How Being Unconventional Made Anthpo One of the Internet’s Most Original Creators

Nowadays, there are so many ways to go viral. And in a Creator economy where everyone is vying to stand out and blow up, you have to be somewhat pioneering. 

Enter Anthony Potero, or as you might know him on YouTube, Anthpo.

The 25-year-old has built a following of 3.2 million across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, thanks to his viral content and stunt marketing campaigns that turn ordinary spaces into cultural events his fans want to be part of. 

Whether it's organizing a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in Washington Square Park or hosting a Super Smash Bros. match against his high school bully in Columbus Circle, New York, Anthpo has spent his young career revolutionizing viral content by putting himself out there and just having fun with it.

But what makes him so interesting isn't the content he makes-it's how he thinks. Because Anthpo didn't grow his brand by following some blueprint. He went beyond conventional norms and treated it as a playground for experimentation, committing to full ideas that many would have walked back on. 

Below, we'll dive into Anthony Potero, aka Anthpo, and witness his path from a college student making offbeat vlogs to the co-founder of a creative agency. 

We'll also break down the Creator strategy behind his rise, and how other Creators can take a note from his book and burst out of their bubble to make viral content their fans will want to be a part of.

From Absurd Ideas to Viral Moments: How Anthpo Got Started

Long before brands were flooding his inbox with partnership requests, Anthpo was just a teen from New Jersey, making content that didn't fit into any normal category. 

He went to Kingsway High School, where his content journey not only began, but immediately took him to heights he couldn't have dreamed of. 

His first YouTube video, "Harassing People with Fat Yoshi," which he posted in January of 2019, hilariously showed Anthpo handing out pictures of a fat baby Yoshi to his classmates in the hallways of his high school to the theme of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi Island.

The video resonated with millions due to Anthpo's complete lack of self-consciousness and the genuine, wholesome reactions it drew from his classmates. Proving that earnest, low-stakes silliness can be more disarming and entertaining than any scripted comedy.

With his first video being such a hit, Anthpo only began to scratch the surface of his YouTube potential. 

By the end of his senior year, he had made 17 more videos, each of which upped the ante of his weirdness and pranks, with the majority of them reaching virality, including his Perry the Platypus prank, which has since become his most-watched video to date. 

The College Years: Reaching New Heights of Weird

While high school may have planted the seed for Anthpo's content journey, college became the place for it to grow. 

In the fall of 2019, Anthpo attended Rutgers University, where he began developing the instincts that would eventually define his brand, with his gimmicks becoming more daring and his content becoming more polished. 

Early on, his videos revolved around funny one-off ideas, like dressing up as Perry the Platypus, pretending to be a cow therapist, or sitting in a crab costume watching people eat crab. The concepts were strange and memorable, but they were usually built around a single joke.

As his confidence grew, so did the size of his projects. Instead of creating content by himself, he started involving friends, classmates, and eventually entire crowds. 

Videos centered around Bakugan tournaments, silent discos, and gingerbread house competitions became opportunities to bring people together and turn everyday college life into entertainment.

Before long, he was organizing events that felt more like productions than YouTube videos, including a real-life Squid Game for cash-strapped college students, a volleyball tournament played in anime uniforms, and comedic reenactments of some of his favorite TV shows and cartoons.

By the time he graduated, Anthpo had become much more than a creator filming funny campus moments. He was producing full-scale experiences with stories, characters, and emotional payoffs. 

The Moment Everything Changed

In late 2024, Anthpo organized a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in New York City's Washington Square Park. On paper, the idea sounded completely ridiculous. 

There were no major sponsors, no complicated rules, and no obvious reason for hundreds of strangers to show up and compete to see who looked most like a famous actor. Yet that's exactly what happened.

The event quickly went viral online, but the real story wasn't the views. It was the turnout. Anthpo had discovered something powerful: people didn't just want to watch his ideas anymore, they wanted to be part of them. 

By turning internet jokes into real-world experiences, he created a level of audience participation that most Creators never achieve. His fans weren't simply consuming content. They were helping create it.

The success of the lookalike contest became a turning point in his career. Brands took notice, leading to more than 250 partnership inquiries between April and November 2025. 

Without intentionally setting out to do so, Anthpo had shown that he could create the kind of cultural moments companies spend millions of dollars trying to manufacture.

Instead of playing it safe, he doubled down on what made his content unique. 

