Brian Laundrie Lookalike Goes Viral As He Tries To Clear His Name — And Use His Resemblance For Good
He's not the real deal.
TikTok / Instagram A man who goes by the TikTok username @notbrianlaundrie has gone viral over the last week after responding to a claim that someone made about a Brian Laundrie sighting.
The man bears a striking resemblance to the missing Floridian fugitive but is not the same guy, and he has posted many videos to prove it.
NotBrianLaundrie's TikTok is all about clearing his name.
Bald, bearded white men everywhere are getting funny looks and accusations from strangers of being Laundrie — who went missing following his girlfriend, Gabby Petito’s, homicide and has a federal warrant out for his arrest for stealing $1,000 from her accounts.
Not Brian Laundrie is one of these men. After being spotted at a crowded bar by a random person and an accusation from a drunk stranger, he decided to take to TikTok to “put all of these rumors to bed.”
Despite posting some videos asking for advice on how to avoid these accusations, some people still don’t believe that he’s not Laundrie.
Someone replied to one of his videos saying, “jokes on us. This is Brian acting like [he’s] not Brian. [You’re] not fooling me sir.”
In another video, one of the comments read, “before I watched the video I was like ‘why is Brian Laundrie on my [For You page] right now.”
But Not Brian Laundrie seems to be taking to his newfound fame kindly — making jokes about his unfortunate circumstances and trolling the people who still don’t believe that he’s not the real deal.
One of his TikTok’s was a reply to a comment that read, “While hiking on the Appalachian Trail, what are your comfort items?”
Laundrie is believed to be hiding on the Appalachian Trail after several ‘sightings’ — which could very well have been other lookalikes — and after a friend of Petito’s claimed he once lived there for months.
Not Brian Laundrie’s reply was, “Beanie Babies. Never go hiking without them, they are instrumental.”
Some have criticized NotBrianLaundrie's TikToks.
Some people, however, don’t appreciate how Not Brian Laundrie is making jokes about looking like someone who is suspected of being a murderer and a fugitive to a crime.
“Am I the only one a tad disturbed by him using the resemblance to get views?” read a comment. “I just cannot believe that someone is even comfortable with making that be how they are known. Doesn’t make sense.”
This is something he seemed concerned about when he posted a TikTok about someone calling him while he was on a flight, asking to interview him.
“While I was on the flight, I did receive a call and a text from Inside Edition asking to interview me about this TikTok channel,” he said. “I don’t know how I feel about that, what do you guys think I should do?”
After a lot of the comments iterated that the media would try to spin him in a bad way — someone who was trying to cash in on a tragedy — he decided he would not be doing the interview, and even said “I do hope that the real Brian Laundrie turns himself in.”
NotBrianLaundrie has a plan to raise money for the Gabby Petito Foundation.
In a more recent video, he made a post about all the people who said he should wear a shirt that said: “Not Brian Laundrie.”
“How would you guys feel about me opening a store selling these shirts and then giving all profits to the Gabby Petito Foundation?” he asked. “I feel like something good should come out of this nightmare.”
The Gabby Petito Foundation was announced by her family during her memorial service and would aim to help bring missing children home.
Not Brian Laundrie is trying to turn a negative into a positive and help out however he can while staying away from the media and clearing his name.
He currently has over 110k followers and over 1.9M likes on TikTok.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.