Leroy Garrett shared his thoughts about Johnny Bananas’ Pop the Balloon controversy after online critics claimed The Challenge star made a racist remark on the show.
After Leroy’s stint on All Stars Rivals, Bananas invited him back onto his Death, Taxes, and Bananas podcast to discuss The Challenge and other topics.
The start of the episode featured Bananas bringing his friend and castmate up to speed on the drama and controversy he became embroiled in from his appearance on Pop the Balloon.
He explained the presentation of the Netflix dating show, which Leroy was familiar with, and then spoke about his joke attempt aimed at one of the women.
“You look like you sleep from a tree hanging upside down,” Bananas told one of the women.
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Bananas told Leroy the camera was on a Black woman’s feet on stage with him when he said the comment. However, he claimed his comment was toward a white woman in a dress resembling a tree with leaves.
However, due to the clip going viral on social media, critics slammed Bananas for a perceived “racist” remark toward one of the women.
Leroy reacted to Bananas’ controversy and shared advice with him
During their discussion, Leroy realized that Bananas meant a bat that sleeps hanging from a tree as his joke remark. He also said he knows his friend and castmate isn’t racist.
However, Leroy also said he felt that Bananas made a mistake by even going on that show.
“Damn they got you,” Leroy told him after hearing the whole story of what occurred.
“They set you up for that one, bro. They set you up for that one,” he said.
“There’s real racism out there in the world, dude. We all know that there is. There’s enough that’s actually happening that we should shine a light on and draw attention to. Why do people go out of their way to try and find racism, sexism, anti-semitism?” Bananas asked.
“You’re not racist, bro. You’d have to be a bold motherf***** to go on national TV to say some racist s*** purposely and then be like, ‘OK, cool,’” Leroy told him.
According to Leroy, if his castmate is a racist, they wouldn’t even be friends.
He said Bananas has people who dislike him as much as he has fans, and he’s “never going to be able to win with the internet.”
“I think the people that know you best, know your heart,” Leroy said, adding, “It’s a funny joke with bad timing with the camera angle.”
“It’s tough. Word of advice: Don’t just do any type of show. When you got the e-mail that said Pop [the] Balloon, you shoulda been like, ‘Nah,’” he told Bananas.
Leroy suggested Bananas “shoulda definitely done a little bit more research” so he would know what type of show he’s getting into.
Leroy retired after a castmate’s racist rant and attack on The Challenge
Leroy previously retired from The Challenge following his Double Agents season on MTV. At the time, he revealed he chose to retire due to the show’s production and higher-ups not doing more to act on his behalf when a castmate launched an angry attack on him.
That incident occurred during The Challenge: Dirty 30 in 2017 when Leroy’s drunk castmate, Camila Nakagawa, became upset and made insensitive and racist remarks to him in one of the house’s bedrooms.
During her drunken rant, Camila yelled, “black motherf****** p****” and “It’s all about Black motherf****** like that piece of s***!”
Others were in the room then, including Bananas, who tossed a pillow at Camila. She didn’t see who had done it, so she grabbed the pillow and hit Leroy with it.
While Leroy got eliminated before the final, Camila reached the final and became the women’s winner that season, getting $450,000 as a prize.
In 2021, Leroy released a statement about the incident in a social media video, indicating “nobody stepped in” and “MTV, you dropped the ball.”
Camila never returned for another flagship season of MTV’s The Challenge after Dirty 30.
As viewers saw, Leroy returned for All Stars 4, where he reached the final but failed to win. He followed up with The Challenge: Battle of the Eras and All Stars Rivals.
Regarding his return, Leroy shared his reasons, explaining that production has vastly improved its handling of various cast issues since that incident.
The Challenge: All Stars Rivals airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV. The Challenge Season 41 is TBA on MTV.
