Eric Andre Is Shilling NFTs and the Internet Is Mad About It

Non-fungible tokens are nothing new—the first-known NFT is believed to have been minted in 2014. But the cultural obsession with NFTs did really ramp up until recently, thanks to a number of celebrities deciding they want a piece of the virtual pie. NFT naysayers believe this unwholesome marriage between celebrities and the cringe crypto world is further proof that every day we stray further from God's light, and you better believe the Internet's anti-NFT army puts up a fight whenever a celeb does a new drop.

No one was that surprised when Gwyneth Paltrow went full OCD (obsessive cryptocurrency disorder) on Twitter, or when Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon blithely compared their absurdly expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs on The Tonight Show. This sort of bandwagon-jumping is to be expected from the normies of Hollywood. But the internet was utterly heartbroken when beloved master of mischief, Eric Andre announced his new "edible NFT" scheme in collaboration with Frank's RedHot earlier this week.

Posted by Mel Dawn

“Have you ever eaten an NFT?”

On February 7, 2022, comedian Eric Andre posted an image of himself attempting to eat his phone on Instagram. The caption read, Have you ever eaten an NFT? Me either. I just tried. And failed. But you? You can succeed. 'Cause @franksredhot is creating the first-ever edible NFT that you can get by eating wings and scanning the bones at bonecoin.com."

If you're rolling your eyes, thinking, “this is obviously a joke…” it isn't. It's real. Frank's RedHot attempts to explain how it works on their website: “It's a chicken wing-based currency that has nothing to do with real money. You earn it by eating wings and taking pics of the bones. If you think it's ridiculous...you'd be right.” Further along on the site, the conspicuously vague explanation continues. “Whoever earns the most Bonecoin by the time the Big Game ends gets our first-ever edible NFT. How do you make an NFT edible? How about you stop asking questions and start eating.”

Eric Andre fans were not pleased

The comment section of Andre's Instagram post was overwhelmingly negative, rife with Andre followers begging the comedian not to go down this road. Though promoting “Bonecoin” through a “chicken wing bone-scanner” sounds like something absurd enough to be a bit on The Eric Andre Show, the idea of the infamous troublemaker “selling out” in this manner was too much for fans to bear.

The criticism spreads to Twitter

This isn't Eric Andre's first NFT rodeo

Twitter users pointed out that Andre's collaboration with Frank's RedHot is just one of several NFT ventures the comedian has been involved in.

Eric Andre's old posts come back to bite him

This isn't the first time Andre has faced criticism over NFTs either. Twitter managed to unearth an old post of Andre's that justified his embrace of NFTs by dissing “14 year old environmental hypocrite trolls that use gasoline in the cars they drive."

Twitter user @MikeTheMincless reposted the screenshot of Andre's past Instagram post and added, "Eric Andre you fucking buffoon. Calling nft hate hypocritical because cars and planes use gas. Cars and planes serve a purpose that they have served for decades now, transportation, a basic human need. Nfts serve no purpose, just another way for criminals to launder money"

Others also criticized Andre for his tone-deaf diss toward critics of NFTs. “Eric Andre not only doing nft's but also pulling a ‘yet you participate in society. How interesting. I am very intelligent’ about it is gonna be my joker moment." Tweeted @Magic_Vinny.