicks cheapens it,” he wrote in his message.
In February, The Challenge star faced the wrath of online fans regarding another comment. As Monsters and Critics reported, a reply from his X account to a post from Big Brother’s Taylor Hale had a monkey emoji and banana emojis, drawing backlash from online critics.
It eventually got deleted, and Bananas explained that he hadn’t posted the comment. Instead, he said a company handling social media for him went rogue and was commenting on his behalf for a meme coin campaign he was involved in.
Bananas said he spoke with the Big Brother star to clarify what had occurred and said she understood. However, some critics continue to slam Bananas online for the X emojis reply amid his latest perceived controversy with Pop the Balloon.
The Challenge: All Stars Rivals airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.