You couldn’t script a more efficient way to summon the internet’s ick: bare, dirty feet on camera and an on-purpose fart for the mic.
Benny Blanco kicked off his new chat show with exactly that, and a corner of Selena Gomez’s fandom promptly lost its mind. I watched the clip so you don’t have to: yes, it was crass; no, it’s not grounds for a marriage tribunal.
What we’re really seeing is a modern celebrity paradox-audiences say they want “authentic,” then flinch when a star’s authenticity is actually messy. Blanco went comedy-gross. The timeline went pearl-clutch.
The Moment
On Tuesday, the producer premiered Friends Keep Secrets, a podcast he hosts with rapper-actor Lil Dicky (the creator-star of Dave) and Dicky’s wife, TV producer Kristin Batalucco. In the debut episode, Blanco lounges on a couch barefoot; the camera catches soles that look, at minimum, post-pavement. Later, he warns his cohosts to “see if you guys could pick this up,” then passes gas, audibly.
Clips from the episode spread quickly across social platforms. Some Gomez fans, never a shy constituency, called the bit “disgusting,” with a few escalating to the familiar parasocial panic: dump him, divorce him, run. Others rolled their eyes and moved on; it’s a comedy-adjacent podcast, not a congressional hearing.
If you’ve followed Blanco, this is not a left turn. The man has always leaned into chaotic-kitchen energy: equal parts gourmet and gremlin. It reads as brand, not breakdown.
The Take
Let’s separate hygiene horror from headline hysteria. The internet loves a micro-controversy because it offers a clean moral line: neat vs. gross, refined vs. juvenile. But celebrity relationships don’t operate on our thread-count preferences.
Performative gross-out humor is practically a genre-think of it as the whoopee cushion at a wine tasting. Tasteless? Maybe. Unforgivable? Hardly. The leap from “ew” to “end the marriage” says more about our projection habits than their partnership.
There’s also a class of fandom that confuses curatorship with caretaking. Gomez is a grown woman with a decade-plus of public-life scar tissue. She’s navigated far heavier storms than a couch-fart. If something were wrong, it wouldn’t debut as a sight gag in episode one.
My read: this was crude content engineered to announce a tone-unfiltered, friends-on-a-couch, no publicist in sight. You can dislike it and still admit it’s not a red flag so much as a red Solo cup.
“It’s the pop-culture version of a whoopee cushion at a wine tasting-tacky, yes, but hardly a federal case.”
Receipts
Confirmed
- The Friends Keep Secrets podcast premiered Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, featuring Benny Blanco, Lil Dicky, and Kristin Batalucco; episode one shows Blanco barefoot with visibly dirty soles on camera.
- In the same episode, Blanco cues listeners (“see if you guys could pick this up”) and then audibly farts; the moment appears in the full video published on the show’s official channel.
- Public reaction included posts on X/Twitter and Instagram labeling the moment “gross” and, in some cases, urging Gomez to “divorce” him; the scale of outrage is unquantified.
Unverified / Reported
- Claims that Gomez and Blanco wed in November 2025 have been reported by entertainment media; a formal wedding announcement or public record has not been independently confirmed here.
- Past comments attributed to Blanco about infrequent showering circulate online; absent a recent on-record primary source, we are not treating that as newly confirmed.
Backstory (For the Casual Reader)
Selena Gomez, actor, recording artist, beauty entrepreneur, publicly acknowledged dating hit producer Benny Blanco in late 2023 via social media comments and posts, after years of professionally orbiting the same pop universe. Blanco, who’s crafted chart-toppers for everyone from Justin Bieber to Halsey, has cultivated a public persona that swings between refined foodie and lovable slob. By early 2026, the pair were openly referring to a long-term commitment, and he had appeared alongside her at major events. The podcast launch fits the current celebrity pivot to audio: low-key, high-familiarity, and a direct line to fans who prefer banter over press releases.
Question: Where’s your line between “authentic, unfiltered” and just plain off-putting? Would a stunt like this change how you view a celebrity couple?
Sources
- Friends Keep Secrets, Episode 1 video, published on the show’s official YouTube channel, Feb. 24, 2026.
- Public posts and replies on X/Twitter reacting to the episode, observed Feb. 24-25, 2026.
- Selena Gomez’s Instagram comments acknowledging relationship with Benny Blanco, Dec. 2023.
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