11/8/2023 0 Comments Pft barstoolPFT starts his mornings around 10 a.m., and on days they record the podcast he’ll be in the office past midnight. “The whole premise is mocking those hot-take sports shows that basically go in circles every single day,” said cohost Dan Katz, better known as “Big Cat,” one of Barstool’s earliest and most recognizable personalities. “Pardon My Take” is a comedy show that is disguised as a sports show, a spoof on the debate programming that fills the daytime broadcast schedule at ESPN as well as Fox Sports 1. The line between satire and reality continues to blur, and PFT, the most famous nameless guy in sports, was again facing that reality head-on. Sure, I’m satirically eating horse poop, but it’s real horse poop.” “I said it offhand as a joke, and it became something real,” he complained to them. His cohost and producer both insisted he follow through on his promise. But the Caps won, and PFT was suddenly mired in an unexpected excrement predicament. The podcast got some cheap laughs out of it while mocking the local sportscaster. Two weeks earlier, in an attempt to parody a Cleveland sportscaster who had made a similar promise, PFT said he would consume horse manure if his favorite team, the star-crossed Capitals, could somehow beat the Penguins. On a recent afternoon, the “Pardon My Take” crew was gathered in the studio, located on the third floor of the Barstool offices on the southern edge of Midtown, to plot its next episode. ![]() (At his request, the Post agreed not to reveal his name and many biographical details in reporting this story.)Īs his profile has risen, PFT finds himself in character for a bigger chunk of the day, at the same time seeing his real-life personality - easygoing and educated, nuanced and self-deprecating - bleed into the character during podcasts and videos. Already, he has been quietly outed on a handful of internet forums. The 33-year old man behind the character is fully aware that the more exposure PFT gets, the more his true identity is at risk of being exposed. With his misspelled missives and preposterously hot takes, PFT has somehow transcended internet fame while maintaining his anonymity he actually takes off his sunglasses in public when he doesn’t want to be recognized. He records online videos, cohosts “Pardon My Take” and will be the executive producer of a pair of other podcasts, all while finding new outlets for his online persona - including a parody rock band and spoofs of Alex Jones, the conservative conspiracy theorist. PFT writes columns for Barstool, the controversial and thriving sports media company that many deride as misogynistic. He’s so much bigger than a Twitter account now. That has made PFT a cornerstone of the burgeoning Barstool Sports empire, a striking perch for someone who not long ago was stuck in an office job, amusing himself by assuming the identity on social media of half-literate, know-it-all internet commenters like the ones he encountered on the NFL news site Pro Football Talk. The podcast produces three episodes a week each could be generating $50,000 in advertising revenue, according to a recent estimate in Sports Business Journal. ![]() He plays that character both on Twitter, where he has more than 500,000 followers, and on “Pardon My Take,” which registers upward of 1 million listeners per episode. ![]() His entire persona is satire, aimed at poking fun at traditional sports media, players and coaches who traffic in cliches and loudmouth fans raised in a smoldering universe of hot takes. It’s kind of refreshing, I think, for people to see what these clowns are doing. “Sports journalism has become self-important in the last five to 10 years. “There’s a space for what we offer,” PFT said of his popular show, “Pardon My Take,” the only sports program to crack the most recent top-20 list from Podtrac, the leading podcast measurement company. ![]() What started as a parody Twitter account ballooned into something no one could have predicted: one-half of the most popular sports podcast in the country, with a loyal following of fans who are desperate to laugh in a sports world that seems to grow ever more serious. (“Like a short Kid Rock,” he jokes.) But as often as this same sidewalk scene unfolds, the context remains bizarre. With hair that hangs past his shoulders and ever-present dark sunglasses, he’s hardly inconspicuous. “Can I get your picture really quick, man? I’m your biggest fan,” said a passerby, pulling out his ear buds. NEW YORK - Wearing dark sunglasses with an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder, the most unlikely sports media personality on the planet stepped through the glass doors and onto 27th Street to wait for his Uber.
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