# Sidetalk
**Sidetalk** (handle @sidetalknyc) is an American man-on-the-street comedy show created by Trent Simonian and Jack Byrne, which interviews people across New York City in episodes roughly one minute long and is known for loud, heavily edited, surreal or humorous street interviews.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/sidetalk) • [2](https://www.forbes.com/profile/sidetalk/) It bills itself as "New York's one-minute street show."[3](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creators | Trent Simonian and Jack Byrne, then freshmen at New York University; show started in fall 2019[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/sidetalk) |
| First video | "New York Fashion Week," posted on YouTube on October 24, 2019, filmed in SoHo, Manhattan[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/sidetalk) |
| Format | One-minute comedic street interviews and event recaps; a longer celebrity interview series, "We Outside by Sidetalk," was added later[2](https://www.forbes.com/profile/sidetalk/) • [4](https://socialdiscovery.app/en/youtube/channel/sidetalk) |
| Signature viral moment | The "Knicks Season Opener" video of October 2021, 56 seconds long, which launched the "Bing Bong" catchphrase[5](https://www.gq.com/story/the-story-of-bing-bong) |
| Audience (December 2021) | Over 370,000 YouTube subscribers, 1 million Instagram followers, and 2.8 million TikTok followers[3](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong) |
## Spoilers
Sidetalk has no plot in the usual sense, so treat this section as the whole run at high speed: where the show went, who showed up, and which moments blew up.
### Plot
#### 2019: The Fashion Week premiere
The series opens in Manhattan in October 2019, on a plan two teenagers had been nursing for a year before they ever set foot on campus. Trent Simonian, a film and television major from Los Angeles, and Jack Byrne, a business and entertainment major from [Long Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/long-island), met in their senior year of high school, both got early acceptance to NYU, and spent the months before college plotting a show about New York itself. In their first week as freshmen they filmed Episode 1, "New York Fashion Week," posted to YouTube on October 24, 2019. The format was already fixed: roughly sixty seconds, a handheld mic, rapid-fire cuts of strangers delivering whatever was on their minds, and the sound of subway doors closing as the opening chime. Simonian plays the straight man on camera, deadpan and unhurried while chaos swirls; Byrne runs the camera and the operation behind it.
The early episodes found their audience the slow way. A themed episode around Purim caught the attention of New York Nico, the Instagram account that acts as the city's unofficial talent scout, and his shoutout added thousands of followers in days. From there the show settled into a rhythm of showing up wherever New Yorkers were at their most New York: parades in the Bronx, the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest, anti-vaccine rallies, subway platforms, street fairs. Nobody is pre-screened. A man with a theory, a kid with a catchphrase, a celebrity who wandered into frame: all of it gets the same sixty seconds.
#### 2020-2021: Virality and the celebrities
The TikTok account launched on March 23, 2020, right as the pandemic made street footage feel like a lifeline to a lost city, and the follower counts began to snowball: around 15,000 on Instagram in September 2020, close to 280,000 by April 2021, and roughly 643,000 by October 2021. In July 2021 the duo filmed Drake at Starlet's Gentlemen's Club in Queens, and in a Bronx episode they caught [Cardi B](https://www.edgepedia.org/cardi-b) at full volume, which Simonian later described as a few minutes of her simply being herself, awesome and unfiltered. In August 2021 they camped out on Jerome Avenue outside [Yankee Stadium](https://www.edgepedia.org/yankee-stadium) after a Yankees-Mets game and harvested a crosstown rivalry's worth of hot takes. That same month, their most-viewed Instagram video to date captured the Union Square crowd reacting to Governor Andrew Cuomo's resignation, roughly 1.1 million views in two months.
By then the industry had noticed. In April 2021, still nineteen years old, Simonian and Byrne signed with WME and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, with plans to save longer-form projects for television and film, and celebrity fans including [Bella Hadid](https://www.edgepedia.org/bella-hadid), A$AP Rocky, Sophie Turner, Charlie Puth, and Tyga were already quoting the show back at it.
#### October 2021: Bing Bong
**On opening night of the 2021-22 NBA season, outside Madison Square Garden, a fifty-six-second video turned a made-up word into the Knicks' unofficial anthem.** Simonian and Byrne worked the crowd of delirious fans, and among the dozen extremely New York New Yorkers they immortalized was Jordie Bloom, who bellowed two syllables, "BING BONG," an imitation of the subway doors closing, that hit some collective funny bone dead center. TV personality Desus Nice was among the fans in the clip. The video racked up millions of views almost overnight, and the phrase escaped the internet entirely: the MSG in-arena crew began playing it whenever a Knicks player hit a three-pointer, so a Sidetalk joke became part of the actual game experience. The parodies followed within weeks, from [Olivia Rodrigo](https://www.edgepedia.org/olivia-rodrigo) to the [Jonas Brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonas-brothers) to the [Dallas Cowboys](https://www.edgepedia.org/dallas-cowboys), each proving that everyone, everywhere, wanted to shout Bing Bong about something.
