Guy Fieri raised eyebrows with an Instagram post featuring a very toned-down version of his usual look.
The celebrity chef and TV personality posted a video of himself on Instagram on Thursday, dressed in slacks and a button-down—minus his signature goatee and spiked hair—which appears to be AI-generated or altered. “After so many years of celebrating as Guy, I figured this year, I’d celebrate it as… just a guy. Happy birthday to me,” he says before blowing out the lit candles on a birthday cake.
Fans gathered in the comments section to show their shock at the jarring change in appearance for Fieri, whose style hasn’t changed since he won the 2006 Food Network Star competition that made him a household name. Fieri’s son Hunter, 29, joked, “Dad… when did you start selling insurance?” as the “just a guy” version of Fieri closely resembles the TV version of a State Farm agent.
“The water used to make this AI slop could have provided for an entire village in need,” noted a social media user unimpressed by the method to Fieri’s joke, before adding, “Happy Birthday though!”
Others were too distracted by the general unease caused by the strange video, as one noted, “This makes me uncomfortable in a way I didn’t know to be possible,” and former Disney Channel star Christy Carlson Romano wrote, “I don’t like this.”
Fieri’s 58th birthday comes after a fall last year landed him in a wheelchair for eight weeks. He gave People an update on his condition earlier this month. “I’m doing better. It was definitely a trying holiday” season, “but you know what, you get some real appreciation for having the ability to just get up and walk around and do everything you used to.”
He added, “I’m a big CrossFit and hiking guy, so eight weeks of no hiking has driven me kind of crazy. But I’m looking forward to it, trying to take it easy.” Fieri called the incident “the worst thing I’ve been through in the last 20 years.”
