If you’ve been on the internet in recent times, you’ve no doubt seen people posting the phrase ‘Protein Bor’ underneath just about every single post.
But, did you know that this whole viral phenomenon started over just a couple of days because of a building site worker from the West of Ireland who posts fitness videos on TikTok?
Of course, viral trends these days are lurching ever more towards the niche – you just have to look at Binley Mega Chippy or Emmanuel the Emu for that – but this has to be right up there with the strangest of them all.
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Even the creator is surprised at how massive it has become, as you can see from this - incredibly sweary - video.
At the centre of this peculiar media storm is James Doyle, a 20-year-old lad from County Leitrim who works on a building site during the day and shares his fitness journey on his TikTok during his spare time.
He only started out in May but had quickly built a following of around 70,000 followers before he unwittingly developed a catchphrase.
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Speaking from his holiday in Mallorca, James told us: “I didn’t actually start it to be fair, I was doing protein bar reviews, but all of a sudden, I got comments under every video saying ‘protein bor’.
“It was just people taking the p**s out of my accent, and I didn’t mind that. Then, it was on the top comments of Irish Rugby – I saw ‘protein bor’,
“I was thinking ‘what the f**k is this’ so I made a video reacting to it and everyone started just going mental then. There were comments on everything, it went everywhere.
“All of a sudden before I knew it, it was in America, it was in England, everywhere.”
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Obviously, with this flash of viral fame has come an increase in followers for James.
He’s taken his 70,000 followers to 195,000 in a matter of days, making him one of the biggest TikTok stars in Ireland.
He continued: “I’m super happy – I made the account to get people better at the gym, I wanted to help people.
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“My dream is to be a personal trainer, and when I started my TikTok I wanted to show my story, because in a year I think I’ve made an amazing transformation and wanted to help people learn more about the gym.
“I also wanted to do a bit of comedy.
“I like to think I’m an entertaining enough lad, so I wanted to make comedy videos as well.
“It’s really good that he page has taken off now – obviously for my own f***ing benefit – but just to get more people in the gym, you know?”
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However, despite enjoying his 15 minutes of fame, James seems to have kept his feet firmly on the floor, and that these things are fleeting.
When he’s back from his holiday, he’ll be back on the building site.
“I’m working five days a week on the building site, but now that this is after taking off, I might finally be able to leave it, which would be fairly mental," he said.
“In terms of the personal training, I still think become a qualified personal trainer.
“Social media is grand, but I don’t think I’d be able to do it and that’s it.
“I’m a person who likes to stay active – even working, I love to stay working and I love a routine, and I don’t think that it would suit me doing the content creation full-time.”
Still, it’s nice to enjoy a small bit of fame whilst he’s got it.
As his catchphrase has become more famous, he’s started to get noticed out and about, even on his holidays in Europe.
“It’s actually mental. I’m in Mallorca and I’m getting f*****g recognised, people shouting ‘PROTEIN BOR’ at me."
It's all good fun, though as James concluded: “If someone asks for a photo that’d never annoy me now.
“I’m more like ‘what is going on here?’
“I can’t wrap my head around why someone would want a photo with some f*****g gobs***e from Ireland! So, I don’t mind it, I don’t think it would ever get annoying.
“Look, it’s a big deal at the moment, if anyone wants a photo I’m happy to take it, it’ll fade away like that, fairly quick.”
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Topics: Weird, TikTok, World News, Food and Drink, Viral, Ireland
Tom Wood