The brief life and sudden death of Zyzz: why did the bodybuilding influencer die at just 22?
Long before looksmaxxers, Aziz ‘Zyzz’ Shavershian was famous online for posting workouts and rage-bait – until he died in Thailand in 2011. A new documentary
Long before looksmaxxers, Aziz ‘Zyzz’ Shavershian was famous online for posting workouts and rage-bait – until he died in Thailand in 2011. A new documentary reveals what really happened Decades before the extreme aesthetic trend of looksmaxxing, there was Zyzz. Aziz Shavershian was an Australian teenager who became a fitness influencer in the 2000s, filming his workouts and thoughts about the world on his Nokia and posting them to YouTube.
Zyzz was big in all senses of the word: many of his videos would see him flexing into unabashedly vain bodybuilding poses, hair feathered like an anime character, as he mocked his audience’s envy with slang straight out of bodybuilding forums: “U mirin’, brah?” He was skilled in rage-bait long before anyone had heard of it, creating accounts to troll himself in case the haters ever forgot to hate.
He started an anonymous Facebook page, titled “10,000 likes and I’ll bash Zyzz”, and, when the goal was reached, switched the page to one his protein brand. Then Aziz made headlines in Australia when he suddenly and unexpectedly died in 2011, at the age of 22. By that point he’d attracted more than 60,000 Facebook followers who either loved him or loved to hate him.
His global audience grew even more rapidly after his death as speculation grew about its cause. Fraudulent attempts to access the coroner’s report were made by people impersonating his family. Influencers made videos claiming he had faked his death. Zyzz “sightings” were posted for years. Continue reading...
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