Joey Boots, the man behind the viral video of the Times Square ballerina that led to a confrontation with a vigilante bicyclist, wants to make one thing clear.
He is not a pervert.
“Well I’m not a pervert for that girl,” he said during a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime Sunday afternoon.
“I’m gay, dude.”
Boots, who is a regular on the Howard Stern Show, has been building a collection of Youtube videos from around New York City over the last few months with his Flip camera.
He figured a video of a sexy girl in tight shorts spreading her legs in a ballerina pose in the middle of Times Square would probably get some attention. And he’s right, although it took a few months for it to go viral since he posted it in May.
The video ended up driving more than a 100,000 readers to PINAC yesterday where we ended up with a record 124,175 page views. The previous record was around 55,000. Gizmodo, Gawker, Gothamist and Fark all linked to PINAC with the video.
So now the question on everybody’s mind is, what in the hell is a goober?
“That’s from the Andy Griffith Show,” he said. “Goober was this real slow southerner on the show.”
“I call all stupid southerners Goobers.”
At one point that is not evident in the video, Boots knocked the man and his bicycle down.
“He was pushing against me and his bike was on my foot, so I pushed him back and he fell to the ground,” Boots said.
Boots stands at 6’1″ and weights 320 pounds. The cyclist was about 5’10″ and weighed about 160 pounds, Boots said.
The cyclist was not part of the group doing the photo shoot but standing to the side watching the shoot, probably getting his own thrills, when he decided to become a hero.
After the group walked away, they reported Boots to a police officer who ended up informing the group that Boots had the right to videotape in public.
“I had to show the cop my video,” he said.
Boots, who was born in the Bronx and raised in Long Island, has had several other confrontations with people over his public videography. He keeps his viewers updated on his Facebook page.
One of his videos, he won’t say which one, was chosen for Ridley Scott’s Life in a Day project, which will premiere at next year’s Sundance Film Festival in January 2011.
Above and below are a few videos where he gets confronted by people who believe it is illegal to videotape people in public. The above one is especially funny and infuriating because the woman is so goddamn annoying.