The internet is buzzing – gassed, you might even say – over this kid who reviews London’s fried chicken establishments.
His name is Chicken Connoisseur, and he presents The Pengest Munch, a YouTube series that has suddenly blown up in popularity overnight. The latest edition, Episode 6: Chick King (Tottenham), has passed 50,000 views after being shared across Reddit and Twitter.
The Pengest Munch sees the Chicken Connoisseur travel around London, visiting the cities greatest (and not so great) chicken shops. The thing about the Chicken Connoisseur is that he is a consummate professional, a born presenter.
He is, in a word, a legend.
Thig is though, despite his youthful looks, it turns out that the Connoisseur (real name Elijah Quashie) isn’t an enterprising schoolboy, but is in fact a 23-year-old man.
In fairness, he’d already said that he’s 23 on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/4wings_please/status/784493623601664000
But because he looks and sounds so young, it was widely assumed that he was a teenager, and that the above tweet was just a joke. However, BuzzFeed reporter Victoria Sanusi spoke to Quashie and confirmed that he is indeed 23.
And yet, the public still can’t believe it.
https://twitter.com/Adil_M97/status/807242199616389120
https://twitter.com/krissjay1/status/807241355516841984
Apparently the chicken kid is 23, this can't be true, I will not accept this 😂😂
— Michael 'Buck' Maris (@buckotb) December 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/youngvulgarian/status/807181237144219648
Even Members of Parliament are shocked.
wwwwhhhhaaaaatttt!
— Jess Phillips MP (@jessphillips) December 9, 2016
And if you ever needed confirmation of status as an icon, a Twitter poll on the subject of whether or not you’d bang said icon for bragging rights is a sure sign of it.
https://twitter.com/bridgetminamore/status/807254937524699137
Now the question is, does it matter that he’s 23? Obviously part of the joy of the videos was in thinking that a young lad at school had gone out and made these really excellent videos, but does the fact that he’s a grown man make them less joyful?
And to think, yesterday we didn’t even know who he was. It’s been a funny old year, hasn’t it?