Lee is speaking to Metro under a pseudonym as he knows publicly admitting he’s a manosphere fan is controversial (Picture: Getty Images)
‘Your accent and your looks…it screams incest, I’m not going to lie.’
‘Girls who don’t have a bunda – what’s the point? It’d be like being with a boy.’
‘I just like a tight minge.’
These are just a handful of charming one-liners from Harrison Sullivan, alias HSTikkyTokky, who recently rocketed from streaming star to international infamy after appearing in Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere.
After sharing his somewhat contradictory and hypocritical views in the 90 minute film (as well as being scolded by his mother on camera), 24-year-old Sullivan has been on the receiving end of Instagram pile-ons over the last month and mercilessly mocked online – and has since deleted numerous posts from his Instagram page.
Some might say, this is the just desserts of a pound-shop Andrew Tate who makes his money from espousing racist, misogynistic and homophobic views.
However, HSTikkyTokky’s humiliation across the world doesn’t seem to have put off everyone.
Following the success of the documentary, alongside Sullivan’s older fans steeling their resolve in supporting the star, his freshly-raised profile now boasts a combined one million followers across his social media platforms, welcoming a new raft of followers impressed by his outlandish antics.
Louis Theroux interviewed Harrison across days (Picture: Netflix)
Less than a month after his grilling from Theroux, fans have been feverishly clipping up his content and sharing it to other social media profiles, with currently over 300,000 tags for HSTikkyTokky on TikTok alone.
Sullivan himself adds that he has enjoyed newer widespread notoriorty since the documentary aired: ‘What did I say? I was the main f**king character,’ he said on a recent stream. ‘You guys doubted me! Theroux knows who he needs to put in to get them hits.’
Lee* is a 20-year-old student based in London. He has asked to go by a pseudonym as he’s acutely aware that HSTikkyTokky content is controversial, and that publicly admitting he’s a fan could lead to backlash, particularly in the wake of the Netflix documentary.
The 20-year-old first came across HS TikkyTokky in 2021, amidst the ashes of the pandemic, when Sullivan was posting workout routines. It was only later that the influencer would move towards his more extreme content – with Lee and many others following.
‘It’s just edgy boys chat on camera,’ insists Lee (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I think HS is really funny,’ the student tells Metro. ‘He’s just a ragebaiter that says things to provoke a reaction. And it’s obviously working, because the mainstream press won’t stop talking about him.
‘He just takes the piss and says things that many of us might think but never say out loud. It’s just edgy boys chat on camera.’
Lee explains that while other people might be apalled by Sullivan if they watched the documentary, he can relate to the influencer because he is young, laddish and unafraid to look stupid – it’s also why he prefers him to other manosphere influencers, such as conspiracy theorist Sneako or the Tate brotherss, whose content is increasingly nihilistic and angry.
When asked why he believes this sliding scale of extreme content appeals to boys his age, Lee replies: ‘The humour and how outrageous it is makes you want to watch – and then you end up watching more.
‘And it’s hard for boys to be real men. We keep hearing masculinity is toxic but, like… I want to be a provider. I want to have a good job and earn money. I want to be strong. We have so much pressure on us that women don’t have.
‘I think women do have it easier than men, in some ways.’
Worryingly, Lee’s response is not a particularly controversial take among those in his age group, with Gen Z showing less progressive values when compared to their older counterparts. A survey of more than 24,000 people across 30 countries revealed 57% of Gen Z men felt their nation had ‘gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men.’
Theroux also spoke with Nico Balinthazy, aka Sneako (Picture: Netflix)
Six in 10 Gen Z men also said they were being asked to do too much to support women, with 28% adding that a father who stayed home to look after his children is less of a man than those who went to work.
This may be why seemingly nice young boys like Lee are latching onto influencers like HSTikkyTokky – Sullivan’s ability to play up to the camera, in addition to his lavish Dubai lifestyle, makes him seem like a powerful figure worthy of emulating.
Seeing him on the documentary with Theroux only made Lee like Sullivan more, he says. ‘I think he made Louis look silly when he brought up his views on Israel and his friendship with Jimmy Savile. He showed the hypocrisy. HS doesn’t edit like a TV show, he puts it all for us to see.’