The punchline of the season, which the show itself had nothing to do with, is that the Knicks went on to finish eleventh in the Eastern Conference, making the video a time capsule of the exact moment before hope curdled. A year later the clip had 2.3 million views on YouTube and its stars were, as predicted, still collecting free drinks and high-fives. The series kept going, adding celebrity guest hosts alongside Simonian and continuing its census of the city's strangest speakers, with "Joe Byron" joining "Bing Bong" in the permanent lexicon.
### Characters
- **Trent Simonian** is the on-camera host, the calm eye of every storm, recognizable by his shock of black hair and his refusal to react to anything a stranger says, no matter how deranged. He holds the mic and the silence that makes people fill it.
- **Jack Byrne** is the cameraman, producer, and half of the show's brain, described as resembling a Kennedy and speaking in the octave of [Sam Elliott](https://www.edgepedia.org/sam-elliott). The two communicate on set through whispers and apparent ESP, calmly running takes until a stranger nails their line.
- **Jordie Bloom** is the Knicks fan who spoke "Bing Bong" into existence and became, for one autumn, the most quoted man in New York.
- **Cardi B, Drake, Desus Nice, and the celebrity guest hosts** function as the show's recurring guest stars, treated by the format not as celebrities but as just more New Yorkers with a mic in front of them.
### Interpretations and controversies
The main debate around Sidetalk is whether it honors New York or mines it. Fans call it the microphone for the people of the city, a show that hands the frame to characters mainstream media would never book; skeptics note that it packages the city's eccentricity into shareable meme units for outsiders. The creators' move to sign with WME and Brillstein while still nineteen also raised the question of whether a street show built on spontaneity can survive becoming a brand. Their answer has been to keep the format exactly as it was.
### Sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations
No spin-off series has aired, but the creators signed with WME and Brillstein in April 2021 to develop long-form television and film projects. The show's afterlife lives in its memes: "Bing Bong" and "Joe Byron" have been adopted, parodied, and referenced across sports broadcasts, celebrity accounts, and brand social media far beyond the show itself.
## Origins and format
Simonian and Byrne met through mutual friends after being accepted to NYU, and started the show during their first semester in the fall of 2019. Their first video, "New York Fashion Week," followed Simonian in a Sidetalk hoodie with a microphone through SoHo during [New York Fashion Week](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-fashion-week).[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/sidetalk)
The format is a frenzy of short clips spliced into a social media video: Simonian (or a celebrity guest host) works a microphone through crowds, and the footage is cut into rapid, loud segments of New Yorkers performing for the camera.[1](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/sidetalk) • [6](https://boingboing.net/2025/02/04/sidetalk-nycs-unhinged-street-show.html) Each episode opens with the "bing bong" chime of subway doors closing.[3](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong) Subjects range from ordinary residents to celebrities; the show has chronicled events such as the Bronx Dominican Day Parade, the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest, and anti-vax rallies, and filmed Cardi B addressing a crowd in the Bronx.[5](https://www.gq.com/story/the-story-of-bing-bong) • [7](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/12/sidetalks-tightrope-act-of-memeing-nyc) Simonian described his working method to GQ: after a game, the crew waits out the first wave of departing fans and films the diehards who stay until the crowd is packed and chanting.[5](https://www.gq.com/story/the-story-of-bing-bong)
## "Bing Bong" and the Knicks video
On October 21, 2021, Sidetalk released "Knicks Season Opener," filmed the previous evening outside [Madison Square Garden](https://www.edgepedia.org/madison-square-garden) after the Knicks beat the [Boston Celtics](https://www.edgepedia.org/boston-celtics) in double overtime in the season opener. The 56-second video shows fans celebrating on Seventh Avenue, including Daniel Safdeye taunting [Kevin Durant](https://www.edgepedia.org/kevin-durant) over his decision to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, and fan Jordie Bloom saying "Bing Bong" into the microphone, a reference to the subway doors-closing sound that opens every Sidetalk episode.[5](https://www.gq.com/story/the-story-of-bing-bong)The phrase had appeared in earlier Sidetalk videos from Coney Island, popularized in part by the rapper Nems, but it became a rallying cry for Knicks fans after the season opener video spread. It was picked up by the Knicks' official Twitter account, announcer Mike Breen, and forward Evan Fournier, appeared on the front of the New York Daily News sports page, and received write-in votes in the 2021 New York City mayoral election.