A viral TikTok video shows a YouTuber bringing a group of shirtless men yelling “free the nipple” inside a Best Buy to harass an employee enforcing the store’s dress code.
Social media influencer JiDion posted the video that ended up reposted by @laughingmyassoff255 on TikTok and to Reddit’s r/PublicFreakout page. This version is essentially a shortened and recut version of the original 11-minute YouTube video on JiDion’s channel posted Sept. 28.
The video shows a shirtless JiDion being asked by a worker to put on a shirt while inside Best Buy. The store employee creates some dance to gesture “on or off” that the influencer pretends to be half-offended by.
“No, you see how she asked; it was polite,” he says, referring to a different employee who directed him to put a shirt on. “Just looked like you’re trying to hit the Milli or Woah on me.”
He decided to comply but asked the employee, apparently named Andrew, to turn around.
“If you can look the other way, it’s kinda like sus. Unless you roll that way.”
Andrew says, “Yeah.”
“Homosexual?” he asked. The employee once again confirms. But then JiDion attempts to give him a fist bump, which Andrew refuses. He winds up putting on his shirt, which says “Professional Rawdogger.”
JiDion is upset about the encounter, though he showed up shirtless with a camera crew. But he has a plan: “I wanna come in here with an army of people, just without shirts on.”
The next day, he has two dozen young men inside the Best Buy, and he’s pulled out a megaphone for his rally of sorts.
“Andrew, yesterday you discriminated me; you did not let me take off my shirt,” he yells. “Boys, uncircumcize!”
Suddenly, they all yell, hoot, holler, and take off their shirts.
He then chants, “It’s simple; free the nipple,” even repeating the phrase while standing on top of a boxed row of televisions.
After a cut, Andrew, the employee, is shown incensed and was escorted away into the employee lounge.
“Andrew, we are peaceful; you cannot run from this,” JiDion says. “We will not be caged any longer.”
The situation’s long devolved into mayhem, but they eventually make their way back outside.
“We’ve all been getting ready for hot boy summer,” he says. “We’ve been hitting out push-ups; we’ve been doing our pilates. But people like Andrew want us to hide our gains. We didn’t pay $69 for P90X to wearing a fucking shirt.”
“Today, we will be free!” he declares. “Today, we will embrace! Today, we will free the nipple!”
JiDion also made what looks like a campaign video complete with music. In his YouTube video, he said that an “anonymous source” told him the Best Buy managers knew about the prank in advance and told Andrew. It’s unclear if the employees were actually aware of the stunt.
Damning comments under the Reddit post of the video had JiDion laughing on Twitter; however, the comments made apparent the prevailing idea of his punching down on the LGBTQ and feminist movements strictly for laughs and views.
One person posted a detailed comment for the Reddit video: “God the way he switched the homophobia on and then tried to switch into ~ally mode~ when Andrew didn’t take the bait. So fucking telling.”
“Also like I’ll be the first to say that there might be absurdity in our social norms around nudity (I grew up in an area where it’s hot enough that it’s normal for people to go into certain kinds of stores shirtless),” they added. “But uhhhhh, none of that is our man Andrew’s fault. Harassing some retail worker because they communicated corporate policies to you is such an unbelievably scummy thing to do. Top it off with using “free the nipple” to mock legitimate feminist movements.”
“I don’t know if it’s better or worse if this whole thing is satire to him,” the comment concluded.
The Daily Dot reached out to JiDion and Best Buy for comment.
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