In late March, TikTok user @joozyb accused former Impractical Joker Joe Gatto of sexually assaulting her when she was 19 years old. She provides screenshots of flirtatious messages that show him inviting her back to his hotel room, where the assault allegedly occurred. I found her story terribly saddening, and yet, to my horror, I opened the comments and saw people responding against her. “You need to provide more proof”, “you’re treating this too lightly”, “you could’ve just blocked him”, “Def a clout chaser”, “why would you go to his hotel room”, and so many more like these.
It baffles me that we are living in a world where a girl shares her trauma online in hopes of garnering support and getting justice, only to be faced with nothing but victim blaming from the accused celebrity’s superfans. I believe that parasocial relationships are leading us down a dark and unprecedented path in our modern society. We have considered the dangers of this culture to the celebrities themselves when it comes to the stalking and invasion of privacy that it can lead to. However, it’s time we expanded the conversation to how this celebrity interaction can allow guilty celebrities to be so easily forgiven.
For context, a parasocial relationship can be defined as when someone feels deeply connected to a media personality or celebrity. This can lead to feeling like they know them personally, even when they don’t, which is incredibly harmful when it blurs that essential line between fan and friend. This then manifests in reactions such as “They wouldn’t do that” when people’s favorite celebrities find themselves being accused of serious crimes or involved in any sort of scandal. But the truth is, there is no way for a fan to know if a celebrity would or wouldn’t do something if they are just a fan.
I want to ask these diehard fans, what is it that’s making you defend them? The fact that they make you laugh? Maybe their content comforted you in a dark time? Unfortunately, these don’t equate to someone being a good person behind closed doors. Hardly anyone is immune to certain celebrities’ charming interviews and entertaining career projects, but that has to be where it ends. Just because someone “seems” nice in their on-camera content, at the end of the day, they’re a celebrity. Once cameras are off, they don’t have to be nice or good to get by or maintain their success.
The internet and social media have allowed us to feel closer to our favorite celebrities and artists than ever before. We can engage with their art as well as their personal lives and beyond. I think this has been somewhat beneficial in terms of accessibility to certain people’s creations and careers, but it has also served to create a severe lack of boundaries between celebrities and fans who are essentially strangers to each other. There is a big difference between following someone’s career and being in a position to be able to defend their character.
As always, people will believe what they want to believe. No one wants to believe that their favorite celebrity might actually be a monster or even kind of bad. Take Joe Gatto, for example, a talented comedian who made people fans of the show “Impractical Jokers”, a show that has probably made people smile on their darkest days. It can be difficult to process when accusations like this come out about a beloved celebrity, but this is when separating art from the artist is so crucial. I think “Impractical Jokers” is a great show with funny moments from Gatto, but none of that validates dismissing accusations against him.
Going forward, I hope we can distance ourselves from celebrities a bit more. Not in a way that dehumanizes them, but rather acknowledges the simple fact that we fans know nothing about these people on our screens. They deserve respect and privacy just like anyone else, but they also deserve to be held accountable for their actions just like anyone else.