In a viral TikTok, influencer Quenlin “Quen” Blackwell cried and told viewers she bought a $100,000 couch by accident. She then asked if a millionaire could let her borrow some money to pay for it. The video sparked debate in its comments sections and multiple viral video replies, with users debating whether the story was a joke and criticizing influencers for appearing “out of touch” to the economic hardships people face.
In the video, which was posted earlier in the week and has over 4.8 million views, Blackwell cries and alleges she accidentally bought an incredibly expensive couch.
“I have to pull over right now because I’m about to fucking throw up. I just put on offer on a couch, and I was joking. I was joking, but I put in my card information, and it just charged my fucking account. I almost crashed my car when I saw it. … If you have a million dollars, can you please donate? Can you please donate, please? If you have a million dollars, can you let me borrow some, please?” Blackwell says in the video.
“I cant inhale,” Blackwell captioned the video.
@quenblackwell I cant inhale.
♬ original sound – quenblackwell
Blackwell is a long-time comedy and lifestyle influencer, starting in her early days on Vine and then moving to other platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. On TikTok, she has over 7.9 million followers.
Blackwell’s social media success has secured her ad deals with top brands like Amazon, Adidas, Beats by Dre, and Grubhub. She also collaborated with some of the wealthiest influencers on the app, like Charli and Dixie D’Amelio. As previously covered by the Daily Dot, Blackwell also publicly discussed living and working with famous musician Diplo.
In Blackwell’s recent video’s comments section, users debated if the $100,000 couch story was true. Viewers questioned why Blackwell would have put her card down as a “joke” for such an allegedly expensive item.
“Girl who puts in card info as a JOKE,” one user commented.
“Girl I can’t even feel bad what,” another responded.
Users also asked why Blackwell couldn’t appeal or cancel the alleged charge. Many viewers also questioned the amount of money Blackwell would have to have for a $100,000 charge to go through without getting frozen, saying: “That’s what you get for having 100,000 dollars.”
Blackwell has not posted any follow-up videos describing the reasons behind posting her video. Blackwell did not respond to Passionfruit’s request for comment via email.
However, Blackwell did pin a comment under her video from a viewer saying: “And the Oscar goes to…..[laughing crying emoji].” The pinned comment led many to believe Blackwell was joking about the couch incident.
While some viewers in Blackwell’s comments section viewed the video as a funny story, Blackwell’s viral video also sparked a multitude of critical video responses.
In one viral video response, which has over 800,000 views, TikToker Eric Perks (@ericperks) films himself responding to Blackwell’s video, saying: “Be fucking for real.” Viewers in the comments section criticized Blackwell for her video, saying they were surprised she asked millionaires to send her money.
“It’s insane how quickly ppl can become out of touch these days,” one user commented.
“She needs to call dixie and charli lmaooo what are we gonna do abt it,” another joked.
In a message to Passionfruit, Perks said he was “literally nobody” and that he didn’t want to “start beef” with Blackwell but found himself “annoyed” by her video. Perks also said he’s been feeling bothered by some of Blackwell’s other actions—like crying in many videos, publicizing a diet that many viewers thought was fatphobic, and launching a highly-criticized skincare brand—that he saw users online criticizing her for.
“I wasn’t expecting my tik tok to get any attention. I mainly was just commenting about her antics recently of her crying and just being honestly too much… It’s not that deep but the comments really opened my eyes to what a lot of people really think of her… Quen has let the fame get to her head and hasn’t been the same since her vine days where everyone adored her. Now it seems she does everything she can for attention. Crying for literally ridiculous reasons like spending 100k on a couch which people thinks she’s bragging that she actually had enough in her bank account which some feel is out of touch,” Perks said.
In one video with over 1.9 million views, commentator and TikToker Jordan Howlett (@jordan_the_stallion8) responds to the controversy stirred by Blackwell’s video.
“I’m not gonna lie to you here, with gas being $8 a gallon, I don’t think anyone’s gonna feel sorry for rich people right now,” the TikToker says. “Somebody said in the comments that’s their fault for having $100,000, which I think was the funniest thing I think I’ve read all day, and she said she did it as a joke. She’s not wrong, like I said, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.”
Howlett told Passionfruit he can tell Blackwell’s video was “likely a joke rather than actually being serious.”
“However, the message that I portrayed in the video still stands that there isn’t necessarily too much of a sense of empathy for anybody that makes well over a six-figure salary, or declared rich. So if the story was true, there really is no sympathy for that mistake,” Howlett said.
In another video with over 112,800 views, TikToker Aziza (@aziza.dearra) responds to Blackwell’s video and apparent wealth, saying the video was unrelatable.
“I don’t understand why the rich feel like they can just come and vent to us as if we give a fuck. Don’t you have rich close friends to bring those problems to, babe? What about this is relatable? … Why are you playing with your money to this extent?” the TikToker asks.
As previously reported by Passionfruit, displays of success have caused some creators—particularly Black creators—to face alienation for not being “relatable” like they were at the beginnings of their careers. Jackie Aina, a beauty creator with over 3.5 million followers, addressed the topic last year in a video titled “Black Influencers Aren’t Relatable and Don’t Post Anymore.”
Passionfruit reached out to TikToker Aziza for comment via email and did not hear back in time for the publication of this article.
