Lakers Twitter Discovered Possible Catfish After Podcaster Disappeared From Twitter For a Few Hours
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The Laker Point Podcast debuted on March 23, hosted by Los Angeles Lakers fans Josh Toussaint (@josh2saint) and Vivian Flores (@Butterfly_424). There have been three episodes of the podcast recorded, but a fourth seems unlikely because "Vivian" has been accused of being a catfish and even if that's not a problem for the hosts, listeners are probably going to need a definitive answer before smashing that subscribe button. Lakers Twitter, and then NBA Twitter, has understandably become consumed by this story over the last 24 hours.
I watched some of this happen live last night and it is a lot to take in. More than any normal person whose brain has not already been rotted by the Internet would care to, but this could go down as a moment on par with Meet Me In Temecula when it is all said and done. With that in mind I will try my best to explain it with a huge help from BroBible, whose Jorge Alonso (@gifdsports) went to unspeakable lengths to understand this himself.
"Vivian's" @Butterfly_424 account tweets a lot, including 11 times on Sunday up to and including a tweet on Sunday night at 8:25pm Eastern. She also writes and tweets for Lakerfanatics.net; coincidentally, a post went up on the website today for the first time in three months. Before midnight on the West coast, Toussaint had tweeted that "Vivian" was missing and responding to people trying to help. She hadn't even been off Twitter for eight hours at that point. Toussaint posted a video of his DM's showing that Vivian's family had contacted him through Twitter to say she had been missing for hours. This was apparently just over three hours since she last messaged him.
— Josh Toussaint (@josh2saint) April 20, 2021
At 2:35am Eastern, O'Shea Jackson Jr. even retweeted Toussaint asking for help.
No way are you serious!?! Everyone please retweet this. Anyone in the area. Super dope soul please help. https://t.co/kpKlQ7B5W0
— O’Shea Jack(Nichol)son (@OsheaJacksonJr) April 19, 2021
Toussaint was apparently in contact with Lakers security via DM and said he drove from Van Nuys to West Hollywood to try and find her.
Why would I go out of my way to drive to West Hollywood when I live in Van Nuys other than to find a potential missing friend? I’m a valley kid pic.twitter.com/PX1sQ6PixS
— Josh Toussaint (@josh2saint) April 20, 2021
Presumably "Vivian's" family was concerned because she has leukemia. When the account next tweeted, less than 26 hours after the previous tweet, "Vivian" said she had "passed out from treatment."
Y'all be on here, hearing the side of the story of one guy and then automatically assume he is right about everything. I have people on here that can verify who I am. I don't need to prove anything to anyone. As for me going missing, yes it happened.I passed out from my treatment
— Vivian (@Butterfly_424) April 20, 2021
Toussaint was eventually convinced that "Vivian" was safe, but during that time period something else happened. Twitter user @ItsKingsBruh said he had been catfished by Vivian. He revealed this in a Twitter Spaces session, and yes, because it was happening on Twitter Kevin Durant was there.
KD was disgusted. pic.twitter.com/iWmnhjGRqC
— Brandon (@GPHatesThisApp) April 20, 2021
Then someone tweeted that "Vivian" had also been a member of Raiders Twitter under a different name and another person claiming the account went back 11 years. Then people started looking at "Vivian's" pictures, which appear to be photoshops.
i’m crying no way she was getting away with this pic.twitter.com/hxl1lW6x9c
— dev??♂️ (@ssodev) April 20, 2021
Very bad photoshop? pic.twitter.com/8iSTSztV2O
— SWIPA (@SwipaonLimit) April 20, 2021
Photoshopping yourself hooping overseas should be punishable by law. LMFAO
— Bus, the Art Guy? (@BillionBus) April 20, 2021
This is SICK pic.twitter.com/Dz4c4Pk91P
So attention then turned to Toussaint who suddenly had to prove that he himself was real. He provided proof of life on a live Twitter broadcast, something which "Vivian" has not yet done.
— Waleed Khan (@Wwaleeed5) April 20, 2021
Toussaint and Vivian both continue to maintain their innocence on Twitter.
I am gonna let y'all have y'alls fun tonight. Get all the jokes y'all want off me. When shit drops let's see who has the last laugh. Enjoy the game ✌
— Vivian (@Butterfly_424) April 20, 2021
Still haven’t gotten a goddamn explanation. Thought I trusted someone and learned my lesson. Tried to help a friend I thought was in peril. I was duped like yall and feel bad I was a pawn. Such garbage. Logging off for awhile. Stay safe out there. You never know ✌️
— Josh Toussaint (@josh2saint) April 20, 2021
I didn’t address this earlier in the day because I wanted to confirm with Vivian what happened and I didn’t receive that.
— Josh Toussaint (@josh2saint) April 20, 2021
I was also protecting my mental health bc rumors spread like wildfire no matter how accurate they are.
Thank you to everyone who reached out w/ compassion
So what do we really know? Well, the person running Josh Toussaint's Twitter appears to be a person going by Josh Toussaint who resembles the person in his profile picture. And that's about it!
We still don't know who "Vivian" is. Or who was on the podcast. One person tried to change the pitch on "Vivian's" voice and decided the person might be Australian. NFL Network's Patrick Claybon believes Toussaint might have created Vivian so he would have a cohost for the podcast.
Out of curiosity, I pitched down “Vivian’s” voice from the Lakers podcast to see what it sounded like without any potential effects that could be used to make it sound higher pitch. pic.twitter.com/sHeCidWF7K
— Mike Vigil (@protectedpick) April 20, 2021
Reader, when I suggest someone recorded themselves in a modulated female voice to laugh at their own joke but poorly clipped the audio...and i tell you I’m tweeting this with tears streaming down my face. Know I’ve truly lived pic.twitter.com/TUHZCga0dM
— Patrick Claybon (@PatrickClaybon) April 20, 2021
The point is, if she's really the young Lakers fan from those photos she can just jump on any social video platform and prove her own existence. Since she hasn't, the catfishing story seems somewhere between plausible and the actual truth. It certainly seems like Lakers Twitter has their very own Sarah Phillips situation. The only question is who is running that account? And when is the next podcast dropping?
UPDATE: "Vivian" attempted to prove she was real in a video, but misspelled the name "Vivian" and subsequently deleted the account the video was tweeted from.
M. Night Shyamalan strikes again pic.twitter.com/GOfyTpaj4w
— Bam Adobobayo (@Bam_Adobobayo) April 20, 2021