The Real Spark
James Bates (born 1991 or 1992) is an American comedian, best known as The Real Spark and known for his parody news interview videos.
Personal life and education[edit]
Bates is based in Lafayette, Louisiana and was aged 29 in August 2021.[1][2]
He studied psychology.[3]
Career[edit]
Bates is a driver for Uber as well as working full time in video production.[3]
In 2020, he won a YouTube Silver Creator Award.[2]
In a 2021 parody interview that went viral on YouTube and Twitter, Bates played the fictional flight attendant Alfredo Rivera.[4] The video's release followed a real incident on a Frontier Airlines flight and was misunderstood by journalist Piers Morgan as authentic, prompting Morgan to tweet "This is utterly fantastic. We need more people like Alfredo in the world."[5][6] Television program Good Morning America also misunderstood the parody to be real.[7] On 10 August 2021, AFP Fact Check advised that the "social media sensation is a comedian, not a US flight attendant"[8] In December 2021, Madison Pauly, writing in Mother Jones, described the video as "sidesplitting".[9]
In 2022, Bates released a parody video about a man being charged for indecent exposure.[10]
References[edit]
- ^ "He's not a flight attendance, but plays one on the internet. Duct tape spoof goes viral". Miami Herald. 10 Aug 2021.
- ^ a b Houston, Molly (8 Sep 2021). "Comedian Goes Viral With Hilarious Video". Comedy.com. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ a b Bates, James (2021-08-17). ""My fake news interviews have been viewed more than 70 million times"". Newsweek. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Palmer, Ewan (2021-08-06). "Alfredo Rivera parody flight attendant video viewed over 5 million times". Newsweek. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Spangler, Todd (2021-08-06). "YouTube Comedian's 'Alfredo Rivera' Frontier Flight Attendant Spoof Video Goes Viral". Variety. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Vigdor, Neil (2021-08-03). "Passenger Arrives Taped to a Seat and Is Charged With Assaulting Flight Attendants". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Unruly passenger duct-taped to seat after allegedly assaulting flight attendants l GMA, 4 Aug 2021, retrieved 2022-07-26
- ^ Savage, Claire (2021-08-10). "Social media sensation is a comedian, not US flight attendant". Fact Check. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Pauly, Madison. "Hero of 2021: The flight attendant who duct-taped an abusive passenger". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
- ^ Logan, Ryan (2022-09-09). "Video: The Fake Interview Guy is Back". 94.7 WCSX. Retrieved 2022-09-10.