Squeezing Lemons into Lemonade with Supreme Patty

With 6.3 million followers and counting, Supreme Patty is one of the most talked-about 20-year-olds on social media. In his short time on Instagram, he’s built a brand on pranks, stunts, and crazy challenges that have captured the attention of content sites such as WorldStarHipHop and celebrity entertainers like Tekashi 6ix9ine. However, few have stopped to ask how this social media sensation was able to rise to the top and accumulate such a dedicated network of followers. Well, it’s time you heard the truth from the source and maybe we can all learn a thing or two about how to grow a following on Instagram.

Back in high school, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I kind of went back and forth with a lot of different ideas. I grew up country and my parents split up early on. On my dad’s side, we lived on a little farm and I was around bull riding and horses. When I was super young, I wanted to bull ride but then I grew up. When I got into high school, I was a lifeguard and thought about getting into beach patrol. But then I went to college and all this happened.

And how did all this happen exactly?

We were just broke college kids and bored, with a lot of free time. So we started to make content and Orlando Brown reposted one of our first videos. We got a little bit of attention from that and from there, we just kept moving forward. Originally, our content was food videos and we did the hot dog contest to try to beat Joey Chestnut’s record. I ended up not being able to do it but we already had the attention going and decided to switch things up with crazier shit.

You’ve been able to establish a following of over six million on Instagram alone. How did you keep all of those eyes on you and what you were doing?

I made sure to be consistent with everything that I did by posting everyday or every two days. From there, I noticed other pages like WorldStar reposting what I was doing and my page grew through word of mouth.

You’ve established a brand as a prank channel and with that, what’s the craziest stunt that you’ve done for a video?

The craziest stunt was probably when we went to England and we did the cheese rolling contest. It’s a big hill where a bunch of people will roll a ball of cheese down it and try to beat the cheese to the bottom. People have broken legs trying it and it’s crazy.

Many of your videos deal with you inflicting pain on yourself by putting lemon juice or hot sauce in your eyes. Can you remember the first time you decided to put something in your eyes for a video?

It might have been my manager Millz’s idea. We were still in college at the time and were hanging out in our dorm. We had some lemons and peppers lying around, so we decided to do a video where I ate the pepper and took a shot. Then we randomly decided to put the lemon juice in my eyes and it stuck around as part of our videos.

A handful of your videos feature cannabis in them in some shape or form. What’s the craziest weed-related video that you’ve done thus far?

One of the craziest videos that we’ve done was filmed around 7/11 Slurpee Day. We would bring in a four-foot bong, fill it up with Slurpee, and hit it in the store.

You’ve created a crew that you roll with, known both as the Lil Dick Gang and the Shrimp Gang. What went into coming up with those names and what unified you as a group?

We did a video where I randomly said something about little dicks and people went off about it in the comments section. I kept it around for a while and then we switched over to the Shrimp Gang because it’s more family-friendly. My crew consists of Millz (my manager), Ryan (a vlogger), Draco (an artist), Wide Neck, Long Neck, and Kush Papi.

What made you build your brand around the clothing company Supreme?

We made our Instagrams back in seventh grade and I went on a website that was an Instagram name generator. Supreme Patty actually came up on that site and I made that my name before I ever had any idea I would make Instagram my career. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the brand.

In many of your videos, you make a point to help out people who are less fortunate than you are. Why is this an important message to share with your following?

I like influencing other people to go out and do the same thing. In the past, we’ve bought people hotel rooms, clothes, and food, but sometimes we just take people out to have fun like going bowling for the day.

What advice would you give to others trying to make it as an influencer?

If you are trying to come up, make sure to always be consistent. That’s the most important thing. And don’t let negative people bring you down. That’s always been hard for me having acne. Especially in the beginning, my manager helped influence me to even start because my acne used to be a lot worse. But I think that I can help people with acne to go out in public and do their thing without being afraid to be themselves.