itsChrisCrocker
Chris Crocker is an American internet celebrity and self-described “edutainer” who produces and acts in transgressive videos. In almost all of Crocker’s work he presents himself as an openly gay and effeminate Southern adolescent in a “small-minded town” in the Bible Belt where his sexual orientation and outspokenness are a “subtext… rarely addressed directly and never completely accepted.” The Tennessee-based Crocker, a stage name, keeps his identity and exact location private because according to him, and as seen in the public comments to his work, there are safety concerns and death threats in response to his YouTube and MySpace vlogs and profile. According to his MySpace profile, Crocker lives in Los Angeles as of January 2008.
Chros Crocker’s work consists mainly of short-form self-directed “monologues about life” shot in his grandparents’ home. As of May 2009, Crocker’s videos have received a combined 49.5 million plays on MySpace, and his vlog channel on YouTube is the 18th most viewed of all time in all categories, with over 153 million views. Although he has produced dozens of videos, Crocker gained international fame from his viral video tearfully defending pop singer Britney Spears’s “lackluster MTV comeback”; his video had over four million views in two days. The “Leave Britney Alone” video received international media attention, hundreds of parodies and criticism for Crocker.
Crocker’s detractors and critics have accused him of narcissism, melodramatics, histrionics, and using Spears’ personal shortcomings to bolster his own fame. Others have accused Crocker of acting in the “Leave Britney Alone” video, although he insisted it was genuine on a September 2007 appearance on Maury Povich’s Maury show.
In September 2007 Variety magazine revealed Crocker had signed a development deal with 44 Blue Productions to star in a documentary-style reality television show.
