Not so long ago, people in Los Angeles began seeing a number of curious flyers posted around town. They indicated that a recent transplant named Mikey Mike was lonely and looking for friends. His interests included women, narcotics and pizza. Frankly, Mikey: whose don't? Mikey included a picture of himself, which was actually a cropped photo of his driver's license, and an email address. The flyer popped up numerous times on social media from people wondering if Mikey was a real person, a viral marketing campaign or a serial killer. One Reddit user claimed a friend saw Mikey hanging up the posters while shirtless, smoking and singing The Cardigan's "Lovefool."
VICE's Drew Milard, who expressed his own L.A. loneliness, got in touch with Mikey using the flyer's email address to ask him about who had responded to his posts and also to inquire as to who Mikey really was.
Mikey's real name, as it turns out, is Mike Williams, and he's lived in Los Angeles for two years. He's a musician and something of a prankster, once pretending to be a famous female porn star (which, he won't say) saying that he was marketing himself as a producer as a "side hustle." It went well: he piqued curiosity and ended up scoring a production credit on Rihanna's Unapologetic—the song "Jump," in particular.
Inspired by a guy in New York who put up flyers in an attempt to meet a new girlfriend, Mikey thought he'd put up flyers to help promote his new song, "Cut My Hair." There's also some truth to the flyers: "women, pizza and narcotics" are actual interests of his, and he is actually relatively lonely.
When Mikey first moved to Los Angeles, he told VICE he was just meeting people in bars because that was the only way he knew how. He found that everyone was wrapped up in their own world and he felt like he couldn't really get to know anyone.
After posting the flyers, Mikey got lots of replies. Some people want to do drugs with him. Some people want to help him market himself in a less creepy way to women. A calzone-lover suggested he watch Arrow and get a new headshot. A secret society of Los Angeles women wanted to know if he was real. A man named Peter wanted to know if he'd like to come to church and replace his pizza-love with the warm embrace of Jesus Christ. He's met up in real life with at least one person named Simba.
Mikey did have a plan to email everyone back with a location to meet up at on a Friday, but the initial location fell through. That may still be in the works, so stay tuned.
Watch out, though: Mikey defines real friendship as "if I'm drunk at a bar and I get in a fight with somebody, even if I'm fucking in the wrong, you got my back. That's what it means to be a friend." Other than that, though, Mikey seems pretty chill, and "Cut My Hair" is a catchy jam.
Mikey isn't the first area loner to post an ad for friends. A young man in Glendale encouraged people to move to the area and befriend him in February. We reached out to that poster at the time, who told us that he had also received a few genuine responses from potential future friends.
