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It’s been referenced on “Glee,” Olivia Wilde’s T-shirt and even turned into a nickname for a college football player, but the voice behind the wildly popular honey badger meme is just getting started.
It began in January of last year when, intrigued by a National Geographic video about the ferocious honey badger, Randall, a former TV extra who grew up on the Lower East Side, was inspired to add his own riveting commentary.
“I couldn’t believe that this insane and amazing video had such drab and dull narration,” he says. “I said, ‘You know what? This video needs a remix.’ ”
This son of a cameraman for Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom” was well-versed in the art of making animal videos. As a child, his parents encouraged him to talk through his father’s wildlife footage and explain what he saw.
His narration, which strikes a hilarious balance between sarcastic wonderment and exasperation, was an instant hit. The “Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger” video currently clocks in at more than 42 million views.
It’s inspired ringtones, apps and even the “Honey Badger Don’t Care: Randall’s Guide to Crazy, Nastyass Animals” book, out now.
Randall’s YouTube channel currently houses more than 20 similarly narrated videos, including footage about the Great White Sea-Monster, Platypus and Stiffy Goat, and he plans to keep adding more.
Randall, who goes only by his first name (because he hates his last) calls himself “the Cher of the animal world,” and initially preferred to stay completely anonymous — because “a narrator should be heard and never seen.” But eventually his iconic, if not exaggerated voice began to give him away.
“I’d be at the drive-through asking for fries and a milkshake and I’d hear, ‘Honey Badger?!’ ” he says.
The opportunity to go on a book tour convinced him to drop his veil of secrecy, and now a new partnership with AOL/Berman Braun’s PawNation is allowing him to step out even further.
He’ll have his own column and original video series on the newly relaunched site, where he’ll discuss important issues facing animals all over the world.
The first episode of the video series, which was shot in Tompkins Square Park, will go live Wednesday.
The column and video series will cover animals, and have a sense of humor, but it’ll also allow Randall an opportunity to be more serious. He’s already written about the importance of adopting pets — a cause that’s near and dear to his heart.
“When I was growing up my parents loved animals. It was less about going to the shelter and adopting an pet than it was just finding one on the street and bringing them home. My dad would always come back from work and find a new hamster or kitten,” he says.
His parents’ big lesson was one in responsibility.
“They let me have whatever pet I wanted, so long as I knew that I was responsible for taking care of it,” he explains. “That’s the big problem today; so many parents adopt an animal for their child and it ends up getting totally ignored.”
It’s probably tough to ignore his own four-legged brood at home, which consists of four cats — Laurel, Hardy, Beany and Cecil — and a guinea pig aptly named Guinea. The full house serves to remind him of why he’s in this business: “We’re not alone on this planet,” says Randall. “We share it with animals and we have to respect that.”