Johnny Bananas of The Challenge is claiming another win after Netflix re-edited a scene from his Pop the Balloon: Live appearance in April, which was initially deemed racist by many of the show’s viewers. In the newly released footage of the scene, Johnny claims viewers can now see that his controversial remark was not aimed a Black contestant, as many initially thought. 

As The Ashley previously told you, Johnny was hit with accusations of racism following his episode of the live dating show, during which he appeared to tell one of the female contestants– who was Black– that her toes made her look like she would have slept “from a tree hanging upside down.” 

While the contestant made it known in the moment that she was unsure if Johnny was directing his comment at her, some of the other contestants appeared visually shocked by Johnny’s comment, including another Black female contestant on stage. 

Johnny claimed at the time that his comment– which went unchecked during the live show– had actually been directed at another female contestant– a white woman wearing a dress with green leaves on it– and that the close-up camera angle made it appear otherwise. 

According to DailyMail, Netflix has now updated the streaming version of Johnny’s episode to include a wider camera angle of the controversial moment, which Johnny claims “clearly” shows which contestant he was speaking to. Johnny took to social media on Tuesday to explain the change that was made to the episode, while insisting that the original scene should have never aired the way it did. 

“The video of my appearance on #poptheballoon as it stands now—and the change that was made—shows there was a clear rush to outrage fueled by a misrepresentation of something that should not have aired the way it did,” he posted to X. “I know some will still choose not to see it, and that’s fine. But to those who were genuinely hurt and now understand what really happened—you’re the ones I care about.” 

Johnny also claimed on the social media platform that the re-edit scene has “VINDICATED” him, before going on to thank both Netflix and DailyMail for “adding clarification and helping clear my name.” 

Johnny also took a moment to respond to a few comments about his appearance on the Netflix show, including one from a viewer who told the MTV star that nobody was “buying” the story he was telling.

“Ain’t nobody buying it old man we saw what we saw,” the viewer wrote, to which Johnny replied, “And what you saw was incorrect. Thanks for proving my point.” 

While some fans still seem to doubt Johnny’s account of what occurred on the show, he told DailyMail that the current version of the episode should make it “clear to anyone” that he was directing his comment to the white female contestant in the green and white dress. 

“I want to be absolutely clear…anyone who knows me, knows my heart and my character, and they know that I’m not a racist and would never make any sort of racist comment towards anyone,” he added.  

As The Ashley previously reported, the incident in April wasn’t the first time Johnny was accused of racism. 

Back in February, the 42-year-old was hit with similar allegations after responding to a tweet from Taylor Hale– the first Black woman to win Big Brother– with a gorilla emoji. Johnny fired off the damning tweet after Taylor mentioned on X that the “yellow fruit man” (aka Johnny Bananas) had taken to the social media platform earlier that day claiming that he was “looking for engagement.” In response, Johnny’s account replied to Taylor with a series of banana emojis, followed by a gorilla emoji– a reply that had fans and fellow reality TV stars calling out Johnny for what appeared to be a racist tweet. 

The tweet was quickly deleted; however, Johnny continued to receive fallout for days. 

A week after the tweet-and-delete, Johnny shared his side of the story with Variety, claiming his response to Taylor had been posted by a marketing and content creation agency that he had enlisted to take over his socials to promote the $BANANAS cryptocurrency he was launching. 

In addition to sharing a statement about the incident with Variety, Taylor posted on social media that Johnny had contacted her to explain the situation and that she reportedly informed him that she “did not believe the intent of the tweet to be racist.” Still, Taylor told fans that she received “actual racist messages” from people on social media claiming to be fans of Johnny’s. 

RELATED STORY: ‘The Challenge’ Star Sarah Rice Responds to Johnny Bananas’ ‘Pop the Balloon’ Appearance Backlash 

(Photos: MTV; X; Netflix; Instagram)