It was ice cubes that tipped Shabaz Ali over the edge. \u201cA woman online spent her entire day making content about \u2018designer ice cubes\u2019,\u201d he recalls. \u201cShe\u2019d freeze flavoured waters or fruit juices and show the whole process in tedious detail. I was like, \u2018There\u2019s no way she\u2019s got a proper job or has ever struggled for money. Only someone wealthy would have the time to do this.\u2019 It vexed me, so on a whim, I made a reaction video saying \u2018On today\u2019s episode of I\u2019m Rich, You\u2019re Poor \u2026\u2019 Soon my TikToks were getting 30m views and thousands of comments. It blew my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ali, AKA @ShabazSays, has since become a cult celebrity for his sarcastic commentary on how the other half live. His scathing takedowns of the \u201crich and ridiculous\u201d have won him more than 4 million followers. Now he\u2019s transferring his viral fame to our TV screens.<\/p>\n
It all began when former chemistry teacher Ali, 32, took to his bedroom in Blackburn during lockdown and amused himself by mocking the smugly privileged. In his crosshairs were those who humblebrag about their perfect lives and woo-woo habits. Tongue firmly in cheek, he styled himself as \u201cKing of the Povvos\u201d and leader of the \u201c#PovvoGang\u201d.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was reclaiming an insult,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up working class and heard \u2018povvo\u2019 so much. The community we\u2019ve built is warm, honest and self-deprecating. They\u2019re saying, \u2018We don\u2019t have much but at least we\u2019re here\u2019. Povvo is a badge of honour now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The disconnect between influencers and their audience is increasingly jarring. \u201cThey post about bespoke Bentleys and private jets. Who are you making this for? [US socialite] Becca Bloom really bothers me. Millions of people watch her cats eating out of \u00a320,000 bowls. She has a \u00a3100k Louis Vuitton trunk full of Herm\u00e8s bags. Yet her followers genuinely think they\u2019re friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Ali\u2019s corner of the internet, a backlash was brewing: \u201cPeople were tagging me in dozens of videos per day, pointing out tone-deaf displays of wealth.\u201d He calls it \u201ca movement\u201d that is helping to move the dial on unrealistic standards. \u201cThere\u2019s been a massive shift in the last few years,\u201d says Ali. \u201cThe Kardashian era is over. We don\u2019t want airbrushed reality any more. We want it raw, authentic and unfiltered.\u201d<\/p>\n
double quotation markThe illusion of working hard and getting rewarded has been shattered. Young people dream of opulence but can\u2019t have it<\/p>\n
In these days of doomscrolling, aspirational figures fill a void. \u201cAs a teacher, I saw how social media warped teenagers\u2019 perception of the world. Wealth influencers, trad wives and Andrew Tate provide something that\u2019s missing from their lives. The illusion of working hard and getting your reward has been shattered. They\u2019re seeing their parents and teachers struggle. Young people dream of opulence but can\u2019t have it. They\u2019d say, \u2018I don\u2019t need to study, I\u2019m going into business. Richard Branson didn\u2019t do his GCSEs.\u2019 I was like, \u2018He\u2019s one person!\u2019 There are 3,400 billionaires in a global population of 8.3 billion. That\u2019s a lot of disappointed people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid the cost-of-living crisis, his videos provided a reality check. \u201cI was telling my students, \u2018This lavish stuff online isn\u2019t right. It\u2019s not real\u2019. That\u2019s why I started taking the mickey. It snowballed.\u201d<\/p>\n
His BBC documentary, Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad?, finds Ali investigating extreme wealth and its real-world impact. With his trademark playful wit, he asks whether the mega-rich are a symptom of a broken culture or if they can be a force for good.<\/p>\n
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Wealth hoarding gives him \u201cthe ick\u201d. \u201cWhat annoys me most is that the gap is widening,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re getting more billionaires, who are finding more tax loopholes and ways to hoard assets. I genuinely think 90% of them don\u2019t care. You can\u2019t be a billionaire and be a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a bid to understand more, he attempts to meet a billionaire in person. Ali approaches the Kardashians, Beckhams, Trumps, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Beyonc\u00e9 for an interview. \u201cKim K definitely saw my message. She didn\u2019t reply, though. A couple of people hearted it. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
double quotation markI grew up working class and heard \u2018povvo\u2019 so much. The community we\u2019ve built is warm, honest and self-deprecating<\/p>\n
Instead he meets a range of people who are both pro and anti-billionaire. These include the Green party\u2019s Zack Polanski. \u201cHe\u2019s the only person on the party political spectrum who\u2019s speaking out about billionaires,\u201d says Ali. \u201cEverybody else is too busy trying to protect their donors. Many of his arguments resonated. I\u2019m a lifelong Labour voter but might I vote Green now? Possibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spends time with Apprentice winner turned \u201ceight-figure entrepreneur\u201d Joseph Valente (\u201cfascinating character but he uses a lot of hairspray\u201d). He flies to the Colorado ski resort of Vail to stay with Phones 4U founder John Caudwell. \u201cI hate billionaires but I liked John, which was hard,\u201d admits Ali. \u201cI just think he\u2019s unaware of his own power and privilege. He told me, \u2018You can\u2019t whisper in the ears of governments. I had a meeting with Keir Starmer and he didn\u2019t take my advice.\u2019 The fact that he even said that sentence! You got into that room because of money. The prime minister might not have taken your advice but there\u2019s someone whose advice he did take. I admire John\u2019s philanthropy but fundamentally we still disagree. Your rich friends are still wankers, mate!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Fascinating character but he uses a lot of hairspray\u2019 \u2026 with Apprentice winner Joseph Valente. Photograph: BBC\/Hello Mary Limited<\/p>\n
Ali takes the opportunity to poke around inside Caudwell\u2019s kitchen, hoping to find one of the vast \u201ccurated\u201d fridges he satirises online. \u201cI genuinely thought I was going to get the internet lifestyle with everything neat and labelled but it was like a normal person\u2019s fridge. It was dirtier than mine!\u201d Did making the film challenge Ali\u2019s views? \u201cIt didn\u2019t alter my beliefs, it cemented them. I still think we don\u2019t need billionaires and they should be doing more for the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s told that if we make billionaires pay more tax, they will leave the UK and take their wealth with him. \u201cLet them go!\u201d he says. \u201cLet\u2019s look over the hill and see if the grass is greener. It\u2019s just scare tactics. They ain\u2019t going anywhere. They\u2019ve benefited too much from this country and have too much of a stake here to suddenly leave. Tax them, I say. Tax diamonds. Tax yachts.\u201d He laughs. \u201cIf they don\u2019t pay up, move them all to the Isle of Wight and turn it into a giant prison for rich people.\u201d<\/p>\n
This future star\u2019s debut documentary ends with a shameless appeal for a full series. \u201cWe\u2019ve already started talking about the next film,\u201d he says. \u201cSkincare, cosmetics and plastic surgery is the route I\u2019m keen to go down. Shabaz asks: can I turn back time? That\u2019s the question I want to pose. Watch this space.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, he believes society is approaching tipping point. \u201cI think we\u2019re on the brink of something big,\u201d says Ali with a twinkle of zeal in his eyes. \u201cPeople are so sick of wealth inequality. We\u2019re French Revolution era, ready to overthrow Marie Antoinette.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad? airs on BBC Three at 9pm on Tuesday 28 July and will be available on iPlayer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was ice cubes that tipped Shabaz Ali over the edge. \u201cA woman online spent her entire day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-703752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}