Leroy Garrett came to his friend Johnny Bananas’ defense over the weekend, just days after The Challenge vet was accused of making a racist remark on the new Netflix dating series, Pop the Balloon.
On the latest episode of his Death, Taxes & Bananas podcast, Johnny welcomed his BFF and fellow ‘Challenge’ star Leroy to discuss assorted ‘Challenge’-related topics, though during the episode, the pair also talked about Johnny’s recent appearance on ‘Pop the Balloon’– specifically the controversial comment Johnny made during the show’s premiere episode that landed him in hot water on social media.
Johnny began the discussion by informing Leroy that he was “embroiled in yet another controversy”– his second this year, for those keeping track– before revealing to listeners that Leroy had actually seen a clip from Thursday’s episode of ‘Pop the Balloon,’ including the moment Johnny allegedly told one of the contestants, who happened to be Black, that she looked like she slept “from a tree hanging upside down.” While Johnny insisted last week on X that he was actually directing his comment at a different contestant on stage– a white woman who was wearing a dress with leaves on it– Johnny continued to catch a lot of heat on social media from viewers who didn’t buy his explanation.
During the podcast episode, Leroy insisted that Johnny isn’t racist; however, he also told his friend that he shouldn’t have gone on the Netflix show to begin with, according to Monsters & Critics.
“Damn, they got you,” Leroy told Johnny. “They set you up for that one, bro. They set you up for that one.”
Similar to the comment he made on X last week, Johnny noted on his podcast that there’s “real racism out there in the world,” before asking Leroy why people “go out of their way to try and find racism, sexism, anti-semitism.” In response, Leroy assured Johnny that he doesn’t believe he’s racist.
“You’re not racist, bro,” Leroy said. “You’d have to be a bold motherf***** to go on national TV to say some racism s**t purposely and then be like, ‘OK, cool.’”
Leroy went on to acknowledge that Johnny is a polarizing public figure, and claimed that his friend will never “win with the internet.” Still, Leroy assured Johnny that those who really know him, know that he didn’t mean any harm during last week’s episode.
“I think the people that know you best, know your heart,” Leroy said. “It’s a funny joke with bad timing with the camera angle.”
Leroy reiterated that Johnny should’ve turned down the offer to be on ‘Pop the Balloon,’ or at the very least, he “should’ve done a little bit more research” in order to have a better idea of what he was getting into.
As you may remember, Leroy opened up in 2021 about a horribly racist incident that happened to him on The Challenge XXX: Dirty 30 involving fellow competitor Camila Nakagawa. As fans of the long-running series may recall, during the show’s 30th season back in 2017, Camila called Leroy a “Black motherf****** p****” while intoxicated. She then went on to yell, “It’s all about Black motherf****** like that piece of s**t!”
The outburst continued after Camila blamed Leroy for throwing a pillow at her– which was actually thrown by Johnny– and she was ultimately sent to a hotel for the night by production. She later posted an apology for her “reckless words and abhorrent behavior” to social media.
Despite her behavior that season, Camila was allowed to return to the MTV franchise after ‘Dirty 30’ to compete on Champs vs. Stars, only to have a full-on breakdown during filming, during which she allegedly stole a golf cart, punched a crew member and left the set in handcuffs. She has not competed on a season of the show since.
Meanwhile, Leroy went on to compete on multiple seasons of ‘The Challenge’ after the incident with Camila, though he announced his retirement from the show after Season 36, revealing in a video that he “felt like MTV” had “dropped the ball” by not stepping in during Camila’s ‘Dirty 30’ blowup. (He noted at the time that both Johnny and castmate Jemmye Carroll did stand up for him in the moment, calling them both allies.)
MTV later posted a statement to social media apologizing to Leroy and admitting that they had fallen short in handling the incident appropriately in 2017.
While Leroy did step away from ‘The Challenge’ after Double Agents, he returned to the franchise for All Stars 4 and has since competed on two additional seasons.
Watch Leroy’s latest ‘Death, Taxes & Bananas’ interview below.
RELATED STORY: Johnny Bananas Responds After Being Accused of Making Racist Remark on Netflix’s ‘Pop the Balloon’
(Photos: YouTube; Netflix; X; MTV)
4 Responses
Why do we still have to see this dbags name every week? He is an immature jerk at the very least and a dumb asshole at the worst. And would you look at that, not the first time the entire series has to backpedal to cover his ass for being an idiot. I was over this guy about 10 years ago. It would be great if he would just go do stock at a Trader Joes and disappear from tv. Not a role model and not even entertaining, just the anus that shows up to a party late and trashes the place trying to get beer out of a floated keg lol.
In today’s society where shamelessness and making an ass out of yourself is celebrated and compensated (social media/ reality television) i shudder to think about what one would actually have to do to be cancelled.
oops… early 30’s is too YOUNG for him!
Johnny Bananas isn’t a racist, he’s just an idiot and a tool. He’s never going to find or be in a successful romantic relationship until he stops dating women in their 20’s. Even early 30’s is too old for him. He needs to stick to mid to late 30’s on the very youngest on up. Seriously, anyone who has never had a successful long-term relationship with someone their OWN AGE, who finds they have more “in common” with someone grossly younger than themselves needs a serious come to Jesus, WTF is going on with me, need to let go of inappropriate youthful behaviors, moment. I think he’s a good guy with great attributes, but he’s turned into that “creepy guy” at the club who used to be THE GUY in the 80’s, but now he’s just gripping on.