Steve Harvey’s nephew is under fire after a 10-year-old prank call weaponizing transphobia for laughs resurfaced on TikTok.
Thomas “Nephew Tommy” Miles once called up a man, Marcus, and pretended to be a guy named Bryce looking for his long-lost family member. In the audio recirculating on TikTok, Miles asks about Marcus’ wife of five years, Tina, and mentions a birthmark on her shoulder.
“I’m certain that your wife, Tina, is my brother, Tim,” Miles says.
The punchline is that Marcus loses it, cursing and angry at the idea that he has been “sleeping with a man,” ultimately saying that if it’s true, “Bryce” will have a “dead brother.”
Marcus spends more time denying the possibility in the longer version of the audio, and Miles eventually comes clean, admitting that Tina set up the prank herself.
Miles is the nephew of Family Feud host Harvey and co-hosts The Steve Harvey Morning Show radio program. Miles, who is also a stand-up comedian, often makes prank calls on his uncle’s show. A 2012 album hosted on Spotify called Nephew Tommy’s Prank Phone Calls Volume 2 contains recordings of Miles’ prank calls, including “Your Wife is My Brother Tim.”
The Daily Dot reached out to a representative for Miles via email. When reached by phone, a representative for Harvey declined to comment.
The audio clip circulating on TikTok is condensed to just 1 minute, amping up the violence of Marcus’ reaction, and has been used in more than 2,300 TikTok videos.
TikTokers are pushing back against the clip and the transphobic premise of the prank. One user utilized and critiqued the audio in a duet video that by Thursday had over 218,000 views.
“This is beyond harmful,” the user, @milliamss, wrote. “Y’all wonder why some trans women don’t disclose. They picked this topic because they knew the exact type of response they were going to get.
“Violence against trans women isn’t a joke,” @milliamss continued. “Not only that, had the man decided to hang up the phone before they reveal it was a prank there’s no telling what he could’ve done to his wife. They put her in harms way. Sht ain’t funny. In the slightest.”
“How is this a joke?” one viewer replied. “Imagine if it was serious and he would have actually hurt her.”
“When I first heard this I never found it funny and I never will,” @jeekoejae agreed.
“Bro five years—he loved her [just] fine for five years and was so quick to turn to violence,” said @not_da_good_boi.
Even though it was a prank and Tina isn’t really transgender, the fear that a partner could turn violent after learning someone they have been with is trans is a reality that many transgender people, particularly women, live with. The Human Rights Campaign reported a rise in “violent acts,” both fatal and non-fatal, against transgender people in 2021.
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