Guinea pigs, bathrooms and barbeque: How three different Maconites went viral

This summer, while scrolling through endless videos on TikTok or Instagram, you might see a few familiar Macon faces. Some local residents are keeping busy by taking to social media, and a few are making a splash.

When Takara Mosley isn’t working at Navicent Atrium Health Center, she’s at home filming videos with her pet guinea pig, Frankie. 

She first fell in love with guinnea pigs in the sixth grade when her teacher brought in a class pet. 

Mosley named her first guinea pig, Blackberry and has had a total of 10 guinea pigs over the years. She currently takes care of Frankie and her two other guinea pigs, Bear and Dino.

When she first began creating videos with the loveable rodents, Mosley said she didn’t expect a large following, but the guinea pigs’ personality attracted a lot of
attention.

“All of them have their own personality,” she said. 

Her most popular videos received millions of views on TikTok. One video featuring Gizmo, her late guinea pig, is titled “Pov: Telling your guinea pig what would happen if a hawk catches him.” The video has 831,600 likes and 3.2 million views.

Mosley’s other guinea pigs, Bear and Dino, were given to her by a TikTok follower who saw her videos online and wanted to give them a good home.

“I think it’s fun and animals in general are fun. Guinea pigs, they are just unique animals,” she said. “They don’t get the recognition they deserve all the time.”

Frankie, who turns 2 years old in August, might fit in the palm of one’s hand, but he’s got an unforgetably big personality. Viewers who come across Mosley and Frankie’s videos will most likely find the sassy guinea pig perched on his owner’s shoulder or burrowed into a pile of pillows and blankets — giving the camera a dramatic side eye. 

He’s talkative and “he doesn’t believe in personal space,” according to Mosley.

He knows when he’s going to be recorded, she said, sometimes he’ll play along and make a show for
viewers. 

Courting the King of Flavortown

Fincher’s Barbecue is a staple Macon restaurant, which has long-since won over the hearts of barbecue-lovers everywhere, but owner Jake Fincher is gunning for recognition from culinary icon Guy Fieri. 

Fieri’s show, “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” plays on the TV in Fincher’s restaurant nearly everyday.

“I like seeing independent, family-owned restaurants,” Fincher said of his appreciation for the show. 

His grandfather, Dude Fincher, opened the popular barbecue restaurant in 1935 and it has stayed a family business ever since. 

“I’ve always loved to cook and I love people,” said Fincher, who currently runs the restaurant with his brother.

Fincher began posting cooking videos on TikTok and recently started a daily series asking Fieri to come to Macon. 

“People love looking at barbecue and food on TikTok,” he said. “Maybe I’m relatable to other people, just a small business owner trying to grow the business.”

If Fieri visited the restaurant, Fincher said he would want him to try their pulled pork sandwich, which famously went to space with Macon native Sonny Carter. 

Fincher has been asking Fieri to visit Macon on social media for more than a month now. Earlier videos in the series attracted nearly 60,000 views, and Fincher doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon. 

“I’m a stubborn redhead,” he said. “I don’t give up too easily.”

A unique critique… of Macon’s bathrooms

Fincher and Mosley, however, aren’t the first Macon residents to attract attention online.

In 2019, a social media account called “Macon Bathroom Reviews” hit the scene with the slogan “We use the bathroom, so you don’t have to.” 

Founded by a group of friends from Stratford Academy, the Instagram page garnered a loyal following for its videos evaluating the cleanliness, accessibility and general quality of Bibb County’s restrooms. 

The first video — which received 261 likes and 38 comments — featured the cast of Macon Bathroom Reviews in a car, discussing the pros and cons of the bathroom at Mandarin Chinese Restaurant.

Viewers loved the niche topic and level of detail offered by close-knit bathroom-enthusiasts Andrew Moring, Stephen Grubb, Alex Buehler and Radley Fenimore. 

Moring made his debut on episode 3 of Bathroom Reviews when the group reviewed the facilities at Cookout on Tom Hill Boulevard. 

Moring said he and his friends began making videos because they were bored and inspired by a Macon food reviews account.

“We all just kind of agreed, ‘yeah, we actually should do something like this,’” he said.

The series regulars consisted of Moring, Grubb, Buehler and Fenimore and also included their friend and recurring guests, Riley Davis and Carter Barfield. The group assessed everything from faucet functionality to bathroom aesthetic.

“We weren’t so much expecting the traction, but after a couple of weeks, we started to realize that it really did have potential,” Moring recalled. “We just decided to not just keep at it, but tap into that and make it a little bit more for an audience.”

The creative outlet gave the group of Stratford students name-recognition amongst their peers who tuned in to see the latest review and offered recommendations for future videos. 

“We got to know each other better,” Moring said, reflecting on his time with Macon Bathroom Reviews. “It’s not really a topic that you would typically discuss over with your friends.”

In 2019, the restroom aficionados graduated from Stratford and headed to college, closing the stall door on their successful social media account. Although they floated the idea of doing a college bathroom series, it didn’t come to fruition.

Moring currently works as an engineer and customer service representative for a machine shop. The other members of the group traded their rolls of TP for instruments, playing in multiple bands, including their own, called Better Yet.

Whether it’s a diva guinea pig, mouth-watering barbecue or detailed restroom assessments, these Macon locals shared snippets of their life that captured the attention of folks from Middle Georgia and beyond.