Teriyaki Papi From TikTok Disappeared at the Height of His Popularity — What Happened to Him?

The Gist:

• TikTok user Teriyaki Papii (@tpbaby2000) gained a massive following during the 2020 quarantine.
• He mysteriously vanished from his social media platforms in the same year.
• There are several rumors surrounding his disappearance.

When the world was effectively shut down in March 2020 and everyone had to quarantine safely in their homes in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, folks who weren't essential workers found (or tried to find) different ways to pass the time when stuck indoors. If we weren't working from home, we were catching up on backlogs of TV shows and games, trying to pick up new hobbies or rekindle old ones, and generally taking our minds off of our deteriorating society at the time.

If you were on TikTok at the time, you probably found yourself playing videos for Teriyaki Papii aka @tpbaby2000. This popular content creator gained a massive following starting in the early days of the quarantine with his videos have generated millions of views each. However, loyal fans will have noticed his absence over the past few years. What exactly happened to Teriyaki Papii? Here's what we know about the rumors surrounding his indefinite hiatus.

In case you aren't aware, Teriyaki Papii is a content creator who uploaded several humorous skits onto his profile. Though he was on TikTok for a while prior to the 2020 pandemic, he began gaining popularity around April of 2020 during which many people were stuck in their homes swiping through their phones and social media. His TikTok currently has over 3.5 million followers and many of his 2020 videos have reached well over a million views if not upwards of six million.

But while he once posted almost daily on TikTok, he no longer posts at all. His last video was uploaded on Dec. 29, 2020. Since then, Teriyaki Papii has not posted any new TikToks and has seemingly disappeared from all of his social media accounts.

His last known social media post was made on Twitter on Jan. 17, 2021. Ironically, it was a retweet of another user who claimed that at the time, Teriyaki Papii was one of the most popular creators on TikTok.

Naturally, his many fans have been clamoring for an explanation. As recently as 2023, people have commented on Teriyaki's old 2020 videos and posts asking what happened and whether or not he's okay. He has not responded to any such comments, prompting plenty of rumors on how he's doing.

For highly-popular content creators like Teriyaki Papii, a sudden and unexpected bout of radio silence from your platforms is rather unusual. As such, plenty of his fans have speculated that he died at some point. However, these are just rumors and there is no real way to confirm his living status without an official announcement.

Folks have also claimed that he stepped away from the platform to focus on his music career, but he has also not posted any new music in years.

Unless he makes a surprise announcement, we may never know what exactly happened to Teriyaki Papii.