This led to projects like Cheeseball Man, Kid with Crocs, and a Super Smash Bros. competition against his former high school bully that attracted crowds of Gen Z fans eager to watch in person.

What connected all of these events was Anthpo's willingness to fully commit to ideas that sounded absurd at first. 

Rather than watering them down, he embraced the weirdness and turned each concept into an experience people genuinely wanted to attend and talk about afterward.

From Creator to Creative Agency Founder

After the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest proved that his ideas could attract massive attention in the real world, Anthpo faced a choice. 

He could continue taking traditional brand deals like most Creators, or he could build something bigger around the type of experiences he was already known for creating. He chose the second path.

In the summer of 2025, Potero teamed up with Talia Schulhof, a former creative strategist and writer for MrBeast, to launch Pufferfish, a creative agency focused on helping brands create memorable cultural moments.

Schulhof oversees the business side of the company as CEO, while Potero leads the creative direction and continues producing content on his own channels.

What makes Pufferfish different is that it isn't focused on generating quick clicks or viral posts for brands. Instead, the agency specializes in creating campaigns that people genuinely want to talk about and participate in. 

One of its early projects for the language-learning app Airlearn included head-turning billboards across New York that displayed translations of Swedish words that look provocative in English. 

The marketing went viral, having people repost and comment on it all over social media, making it stand out from the endless stream of traditional advertising people see every day.

The company has also taken a different approach to growth. Rather than expanding as quickly as possible, Anthpo and Schulhof have intentionally kept the agency small. 

Their belief is that the creativity and originality that attracted clients in the first place could disappear if they grow too fast. 

By staying selective about projects, they can give each campaign the same level of attention and personality that made Anthpo's content successful.

Out With The Old, In With The New

In May 2026, Anthpo uploaded what would be the final video on his YouTube channel. 

In the video, he explained that years of being a public-facing Creator had taken a toll on his mental health, and he felt it was finally time to take a step back and focus on other projects that no longer had him front and center.

The video also gave him a chance to reflect on his career, acknowledge moments he regretted, and take responsibility for situations where he felt he had made mistakes. 

At the same time, he expressed gratitude for the community that supported him and for the opportunities his content created.

While the Anthpo channel is coming to an end, Potero made it clear that he isn't disappearing from the internet. 

Instead, he plans to focus on projects where he isn't the center of attention, including appearances on the Bunch of Friends channel, his work with Pufferfish, and other creative and community-driven initiatives. 

For Potero, this isn't a retirement from creating. It's simply the start of a new chapter.

What Creators Can Learn From Anthpo's Success

Anthpo's rise wasn't built on following trends, chasing algorithms, or copying what was already working for other Creators. 

Instead, he built a brand around experimentation, creativity, and a willingness to turn unusual ideas into experiences people wanted to be part of.

His career shows that some of the most successful Creators aren't necessarily the ones with the best production quality or the biggest budgets. They're the ones who create things people can't stop talking about.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to take your content to the next level, there are several lessons Creators can take from Anthpo's journey.

• Treat Social Media like a Testing Ground: Anthpo didn't wait for ideas to be perfect before sharing them. He used his content to experiment, learn what resonated with people, and refine concepts in public rather than behind the scenes.
• Commit Fully to Your Ideas: Many of Anthpo's concepts sound ridiculous on paper, but they work because he follows through completely. Audiences can tell when a creator genuinely believes in an idea, no matter how unconventional it may be.
• Create Experiences, Not Just Content: Instead of simply posting videos, Anthpo gives people something to participate in. Whether it's a contest, tournament, or public event, the audience becomes part of the story rather than just watching from the sidelines.
• Make People Curious about What Happens Next: Many of Anthpo's videos feel unpredictable because the outcome isn't guaranteed. Creating content with real stakes, challenges, or unanswered questions keeps viewers invested until the very end.
• Focus on Community Overreach: The Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest wasn't successful because people watched it online. It succeeded because people cared enough to show up in person. Strong communities create opportunities that views alone can't.
• Prioritize Originality Over Trends: While trends can help you grow quickly, original ideas are what make people remember you. Anthpo's career is proof that Creators who consistently bring something new to the table often build the most lasting brands.

At the end of the day, Anthpo's success comes down to one simple idea: make things that people actually care about. 

He built his entire brand by betting on creativity over comfort, and it paid off in a way that no algorithm could have predicted. 

If there's one thing his journey proves, it's that the Creators who leave a real mark aren't the ones who play it safe-they're the ones who go all in on the ideas everyone else was too afraid to try.