Lee isn’t strictly correct; in one particularly dark moment in Theroux’s documentary, Sullivan and his wider entourage become involved in a supposed child predator sting that goes awry, seeing one man get attacked. Sullivan removed the footage from his streaming platform, but it was clipped and reshared on other sites.
Shortly after Inside the Manosphere streamed, Sullivan then appeared on Piers Morgan’s YouTube show, Uncensored.
The supposed debate quickly devolved into mud-slinging, seeing Morgan pull the interview when Sullivan made personal comments about the TV presenter’s wife, Celia Walden.
Sullivan’s fans says he shut down Piers Morgan ‘nicely’ (Picture: Lia Toby/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA)
Again, Lee is quick to side with the influencer. ‘HS shut down Piers nicely,’ he says. ‘It goes to show he’s not stupid and isn’t afraid to challenge the mainstream.’
While the student mostly engages in TikTok clips and compilations of Sullivan, he has occasionally seen snippets of the influencer’s livestreams on platforms such as Kick.
Viewers got a glimpse of these in Inside the Manosphere, with Sullivan chanting ‘f*** the Jews’ and trying to get the phone numbers of women on the Marbella strip, referring to them as ‘tarts’.
Other livestreams see Sullivan deliberately winding up women – insinuating they are sex workers by asking ‘how much’ or being derogatory about their looks. On one occasion, he asks one woman whether her disabled child was ‘leng’ (attractive) in order to get a rise out of her.
Lee acknowledges the content is not exactly ‘woke’ – but adds that’s entirely the point.
‘It’s just banter,’ he insists. ‘He doesn’t actually mean it. He’s playing a character for the camera. Lots of people do that for a living – look at Borat.
‘It’s entertainment. HS never claimed to be a role model. If you look up to him, that’s on you.’
Sullivan has a huge audience on social media (Picture: Instagram)
Sullivan himself suggests he’s not responsible for his viewership nor is he a role model; as he told Theroux in the documentary, he’s putting himself on camera for money and clout – with misogyny evidently a currency that pays handsomely.
However, what makes the influencer – and those like him – so troubling is the nature of the content and the audience hungrily gulping it down.
Social media is the marketplace of the attention economy, with the algorithm rewarding content which exhibits more extreme behaviour. This, coupled with Sullivan’s young fanbase (the average age of TikTok users in the UK is between 18 to 24, but many on the platform are younger) can mean damaging and worrying views – which even if said in jest, can infiltrate and fester in impressionable minds.
‘Adolescence is a time of developing identity,’ explains Dr Emily Crosby, child and educational psychologist. ‘Due to changes in the brain, teenagers are more likely to be influenced by online peer groups and their peers even when consumed passively. These beliefs can become extremely entrenched that they feel like real life for these young boys.
‘Their brains are wired at this time to engage in risk-taking behaviours which a lot of this controversial content demonstrates. We also know that conformity is increased at this age where boys seek to find out social groups by engaging in similar behaviours.’
Algorithms can also push more extreme content, with some of Sullivan’s less offensive streams opening the floodgates to increasingly harmful diatribe, including those of accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate, and conspiracy theories.
Lee doesn’t believe he’s swallowed all of Sullivan’s streamed beliefs, and insists he wouldn’t speak to women and girls in the same way the content creator does for clicks as he ‘has a sister’ (Lee is, however, scathing about OnlyFans models, calling them ‘desperate attention seekers’ without a hint of irony).
The student also emphatically says he doesn’t agree with the antisemitic or racist content that Sullivan has pushed.
But Lee is no doubt right on one thing; Sullivan likely doesn’t care that Theroux’s documentary painted him in a poor light. Ultimately, all he wants is attention, as our views are his income. The Netflix documentary has only made sure that millions of people now know his name.
And despite the controversy surrounding the content creator, Lee and hundreds of thousands like him, remain unbothered.
They will continue to flick through videos, clips and livestreams fronted by HSTikkyTokky whenever they are bored and have their phone to hand. ‘I’ll keep watching his content, as long as it continues to entertain me,’ insists Lee.
Making it abundantly clear that the manosphere isn’t going anywhere.
*Name has been changed
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