A viral video showing a man being kicked out of a pizza shop sparked rumors that it featured Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy. The short clip shows a heated moment between a customer and an employee. During the exchange, the man is slapped in the face with a slice of pizza and then thrown out of the restaurant.
Soon after the video was posted on X (formerly Twitter), many users started claiming that the person in the clip was Portnoy. Given his fame for reviewing pizza in his “One Bite” series, the connection seemed believable to many.
However, Portnoy quickly responded online to shut down the rumors. He posted that it was not him in the video, even though it led to his name trending across social media.
He wrote, “Momma there goes that man again! The haters are so obsessed with me they make me go viral even when it’s not even me. That’s true power!”
In a playful tone, he added, “I’ve become a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. ‘Rat on your pop, and Portnoy will get you!’”
He also shared a screenshot showing he was the second-most talked-about person on X that night.
Despite his denial, some fans and even AI tools insisted the man was him. X’s chatbot, Grok, reportedly identified the person in the video as Portnoy. That made many users even more convinced, despite the clear differences in appearance between Portnoy and the man in the video.
One fan wrote, “That’s definitely @stoolpresidente, he can deny it all he wants. The level of embarrassment.” Another added, “Even Grok says it’s you. How could a computer be wrong?” A third joked, “Damn, I was hoping it was you because that pizza slap was EPIC. You clown.”
While this particular incident seems to be a case of mistaken identity, it’s not the first time Portnoy has been kicked out of a pizza place. In 2018, he was removed from Goodfellas Distillery in Lexington, Kentucky. There, a staff member asked if he had permission to film before asking him to leave. Portnoy later gave that restaurant a zero rating in his popular “One Bite” pizza review series.
This new video brought back memories of that past incident. But Portnoy’s strong denial and the visual differences between him and the man in the video suggest he’s telling the truth this time.
Still, the fact that his name continues to trend, even when he’s not directly involved, shows his lasting impact on internet culture. For better or worse, his strong public image makes him an easy target for rumors and jokes online.
In the world of online fame, going viral can happen even when you’re nowhere near the scene. This moment highlights just how fast misinformation can spread and how AI tools can fuel the confusion.
For Portnoy, it was just another day being the face of pizza reviews—and apparently, of random pizza fights too.
