Gen Z YouTube icon IShowSpeed drew Beatlemania-level excitement and received a dignitary’s welcome from Mayor Daniel Lurie in the Bay Area Thursday, though he and his fans were not always on their best behavior.

People who are old enough to legally buy alcohol may not be familiar with 20-year-old YouTube star IShowSpeed, who started as a gaming streamer, then rode a few online stunts, sexist outbursts, and crypto scams into a 44.5 million subscriber audience. IShowSpeed hit the Bay Area Thursday as KPIX reports, as part of his national tour that kicked off August 28, and came through San Francisco and Oakland yesterday.

He is actually livestreaming non-stop 24/7 on this tour, and should you have that much time on your hands, you can watch his full San Francisco tour (a nearly 12-hour long video), and his full Oakland tour (also 12 hours long). Out of mercy, below we will cover just the highlights, and the lowlights.


One of Speed's first stops was SF City Hall where he was welcomed by Mayor Daniel Lurie, and Lurie’s trademark attempt at sounding enthusiastic and genuine. Though this is maybe smart politics by Lurie. While Lurie has been burned by associations with social media crusaders whose reputations went south, the outreach to young viral internet stars is something the Democratic party could maybe use more of.


IShowSpeed was also feted by the SFPD and the SF Fire Department, again, in a nicely choreographed scene that may affect the national discourse that portrays SF as some sort of lawless hellhole.


The day was not without its low moments. IShowSpeed was sort of a Pied Piper and drew thousands of fans following him around all day. But the above incident is just one case, over the course of his visits through Union Square, the Tenderloin, and Fisherman’s Wharf, where his security shoved people around, despite not particularly aggressive behavior by the fans.


Some fans were also on bad behavior. Here’s one motorist who held up traffic to get pictures of Speed, then promptly pulled a hit-and-run after running into a cyclist.


For the Oakland component of his visit, he visited the popular Hyphy Burger, certainly a nice aspect of Oakland to highlight. But as the YouTube star stood on top of a vehicle to take in his adoring crowd, KTVU reports that a sideshow broke out, which seemed to confuse him, and he declared, “I can’t watch this shit.”


If you watch more than just these snippets, you’ll see that IShowSpeed sometimes gives autographs to fans, and at other times he’s a real jerk. This is a 20-year-old attention whore and narcissist who’s putting a camera on himself 24/7, so you will see a mix of acts of kindness combined with acts of assholery.

Regardless, the kid’s livestream indicates he’s on his way to Las Vegas as of press time for this post (about 24,000 people are watching , though absolutely nothing is happening). So he’s somebody’s else’s problem now.

Related: In-N-Out Sues YouTube Prankster for Vulgar Video Where He Impersonated a Store Employee, Made Condom Jokes [SFist]

Image: IShowSpeed via Youtube