| “ | Forgotten no more. | ” |
―Saladino for Congress | ||
Joseph Saladino (born December 10, 1993), better known online as Just Viral TV (formerly known as Joey Salads), is an American YouTuber and political commentator. He is mostly known for his pranks, social experiments, and vlogs.
Personal life[]
Saladino grew up in Prince's Bay, Staten Island, New York City. He was raised as a Christian and went to a Catholic school. His parents are immigrants, and he has two younger sisters. He attended St. Joseph by-the-Sea High School, a private, co-educational school, and worked as a pizza delivery boy at age 16. His former boss has stated that Saladino "tweaked operations" to force the restaurant to run more efficiently.
Saladino attended classes at the College of Staten Island but claims to have "learned nothing" there and dropped out to pursue his YouTube career.
Content[]
Salads began his YouTube career on September 4, 2012, performing pranks on his friends in public places. He was also known for his Vines.
In 2015, he began conducting a series of "social experiments." He has collaborated with Boris Laursen and Jack Vale. Some of his pranks have been criticized as controversial or racist.
He dated South African social media star Tanisha Coetzee, but the two broke up in March 2018.
Political aspirations[]
On May 9, 2019, Salads formally announced he was seeking the 2020 Republican nomination to represent New York's 11th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, hoping to unseat Democratic incumbent Max Rose.
Despite having no professional political experience, Saladino began campaigning for the Republican primary in New York's 11th district, which encompasses Staten Island and a small section of Brooklyn. His campaign raised a total of $66,704.22 during this time, $450 of which was then donated to Roger Stone's legal defense fund. Saladino withdrew his candidacy on December 13, 2019, and stated his endorsement for fellow Republican candidate Joe Caldarera. He has been accused of running to boost his public profile.
Saladino was incorrectly identified as attending the "Unite The Right" protest at Charlottesville after a photo of him wearing a swastika armband began circulating on Twitter. Saladino was in Jamaica during the event, and it was discovered that the image was taken from a prank video he had uploaded months beforehand. He filed a formal complaint against congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in response to the congresswoman blocking him on Twitter, citing a ruling that prevents elected officials from censoring speech on public forums.
He has expressed support for US President Donald Trump.
Saladino was removed from the social media platform Twitter in May 2020. A spokesperson from Twitter stated, “the account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of our platform manipulation and spam policy.”
