'Baby's uncle': how Dudu Daibert, Richarlison's brother-in-law, turned comments into a viral success

From Tio do Bebê to an internet phenomenon: how Dudu Daibert turned comments into viral
"Hi, I'm Dudu!" The phrase opens practically all videos by influencer Dudu Daibert, brother of Amanda Araujo, married to player Richarlison. In recent months, however, it was another title that introduced him to an audience far beyond his followers: "Tio do Bebê".
Although it went viral in just a few months, it was the result of years of video production. Before becoming known as "Baby's Uncle", Dudu tried different formats, took a break from the networks and returned with content that boosted his career as a creator.
Amanda, Richarlison, Richarlison Jr. and Dudu
Reproduction/Social networks
Before Baby
At the age of 14 and 15, Dudu was already producing videos for YouTube, but ended up deleting everything. It was only in 2020, during the pandemic, that he began to invest consistently in creating content for the internet.
In this first phase, his videos were more homemade, full of dances and a "caipirês" character. But he had to take a break from the networks to finish his Final Thesis at film school. "I said, 'I'm not going to be able to do my best at everything, so I decided to stop.'"
Graduated in cinema, Dudu returned to publishing videos at the end of 2024. According to him, this period of studies was important for the current phase of his career.
"I always asked myself why it wasn't working out. There was this thing: 'will my turn never come?'. Now I feel like I'm very ready. I'm really reaping the rewards of what a study brings and a qualified person for this job market."
Dudu Daibert with his nephew Richarlison Jr
Reproduction/Instagram
The Baby phenomenon
One of the first videos of this new phase recorded the nephew's reveal party, in London. It was there that many followers discovered that Amanda Araújo, Dudu's sister, is married to the player Richarlison.
"I posted it and then everyone realized that my sister was Amanda, so my brother-in-law was Richarlison", he remembers.
After the "discovery" of this family connection, Dudu noticed that his followers were repeating the same question: why did he never call his nephew by his name, Richarlison Jr.? Upon noticing the pattern in the comments, he decided to turn the public's curiosity into a video. Alongside his sister, he scripted a scene in which he made fun of the difficulty of saying "Richarlison Jr." and ended up calling his nephew just "baby". The publication already has more than 12 million views.
"A lot of what I grew up with was because big pages reposted. I had to make lemonade out of lemons. That's how the baby's story happened", he explains.
READ ALSO: Richarlison responds to criticism of his son's name: 'He won't need to work'
Understand the Baby's family
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Beyond the bubble
The videos, which previously circulated mainly among an audience linked to internet culture, now also reach football fans and people who follow the universe of players and influencers.
Dudu has more than three million followers on social media. According to him, the change was noticeable not only in the numbers, but also in the profile of those who started to follow the content. "Nowadays it's very different because there are people from all walks of life: people who are big football fans, people who follow a player's wife...", he says.
This audience expansion also marks the arrival of the influencer in spaces where, historically, LGBTQIA+ creators have had less visibility.
"It's really cool to be able to see ourselves in environments that didn't belong to us before. We had to fight to find people who weren't heteronormative - even gay people who didn't perform this heteronormativity, in the sense of behaving like a straight person. I think it's been really cool, especially in this aspect of football, to see people being able to see me in these places", he says.
Dudu highlights that he is "not breaking barriers", but continuing a space that other influencers were already building. "There are a lot of people from the last decade who did an incredible job - Diva Depression, Põe na Roda. They ran so I could walk."
If the "baby's uncle" was the gateway to a new audience, Dudu already knows what image he would like to leave on whoever comes to his profile now: "I think I would like her to meet a light person, who brightens her day at least a little. May she leave my profile a little happier than when she arrived", he says.
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Source: G1