Bart Baker
Bart Baker (born May 5, 1986) is an American social media personality, musician, and comedian. He is best known for making parody videos of notable songs, for which Billboard dubbed him one of the most prolific makers of music parodies.
Baker is prominent on YouTube, where at one point his self-titled channel peaked at 10 million subscribers. Baker was also a top-earning broadcaster on the platforms Vine and Live.ly.
His subsequent ventures include appearing in the 2016 film Laid in America, and uploading content onto the social media apps Kuaishou and Douyin, where his English covers of Chinese songs have gained a following.
In 2018, Baker released satirical music on WorldStarHipHop and a new YouTube channel using the stage name of Lil Kloroxxx.
Early life
Baker was born in Chicago, Illinois to Albanian parents, Janet and Walter Baker, who had emigrated from Berat, Albania, on May 5, 1986. He attended high school at New Trier High School and film school at the University of Miami. After realizing the potential of video sharing on the internet, he started filming comedy videos in his backyard on a green screen. The Lonely Island was described as a big inspiration to Baker when he first started.
Career
The first video he posted on YouTube, “Look into My Eyes While I Masturbate“, about men masturbating in a future world where robots have replaced all women on Earth, quickly received about 100,000 views. This encouraged Baker to make more videos. His second video was a parody.
He has said, “I figured if I could do it right, my videos could do amazingly well… people want to subscribe to a channel they know has a certain programming structure. Mine is parody videos, and people love that”.
Baker worked with his friend Austin Smith from the channel’s launch until early 2011, when the duo mutually decided to part ways. During his time with Smith, they were sponsored and signed to RKShorts.com.
Not long after leaving RKShorts, Baker signed on with Maker Studios in Los Angeles and began recording with them. In 2013, Baker’s parody of “Royals” by Lorde was taken down by the CEO of Songs Music Publishing for alleged copyright infringement.
Baker responded by posting a video accusing Songs Music of not understanding US laws governing fair use and encouraging fans to tweet about it. A few days later, Songs Music released their take-down, and the parody was restored to Baker’s channel.
It was reported in 2014 that Baker had reached one billion views in total on YouTube. Around the same year, Baker’s videos aired on Music Choice along with a TV special titled Bart Baker’s Funniest Videos. In 2015, Baker signed with Hollywood talent agencies, including Creative Artists Agency and WME.
As of 2021, Baker had over 9 million subscribers and 3 billion lifetime views on his YouTube channel. Since starting the channel in 2009, he created over 100 parody videos featuring guest stars like Joan Rivers and Stan Lee. Speaking about YouTube, he said, “YouTube is honestly one of the only platforms that has proven it’s not going anywhere.” In 2016, it was announced that Baker would feature in a film titled FM starring fellow internet personalities Jason Nash and Brandon Calvillo.
In 2019, after YouTube’s demonetization changes, Baker shifted his career to the Chinese market, translating and singing Chinese songs on Kuaishou and creating English covers on Douyin. He moved to Shanghai to further develop his career. By 2024, his YouTube channel had slightly dropped in subscribers due to the shift in focus.
In 2021, Baker uploaded his first YouTube video in over three years, announcing his return to the United States and his plans to create new content, including occasional parodies, using cryptocurrency. His most recent music video, PolyDoge, was released in November 2021.
Filmography
Filmography
| Title | Year | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Laid in America | 2016 | Blindr Spokesperson |
| FML | Swagg |
Television
| Title | Year | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Remix the Movies | 2013 | Agent |
| YouTubers React | 2014 | Himself |
| In Bed with Joan | ||
| TakePart Live | ||
| CrashPad | ||
| Ear Biscuits | 2015 | |
| Teens Wanna Know |
Music videos
| Title | Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|
| “Fireball” | Pitbull ft. John Ryan | 2014 |
| “Friends with Benefits” | KSI | 2016 |
Discography
Studio albums
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Celebriteas | Released: March 1, 2017Label: 26 Music, LLCFormat: Digital download, CD |
Singles
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| “Drake” | 2016 | Celebritease |
| “Kimye” | ||
| “Popper”(as Lil Kloroxxx) | 2018 | non-album singles |
| “Prom Queen”(as Lil Kloroxxx) | ||
| “Savior”(as Lil Kloroxxx) | ||
| “Feelin U”(as Lil Kloroxxx) | ||
| “Poly Doge” | 2021 |
