This post was updated Sept. 25 at 11:19 p.m.

Nikocado Avocado has stirred the YouTube pot, demonstrating the inauthenticity of microcelebrity culture with a spicy revelation.

On Sept. 6, YouTuber Nicholas Perry released a mukbang video, slurping up noodles and making small talk in his iconic red shirt. Better known as Nikocado Avocado, Perry has been making this kind of video for almost a decade, periodically gorging himself on extravagant meals for an audience of millions.

Some people tune in for the food, but many are here for Perry, who has developed a villainous reputation. As he gained weight – presumably from the elaborate mukbangs – he gradually shifted the blame for his troubles onto his boyfriend, his audience and the world at large. He would viciously scream at his partner one moment, only to then whine and moan the next, cultivating an audience that simultaneously loathed and pitied him, with a degenerate strain of fatphobia mixed in.

But on Sept. 6, the illusion broke.

Because Perry lost 250 pounds, seemingly overnight. He was not throwing around food and complaining about how much he weighed. Instead, he was mild-mannered, a little awkward and seemingly reveling in the moment. The awful persona the internet came to know was a ruse – he told NBC news he lost the weight over two years, occasionally posting pre-recorded content as he underwent a metamorphosis off camera. It is perhaps the biggest transformation in YouTube history, corresponding with one of the grandest audience manipulations.

Perry fooled millions. In an era of parasocial relationships with internet celebrities and the desire for authenticity from creators, he offers a reminder that online audiences must heed but often forget: they do not know anyone on the internet. Perry is an extreme case, but it is certainly not unusual in its basic components.

Nikocado Avocado is not Perry but instead a fictionalized version of its creator. But for some audiences, the real and fictional become conflated, leading audiences to treat them – and perhaps even believe them to be – as one. Perry certainly did not work hard to distinguish them, using media appearances and videos to indicate that his personality was that of Nikocado Avocado and vice versa.

In other words, Perry was attempting to convince the audience that the videos they watched were authentic reflections of himself. And he succeeded in his gambit – much like countless other influencers and online celebrities.

In many cases, the goal of an influencer is to be perceived as authentic. Advertisers will even shill out immense stacks of cash to microinfluencers because of their intimate connection with their audiences. For most people, the primary pathway to an audience relationship is authenticity, convincing users that they are connecting with another human being, rather than a well-constructed brand disguised as a typical social media account.

This does not need to be a malicious or inherently manipulative practice. Livestreamers presenting themselves to an audience for hours each day ought to put safeguards around their real personality and character, if only to preserve their mental health and evade abuses from followers. But it still means there is a rift between audience expectations and reality – they perceive a relationship with a creator but are truly only interacting with their persona. In most cases, this leads to little more than uninformed parasocial relationships. But in the worst cases, audiences are robbed of their money based on false pretenses or enable abusers to rebuff allegations because of how kind and loving their persona is.

Perry himself exploited this rift, seemingly plotting to make his hate watchers present themselves as inept by revealing the immense weight loss and personality gap between the persona and the real person – or, at least, the supposed “real” personality he is now presenting. The public had little reason to believe Perry was any different than the videos he was posting, and the reveal was so startling that over 40 million people felt compelled to witness it firsthand.

This revelation reaffirms the need for audiences to approach internet celebrities with skepticism. They may not be deviously manipulating their audiences as Perry did, but many internet celebrities make little effort to distinguish between the characters they play and their true personalities. Users must never forget that on the internet, there is no requirement – and often adverse incentives – to present one’s real self.

In such an environment, audiences need to be on the lookout for inauthentic, cooked-up personas among social media and internet video stars – few others will reveal the recipe to their success quite like Perry.