Famous Amos / Black Man In An Orange Suit

About

Famous Amos, also known by his username @famousamos_sofunny, is an internet comedian and dancer most known for his public dance videos in which he stops traffic or disguises himself, only to pop out and perform his signature moves. He started on Instagram in 2017 but moved to other platforms like Facebook and Twitter. He's always accompanied by his hypeman, @ipodthedj3x, who holds the camera for him. On TikTok, many users referred to Amos as the "Black Man in an Orange Suit," posting videos about him appearing places.

Background

Famous Amos' real name is Amos Brazan, and he was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He went to high school at Northside High School and attended college at Mississippi Valley State University. According to his Facebook page's About section,^[1] he's only had two "real jobs" in his entire life: a busboy at a TGIFridays in Downtown Memphis and a lifeguard in North Memphis. In college and after graduation, Amos started doing stand-up comedy, hosting events and other jobs within the entertainment industry. In 2017, he won "Comedian Of The Year" in Mississippi.

Online History

Famous Amos started posting content online in early 2017, originally on Instagram. On March 24th, 2017, he made his first Instagram^[2] post, being a video of him dancing in a crowd at MVSU (shown below). Over the course of five years, the video's received roughly 320,000 views and 24,400 likes.

The video shows him doing the "I Bet You Won't" Challenge, something Amos came up with in which he performs a dance to the song "I Bet U Won't" performed by Mouse And Level. A music video for the song (shown below) was uploaded to YouTube on May 6th, 2017, where over the course of five years, it received roughly 11.1 million views.

On March 27th, 2017, the YouTube channel Jovan YN reposted Amos' first Instagram video, receiving roughly 3.4 million views over the course of five years (shown below). This repost in particular circled a lot of engagement back towards Amos' Instagram page.

Famous Amos continued to post dance content to his Instagram going into the remainder of 2017. For instance, on June 13th, 2017, he posted a video^[3] of him doing the "I Bet You Won't" Challenge wearing a white cowboy hat and vest. He stopped traffic in the video to perform the dance. In the background, the viewer can hear his hypeman, @ipodthedj3x, shouting, "Turn him up!" in reference to the strangers in their vehicles. He even jumps on the strangers' vehicles in the video to add to the nonsense. Over the course of five years, the video received roughly 231,100 views and 18,100 likes (shown below left).

On November 1st, 2017, Amos decided to dress up as a crossing guard in a neon vest in order to stop traffic. In the video,^[4] he also dances to "I Bet U Won't," stopping traffic again and causing chaos. Over the course of five years, the video received roughly 583,900 views and 45,700 likes (shown below, right).

Amos posted his first Facebook^[5] post on November 20th, 2017, being a video of him pretending to be a UPS delivery guy. Over the course of five years, the video received roughly 11,300 reactions and 12,800 shares (shown below).

Amos continued to post comedic, dance content going into 2018, 2019 and 2020, solidifying his style over the course of many years. He started receiving mainstream attention as well. An example of this was when he performed during a Sacramento Kings NBA game on February 13th, 2018, reposted to YouTube by the channel DELTA (shown below).

In early 2022, many of Amos' videos were reposted to TikTok, bringing about a resurgence of interest in his content. For instance, on March 5th, 2022, a video posted by TikToker^[6] declanryann received roughly 2.1 million plays and 570,700 likes in 18 days (shown below, left). On March 22nd, 2022, a repost from TikToker^[7] eddie.2024 received roughly 3.1 million plays and 597,300 likes in one day (shown below, right).

As of late March 2022, Amos has amassed roughly 816,000 followers on Instagram^[8] and roughly 734,500 followers on Facebook.^[9]

Black Man in an Orange Suit on TikTok

On April 18th, 2019, Famous Amos shared a video to Facebook^[10] in which he was wearing an orange suit at the doctor's office. The song "I Bet U Won't" started playing in the background and he got up to perform the challenge throughout the doctor's office, going into different rooms and bothering patients (shown below, left). The video is captioned, "#ThrowbackThursday," alluding to the original video having been deleted or removed. It was likely posted in 2018, around the same time as another video of his was posted which was posted on October 30th, 2018 to Instagram^[11] in which he was wearing the orange suit again, this time emerging out of a closed coffin on the back of a flatbed truck. This second video received roughly 1.7 million views and 156,200 likes over the course of five years (shown below, right).

In March 2022, multiple TikTokers had rediscovered Famous Amos' videos due to multiple reposts on the platform going viral. As a result, many started to make jokes within their videos about "a black man in an orange suit" appearing out of seemingly nowhere to ruin their day or disrupt the setting they'd imagined.

On March 21st, 2022, TikToker^[12] anne.frankes.bussy posted a video that used the song "I Bet U Won't" and had text overlay regarding his wife giving birth to the man in the orange suit, earning roughly 952,200 plays and 165,700 likes in four days (shown below, left). Also on the 21st, TikToker^[13] sstummy posted a video wearing hospital scrubs, making a joke about Famous Amos surviving death and then proceeding to dance throughout the hospital, earning roughly 63,200 plays and 10,600 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References