Kenyan comic football ‘commentator’ Arap Uria has been dragged on the internet after he attempted to get famous commentator Peter Drury’s attention, yet again, even after pulling off the same stunt before in order to secure an audience with the sporting legend.
The content creator shot to fame for lip-synching Drury’s poetic commentaries including the famous UEFA Champions League match between AS Roma and Barcelona where the Italians thrashed the Catalans 4-0.
Dressed in tattered attire and with two tin cups balanced over his head (to imitate earphones) Uria became a wild sensation across the country and even beyond, raking up millions of views on his videos from football lovers all around the world.
Last year, in a bid to catch the attention of the commentator, Arap Uria took a photo in the streets of Qatar holding a placard with a message that he hoped would reach Drury.
“Hello, Peter Drury, it’s Arap Uria. I am in Qatar and I would like to meet you,” read the message.
The content creator shared the photo on Twitter, tagging Drury’s co-commentator Jim Beglin.
Jim would later respond, wishing Arap Uria well and letting the content creator know that the message was home with the legendary commentator.
“I have passed on your tweet to Peter. I hope it all works out for you. Good luck,” Jim replied.
Later, Jim wrote, “Peter will contact you tomorrow, Arap.”
The two finally met at 24 hours later in Qatar after Uria’s message seemed to have resonated with Drury.
“Gooooal!!!?? Finally with Peter Drury. Many thanks @jimbeglin!” he tweeted then.
Fast forward to September 2023 and Uria was back to the same shenanigans, this time, posing next to a goat with a cardboard cut out written, “Your gift Peter Drury.”
While sharing the photo on X, he captioned it, “How can I get a passport for this goat (laugh emojis)?”
How can I get a passport for this goatπππ pic.twitter.com/YFnFHVNcwN
— Arap Uria (@arapuria) September 29, 2023
However, unlike last year when Kenyans, and indeed the world, rooted for him and widely celebrated the duo’s meet up, this time, Kenyans dragged him for his desperation, telling him that time for online gimmicks was up and that he was now pushing his luck too far.
Thousands of displeased Kenyans told him to quit the gimmickry adding that the Drury stunts had now become monotonous and boring.
“Unadhani tena utatafutwa? Enda ukatafute kazi ya kufanya…Failure failure failure!” said one X user.
Another X user @justapunter said, “Establish yourself with what you achieved through Drury brand and go slow on clout chasing.”
On his part, user @kaysparks wrote, “Mzee hii simping ni excess, sasa unaharibu. An opportunity only comes once in a lifetime! You wasted it. Failure!”
Another user @iconic_kemboi, “Watu walimove on jomba, focus na mambo ya kujenga nchi!”
Despite the negative reactions he has attracted, the tweet has still managed to do insane numbers. It has already been viewed by over 1.3 million people and has garnered over 21k ‘likes’.