Billy Herrington, a gay muscle porn star in the US, became a phenomenon of popular culture in Japan. It was totally bizarre. Especially to him.

I remember my conversations with Billy Herrington fondly. He was both elated and puzzled by his enormous popularity in Japan.

The Billy Herrington Journey

So how did Billy go from bodybuilder and COLT Model to a mass-produced action figure?

This story should convince anyone of the power of a viral Internet meme. As a result of one, Billy Herrington became a major star in Japan. Here's the scoop from Billy's Wikipedia page (edited for readability):

Herrington's fame in Japan sprang from an Internet meme. Firstly, a clip from his “Workout” video posted on Niconico, a Japanese video sharing website, and he hit stardom. There are now thousands of mash-up parody videos of him. In addition, many of them utilize deliberate mishearings (soramimi) of lines from his films. The Nico Nico Douga community affectionately calls him “Aniki” (older brother). Above all, most of his videos fly under the radar tagged “Wrestling Series”, “Forest Fairy”, “Philosophy”, or all three.

In February 2009, Herrington visited Japan to attend a live online event hosted by Niconico and garage kit maker Good Smile Company. After that, Herrington says he finds his fans' creativity flattering and humbling. Nico Nico Chyokuhan released a limited-edition Herrington figure in July 2009. Finally, two other limited-editions Herrington action figures debuted for the Halloween and Christmas holiday. The Halloween figure was released in October 2009 and the Christmas one was released in December 2009. Both are Nico Nico Chyokuhan exclusives.

That “Workout” Video

Now let's take a look at the video that started it all. “Workout” is from Can-Am and stars Billy Herrington, Danny Lee, Anthony Capriati and Duncan Mills. Does Anthony Capriati look an awful lot like Frank Sepe? If you know the scoop here let us know in the comments!

Finally, here's the video:

Again, I have to ask: where did all these videos go? Similarly, would anyone buy (stream) them if I brought them back?

Billy Herrington for Colt Studios

There are many ways to enjoy Billy's gay muscle porn days. Above all, the various amazing shoots he did for COLT. Here's a small sample:

Conquered

Of course, there's the famous video from Chi Chi LaRue starring Billy Herrington. “Conquered” is a real classic. It stars Billy, Casey Williams, Tom Katt, and others.

The PR Fairies had this to say about it at the time:

“Chi Chi LaRue directs this authentic Roman Gladiator video featuring big, bulging, muscle stud Billy Herrington. The sex begins in jail. Billy is being held in a cell when two Roman guards have their way with him. Later, in the slave quarters, Casey Williams gets butt plugged by AWV exclusive, Tino Lopez. In true Roman style, an orgy breaks out in the King's suite later. The King's water boys give him some deep rimming and dick sucking before bending him over and filling his hole with their stiff pricks! The final scene features the incomparable Billy Herrington again, getting frisky with another heart stopping muscle man!”

Why is Billy Herrington Famous in Japan, Again?

Billy Herrington / Gachimuchi

About

Billy Herrington was an American adult film actor and bodybuilder affectionately nicknamed “Aniki” (??, jp. “Big Brother”) in the Japanese online communities 2channel and Nico Nico Douga. Herrington's internet fame in Japan began in 2007 after clips from one of his films titled “Workout Muscular Men 3” became used as a bait-and-switch video and the source material for high-quality MAD remixes.

Online History

Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Herrington began pursuing his acting career after his high school graduation in 1996 when one of his nude submissions won him Playgirl magazine's “Real Men of the Month” contest. In the following years, Herrington modeled for French nude calendars and starred in a number of hardcore adult films. That made him one of the best known same-sex adult films stars of the late 1990s. However, his internet fame began many years later. On September 30th, 2007 a clip from Herrington's “Workout Muscular Men 3” appeared via video-sharing community Nico Nico Douga (NND). Titled “Professional Pants-Wrestling” (??? ????????????), the video gained more than 5.5 million views in less than five years.

Billy Herrington's homoerotic wrestling clips soon emerged as a popular source for bait & switch trolling. On 2channel in similar vein to Rickrolling that became widespread through the English imageboard site 4chan.

Gachimuchi Remixes

Herrington's videos spawned an extensive collection of MAD remixes numbering in tens of thousands on Nico Nico Douga. One of the more complex video-editing memes on the site, the footage was remixed in many different ways. Including phonetic translation, sampling butt spanking, as well as remixes featuring 3D model characters and fanart of the actors. Eventually, the videos featuring Herrington's underwear wrestling scenes became known as “Gachimuchi Pantsu Wrestling” videos. As of June 2012, there are more than 11,000 videos tagged with the label on Nico Nico Douga.

Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend

Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend is a 3D animation video in which two Gachimuchi muscle men chase down and defeat the road-building, steam-rolling Kagamine Rin, characters from the second installment in the Vocaloid2 series.

The YouTube version of the video was uploaded on August 21st, 2009 and received more than 2.9 million views as of June 2012. According to the video description:

Deep in the forest lived Billy and his charming companions. They peacefully honed their bodies and listened to music there. But a wave of development came upon the forests. One who would turn all to road. Kagamine Rin had come. Billy must stop the construction before all is turned to road.

Related Tags

Billy Herrington wrestling videos are deliberately tagged with misleading labels like “Wrestling Series (????????? resuringu shir?zu))”, “Forest Fairy” (???? mori no y?sei) and “Philosophy” (?? tetsugaku). The nickname “Fairy of Forest” (???? or “Mori no Yousei”) stems from a scene in one of his works, where he appears as a fairy coming from the forest. In Japanese, “forest fairy” is a slang term used to describe a homosexual person.

The Three Major Principles of the Big Brother

Based on three specific phonetic translations of the dialogues between Herrington and other actors in the films, a set of principles emerged to seal Billy Herrington's persona on the Japanese web as a philosophical guide embodied in the Big Brother nickname. Those three lines represent the three major beliefs of the “Fairy Philosophy” (????, Yousei Tetsugaku).

Other Misheard Lines

Another famous misheard line is “How do you like that huh?”, which became “Ankake Chaahan” (??????????), meaning fried rice with sauce on top in English. Ankake Chaahan became a well-known tag used for Gachimuchi/Touhou crossovers. There is also “Ass We Can”, based on Barrack Obama's well known line “Yes We Can”.

Two other famous lines pertaining to the meme aren't uttered by Billy Herrington. But by actor/dancer Danny Lee, nickname Kazuya by Japanese fans of the meme, during the wrestling scene.
The first one is “Tsuyokunaritai!”, meaning “I want to get stronger!” A misheard line from a brief exclamation by Danny Lee which is quite unintelligible. The other one is “Two can play it!” that became misheard as ????! (Shin-Nippori!). Because it sounds like a place name or a station name to Japanese ears, it has become a sacred place among fans, located somewhere in the east side of Tokyo, probably around an actual station called Nippori. Thus, while Billy Herrington is depicted as a philosophical figure and a leader, Danny Lee is more depicted as a hard-working fellow in this meme's universe.

A precise list of most of the lines can be found on a Japanese wiki-based page about the phenomenon. Even though it doesn't state which actor/character says them. The tags there work as follows:

• ?? = Misheard Phrases
• ?? = Original Phrase
• ?? = Pronounciation
• ?? = Original Phrase Meaning

Reputation

On February 14th, 2009, Herrington visited Japan after he was invited to make an appearance in a special Nico Nico Douga livecast for Valentine's Day. According to the YouTube video description, more than 10,000 fans of Billy Herrington showed up at the Nico Nico Douga event in Tokyo's Akihabara district.

During his visit, Herrington also made other appearances in the media, including an interview with Japanese site Ascii and a guest spot on a late night talk show. The male idol has then attended several other Nico Nico Douga conventions in Japan through out the years.

On the same day as the event, Japanese model kit makers Good Smile Company announced that they would manufacture a limited-edition Billy Herrington action figure to be released in July 2009. The news quickly spread through the grapevines of both Japanese and English blogs Kakaku, Ascii and Gawker among others.

Death

On March 1st, 2018, Herrington got into a car accident and was transported to a hospital, where he died the next day at the age of 48. On March 3rd, pornographic film director Chi Chi LaRue tweeted a memorial tweet for Herrington, which gained over 4,000 retweets and over 1,500 likes in less than 12 hours. Shortly after, Herrington's mother, Kathleen Wood, confirmed the death in a Facebook post which recieved over 1,400 reactions over the same time, revealing he died in a car accident. The hashtag #????? (“Billy aniki”) was used on Twitter in memory of Herrington.

On March 16th, 2018, content creator MowTenDoo uploaded a tribute video dedicated to Herrington that gained over 400,000 views in two years.

Memorial

As a smaller footnote in the larger War in Ukraine, a petition was put in that had enough signatures to force the Ukrainian President Zelensky to officially consider the city of Odessa putting up a statue of Billy Herrington to replace a Russian statue of Catherine the Great. The petition needed 25,000 signatures, which it acquired, meaning Zelensky is now legally obligated to consider the proposal. The proposed idea is claimed to be a way to remove Russian influence from Odessa, while the statue which would be of Billy Herrington Drinking Beer.