[3](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong) A TikTok trend in which users recreated quotes from Sidetalk videos drew celebrities including President Joe Biden, the Jonas Brothers, John Legend, Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Jack Harlow, and Avril Lavigne; Forbes notes that Biden and the Jonas Brothers recreated the video to promote Covid-19 vaccine awareness.[2](https://www.forbes.com/profile/sidetalk/) A second Sidetalk soundbite, "What do you want to tell Joe Byron right now?", was used as audio in 39,000 TikTok videos and counting as of December 2021.[3](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong)
## Growth and later formats
By December 2021 the channel had over 370,000 YouTube subscribers, a million Instagram followers, and 2.8 million TikTok followers.[3](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong)
**Recurring events and spin-offs.** Sidetalk's annual snowball and water balloon fights have drawn large crowds; in February 2026 the account invited its 2 million followers to a Washington Square Park snowball fight that drew hundreds of revelers, many of them influencers themselves, an event WNYC described as marking the park's emergence as a stage for social media creators.[8](https://wnyc.org/story/washington-square-park-is-now-a-stage-fo-tiktokers) The channel also extended into longer interviews: "We Outside by Sidetalk" episodes feature extended conversations with celebrities and local figures such as A$AP Ferg, Bobby Shmurda, Antonio Brown, and the child influencer [The Rizzler](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-rizzler).[4](https://socialdiscovery.app/en/youtube/channel/sidetalk) Knicks coverage remains a staple; the May 2026 video "Knicks Advance to the Finals" reached about 4.6 million views on YouTube, and Simonian discussed the playoff-run videos in interviews with NY1 and ABC News in June 2026.[9](https://www.24vids.com/channel/sidetalknyc) • [10](https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news-all-day/2026/06/10/sidetalk--creator-talks-knicks-fever-and-viral-fan-videos) • [11](https://abcnews.com/video/133800162/)
## Reception and criticism
A 2022 Vanity Fair feature placed Sidetalk within what the writer called the "memeification of New York," alongside accounts such as New York Nico (Nicolas Heller, who calls himself "New York's unofficial talent scout"). The piece credited such videos with a sharp eye for the dark humor of New York street life while arguing that, at their worst, they can become cultural voyeurism that ignores the city's imperfections, and that turning New Yorkers into content can be disorienting for the people filmed.[7](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/12/sidetalks-tightrope-act-of-memeing-nyc) Byrne acknowledged the dynamic in the same article: people approach the hosts saying lines they think will make it into a video, "most of the time, it is things that are already said."[7](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/12/sidetalks-tightrope-act-of-memeing-nyc) Boing Boing's 2025 write-up took a warmer view, calling Sidetalk a mega-viral show about "real people having a really good time" whose energy is its main draw.[6](https://boingboing.net/2025/02/04/sidetalk-nycs-unhinged-street-show.html)
## References
1. [Sidetalk, Know Your Meme](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/sidetalk)
2. [Sidetalk, Forbes profile](https://www.forbes.com/profile/sidetalk/)
3. [The internet is obsessed with saying, "Bing bong!", Inverse](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-saying-bing-bong)
4. [Sidetalk: Similar YouTube Channels, Social Discovery](https://socialdiscovery.app/en/youtube/channel/sidetalk)
5. ["BING BONG!": The Story Behind That Viral Knicks Season Opener Video, GQ](https://www.gq.com/story/the-story-of-bing-bong)
6. [Sidetalk, NYC's unhinged street show, Boing Boing](https://boingboing.net/2025/02/04/sidetalk-nycs-unhinged-street-show.html)
7. [Sidetalk's Tightrope Act of Memeing NYC, Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/12/sidetalks-tightrope-act-of-memeing-nyc)
8. [Washington Square Park is now a stage for TikTokers, WNYC](https://wnyc.org/story/washington-square-park-is-now-a-stage-fo-tiktokers)
9. [Sidetalk Channel, 24vids](https://www.24vids.com/channel/sidetalknyc)
10. [Chronicling the chaos: 'Sidetalk' creator talks Knicks fever and viral fan videos, NY1](https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news-all-day/2026/06/10/sidetalk--creator-talks-knicks-fever-and-viral-fan-videos)
11. ['Sidetalk' creator Trent Simonian on creating viral Knicks fan videos, ABC News](https://abcnews.com/video/133800162/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Comedy, drama, and general-genre web series*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license