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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Jason Okundaye

The disturbing rise of Mizzy: this is what happens when culture values nothing but attention

Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, outside Thames magistrates' court, where he was charged with failing to comply with a community protection notice on 24 May 2023.
Mizzy, whose real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, outside Thames magistrates' court, where he was charged with failing to comply with a community protection notice on 24 May 2023. Photograph: Lucy North/PA

When I first came across Mizzy, now infamous as the “TikTok Terror”, it was in videos of him being chased by security after breaking into Alton Towers or riding an electric bike into a Sainsbury’s. He seemed annoying in a “kids these days!” kind of way, and I didn’t think much of it. But fast-forward a few months and Mizzy’s videos – his real name is Bacari-Bronze O’Garro – went to a very dark place indeed. The 18-year-old has provoked outrage for his abhorrent TikTok videos, which have seen him abduct an elderly woman’s dog, attempt to leapfrog over an Orthodox Jewish man, enter a stranger’s home without permission, and walk up to young people at night and ask if they “want to die”. He has since apologised, but you can only imagine the shocking and disturbing effect this “content” must have had on those involved.

Looking back on it, it almost seems as if this escalation in videos was built into the system: illicit bike rides aren’t enough to sustain the internet’s attention, you have to up your prank game and really force people to watch. Now bewildered and angry people across Britain have been understandably left with a series of questions. Namely: who is Mizzy and what does he want?

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