"The Kardashian Era Is Over": TikTok's "King of the Povvos" Declares War on Billionaires

For Shabaz Ali, designer ice cubes were the final straw. “There was a woman on TikTok making a whole video about her ‘designer ice cubes,’” he recalls. “She was freezing flavored water and fruit juice, meticulously showing every step. I thought to myself: ‘She clearly doesn't have a normal job and has no idea what financial hardship means. Only an extraordinarily wealthy person has time for nonsense like this.’ It triggered me so much that I recorded a reaction right then and there: ‘Welcome to another episode of I’m rich and you’re poor…’ Suddenly, my TikToks were pulling in 30 million views and thousands of comments. I was utterly shocked.”

Since then, the 32-year-old creator known online as @ShabazSays has become a cult phenomenon thanks to his razor-sharp commentary on how the "other half" lives. His scathing teardowns of the "rich and ridiculous" have won him an audience of over 4 million followers—and now, he is taking his viral fame to television.

It all started during the pandemic when the former chemistry teacher from Blackburn locked himself in his bedroom and began entertaining himself by mocking snobs and their "humblebragging" lifestyles. With a healthy dose of self-deprecation, he proclaimed himself the "King of the Povvos" (short for povvo, a British slang term for poor) and leader of the #PovvoGang movement. “I grew up in a working-class family where I heard the word povvo all the time. The community we’ve built is warm, honest, and self-aware. It’s a manifesto of sorts: ‘We don’t have much, but we stick together.’ For us, it’s now a badge of honor.”

The End of the Era of Fake Luxury

The disconnect between influencer millionaires and their everyday followers is growing increasingly glaring. “They post custom Bentleys and private jets. Who are you filming this for? Influencer Becca Bloom drives me absolutely crazy. Millions of people watch her cats eat out of £20,000 bowls. She has a £100,000 Louis Vuitton trunk packed to the brim with Hermès bags. And yet her followers genuinely believe they’re her friends!”

In Ali's corner of the internet, a revolt has long been brewing: “People tag me in dozens of videos every day, pointing out absurd, out-of-touch displays of wealth.” Shabaz calls it a movement aimed at dismantling unrealistic standards: “There has been a massive shift over the last few years. The Kardashian era is over. We no longer want photoshopped reality. We want to see things that are real, raw, and unfiltered.”

“You Can’t Be a Billionaire and a Good Person”

His new BBC Three documentary, titled Shabaz Asks: Are Billionaires Bad?, is set to hit screens shortly. Delivered with his signature wit, Ali explores the nature of extreme wealth and its impact on society, questioning whether the mega-rich are a symptom of a broken culture or if they can still serve a purpose.

Wealth hoarding provokes genuine anger in him: “What infuriates me most is that the gap is widening. The number of billionaires is growing, and they keep finding new tax loopholes and ways to hide their assets. I genuinely believe 90% of them don't care about anyone else. You cannot be a billionaire and remain a good person.”

To dive deeper into the topic, Shabaz attempted to land sit-down interviews with figures from the Forbes list. He reached out to Kim Kardashian, the Beckhams, the Trumps, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Beyoncé. “Kim definitely read my message, but she didn’t reply. A couple of people just dropped heart-likes on my DMs. That was the extent of it.”

In lieu of the mega-famous, Ali met with other experts and wealthy figures, including Green Party leader Zack Polanski: “He’s the only politician who openly speaks out against billionaires. The rest are too busy protecting their donors.”

Ali also traveled to the ski resort town of Vail, Colorado, to visit Phones 4u founder John Caudwell. “I hate billionaires, but I actually liked John, which was a tough pill for me to swallow,” Ali admits. “He’s just completely oblivious to the scale of his own power and privilege. He told me: ‘You can’t just go whisper in the government’s ear. I met with Keir Starmer, and he didn’t take my advice.’ But the mere fact that he could say that sentence out loud! You got into that room solely because of your money. The Prime Minister might not have listened to you, but he certainly listened to someone else with similar deep pockets. I respect John’s philanthropy, but on a fundamental level, we disagree. Man, your rich friends are still jerks!”

Ali didn't miss the chance to peek inside Caudwell’s fridge, expecting to find pristine, color-coded jars like those seen on social media. “I thought everything would be lined up with custom labels, but it was just a regular fridge. In fact, it was messier than mine!”

Did the documentary change his worldview? “No, it only solidified it. We don't need billionaires—they should be doing far more for society.”

When presented with the classic argument that higher taxes will simply drive the rich out of the country, Ali’s response is swift: “Let them leave! It’s scaremongering. They won't go anywhere—they have too many interests here. Tax their diamonds, tax their yachts! And if they refuse to pay, banish them all to the Isle of Wight and turn it into a giant prison for the rich,” he laughs.

As his debut documentary draws to a close, Shabaz pulls no punches when hinting at what’s next: “We are already discussing the next project. I want to tackle the beauty industry, cosmetics, and plastic surgery. ‘Shabaz Asks: Can You Turn Back Time?’—that’s the question I want to answer.”

For now, he is convinced that society is rapidly approaching a boiling point: “We are on the precipice of something massive. People are fed up with social inequality. It feels like we’re living through the French Revolution, and everyone is ready to overthrow Marie Antoinette.”