Ricardo Mello is a Brazilian model and adult entertainment industry worker who has become a meme twice: first in 2011 and again in 2018.
In 2011, he became popular on the Japanese imageboard 2channel through a meme called "Gotcha Moochie" where his videos were mixed with anime and Japanese music.
In 2018, he became a meme on TikTok when users would edit his dancing videos into their own videos, creating a bait-and-switch effect.
There were rumors that Ricardo Mello had died, possibly due to a hurricane in 2017, but an investigation found that he is likely still alive. His social media account was accessed as recently as 2018, and he may be aware of the memes being made about him.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. Ricardo Melo is a Brazilian model and adult entertainment industry worker.
2. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and has an identical twin brother.
3. He resides in the United States and is a professional fitness and adult model, exotic dancer, entertainer, and competitive natural bodybuilder.
4. Ricardo Melo's website, ricardomelos.net, was created in 2004 and is no longer available, but an archived version can be found online.
5. He became a meme on the internet in 2011 due to a video clip of him dancing with a bandana and an American flag thong.
6. The meme was popularized on the Gotcha Moochie community on 2chan, a Japanese image board.
7. Ricardo Melo's likeness was used in homoerotic wrestling video remixes and anime-style edits.
8. He became a meme again in 2018 on TikTok, where users would edit his dancing video into their videos for comedic purposes.
9. The meme spread from 2ch to TikTok and eventually to other platforms.
10. There was a death rumor surrounding Ricardo Melo, which claimed he died in the mid-2010s.
11. The rumor was likely fueled by his inactivity on social media and the internet.
12. However, an impostor named Nilton Felix started streaming on Twitch under the username "RicardoMelosLOL" and pretended to be Ricardo Melo.
13. Nilton Felix eventually revealed his true identity and linked his Instagram account to his Twitch bio.
14. Ricardo Melo's last publicly available post on his Facebook page was on September 7, 2017, where he mentioned Hurricane Irma.
15. However, he was not affected by the hurricane and is not on the list of fatalities.
16. Ricardo Melo's account on bigmuscle.com, a website for fitness models, was last accessed on December 19, 2018.
17. This suggests that Ricardo Melo was alive and active on the internet as of December 2018.
18. The Ricardo Melo's meme gained popularity around the same time he last accessed his bigmuscle.com account.