Two teenage boys walk into Walmart holding a saxophone. People watch as one boy pulls out his phone. One records the other as he begins to play catchy notes. They follow a man and continue to record him. He turns around to yell at the two boys. “Would you stop that?” he yells. “Please. Stop.”
Juniors Colby Brock and Sam Golbach created a Vine account to become famous.
“We wanted to become known, so we thought the best way and the fastest way to do that was to be funny on Vine,” Golbach said. “We just decided to do Vine videos to get our name out there.”
The two had 30 thousand followers from Vine Feb. 25. Despite the amount of followers, they said they are not famous. Within a month’s time, Sam and Colby now have over 62 thousand followers.
“Well, maybe around this area [we are famous] because not many people Vine,” Golbach said. “But nationwide, we’re not even close. This is just the beginning. We consider ourselves ‘on the rise’ now.”
Brock said he considers one of his Vines to be famous — the first “Following Fat People” Vine. It reached over 170 thousand likes and over 198 thousand revines.
“‘Following Fat People’ was the most famous because it was really controversial,” Golbach said.
‘Following Fat People’ was the Vine that involved Golbach following a larger man playing the saxophone in the middle of Walmart. The man turns around and yells at Golbach to stop.
This Vine sparked many comments adding up to over 17 thousand. Both said they have received hate, but they try to ignore the hurtful comments.
“Hate means nothing to me at all,” Brock said.
Golbach said many people will comment rude things about the two and their families.
“For doing the big Vine ‘Following Fat People,’ we got death threats every day,” Golbach said. “Everyone would hate on us and would say we’re terrible people and our parents were terrible people. They wanted us to grow up, get fat and die. I just shrug it off because more people say ‘I love you guys’ and ‘You’re so funny.’ That makes it easier to cope with.”
The two said popularity has come with creating all of the Vines. They aren’t just famous on Vine, but even the hallways have changed when they pass.
“It’s pretty sad that once ‘Following Fat People’ came out, a bunch of popular people started talking to us,” Golbach said. “All of the sudden they were like, ‘Oh, you’re famous,’ or something like that — ‘I’m going to treat you with respect.’ It’s kind of sad for me because that’s all they pay attention to.”
The pair get asked by many people to be featured in the popular duo’s Vine.
“Lots of people have asked every single day [to be in our Vines],” Brock said. “I don’t even know who they are, but they come up and talk to me to be in Vines.”
Their support doesn’t only come from followers — they said their families support them and think their Vines are hilarious.
“They’re just like, ‘Wow, you guys are pretty popular,’ because they didn’t know about it until they saw it,” Sam said.
They said creating the Vines can be a lot of fun, but it has gotten the two into some trouble. Multiple Vines feature the boys wearing banana and gorilla costumes in local businesses. They’ve knocked down stands of grocery items in several different stores as well.
“I think our record is four grocery stores we have been kicked out of in one day,” Golbach said. “We get kicked out every week of places — people get so mad. But it’s OK, and it’s all for fun once people know it’s just stupid stuff.”
Golbach said they are collaborating on future Vines with Kansas Viner Jake Webber to gain more followers. Their Vines are becoming more popular every day. The amount of followers continues to grow as the days progress.
“We had a strategy in the beginning to go onward and upward,” Brock said.