Mononymously-named and bodybuilding-sculpted, Kyle — the tanned and chiseled face of Kyle University (tagline: “Teaching boys how to be men”) — looks and sounds like many of those populating the so-called manosphere. At least, he does on the first glance of his social media videos (and perhaps even the second or third).
Assuredly describing himself as a “high-value man” and boasting bulging pecs that appear in danger of not just escaping his ludicrously tight shirt but setting up their own nation-state across the room, Kyle serves up pearls of misogynistic wisdom similar to various other Andrew Tate-style gurus.
“London 7, Miami 5” he unflinchingly rates a girl across the table during a date. “How would you sell yourself to me?” he asks another. “If I’m sending an eggplant emoji and she’s not sending nipple pics, I’m out,” is one of the various rules of dating he offers to the camera, while on a podcast video he’s described by another as a “gigachad.” For those unaware of the lingo, a “gigachad” is considered the ultimate, idealized version of a highly masculine and attractive man.
And yet, for anyone whose algorithms have even accidentally scratched the surface of the online world where Patrick Bateman-idolising alpha male influencers peddle toxic hypermasculinity, preposterous goal-oriented lifestyle advice and the extreme appearance optimisation known as looksmaxxing, even this feels a little too absurd after a few views.
As Kyle claims in one clip: “I don’t talk to my mom. She’s a 4/10. She needs to bonemash.” In another, he offers a call to arms and declares himself to be “a lion in a world of dolphins, and you need to be the wolves that follow me.” Perhaps the tipping point is where Kyle declares his love for the “Barbie” movie, noting that he left the cinema after the “happy ending, when Ken took over Barbie’s world.”
It is, of course, all satirical. But given the state of what’s out there, skirts a very fine line.
Kyle University is the brainchild of 22-year-old Brit director Noah Caplan, who tells Variety there’s “a roughly 50-50 split” between those who think Kyle — actually played by U.S. bodybuilder and former American Gladiator Mike O’Hearn — is real and those who are in on the joke. But, given the figures involved, those who haven’t twigged — which he claims include “several famous red pill commentators,” many of whom leave comments “agreeing with Kyle” each time he shuts a woman down — are substantial.
In under two weeks since it launched across social media, Kyle University’s videos, which now number more than 40 with more being added each day, have racked up 30 million organic views. The vast majority of the audience has come from Instagram (early optimism that it would thrive on the manosphere-friendly TikTok were crushed when the platform banned it on Day One — Caplan suspects a video in which Kyle says “boner alert!” or another in which he asks a girl “how many shards of glass she would walk on to see his cock” may have violated its rules).
As it happens, the “Barbie” video, despite being Caplan’s favorite joke, was one of the worst performers. “Obviously, we alienated about 60% of our audience with that,” he says. Worryingly, the most popular clips are the most misogynistic.
But for all the manosphere poking and parodying, Kyle University isn’t solely there to gather laughs or generate comical confusion. The videos, shot several months ago over a few days in London, are a proof-of-concept for Caplan’s directorial feature debut and all part of an extremely elaborate and very carefully constructed campaign to raise awareness, support and financing.
Those who do make it from the social media platforms to the Kyle University website will immediately be greeted, not with detail about Kyle’s course on how to be a man, but the six-minute proof-of-concept for “Impressionable.” It’s a film Caplan — who has been trying to hustle his way into the industry for years and, at age 17, somehow convincing Brit TV legend Danny Dyer to star in his debut short — describes as a coming-of-age comedy.
The plot centers around a British teen and the impact toxic masculinity and red pill culture has on him, and is based the young filmmaker’s own experiences watching friends get pulled into that world. There’s a worthy goal, aimed at highlighting both the absurdity of the manosphere and what real role models should look like, but he claims all done with a light, un-lecturing touch.
The film will also star O’Hearn (who Caplan says he “spammed when he was on Instagram Live”) as not the same Kyle from the clips, but a fictitious, bandana-wearing movie star — an Arnie-style “Last Action Hero” beefcake — whose full name is “Kile (With an I).”
A still from the “Impressionable” proof of concept. Credit: Sara Shevlin
Artist
“Impressionable” has been cooking in Caplan’s mind for some time and has taken several twists and turns with every new development from the manosphere (such as the recent popularizing of looksmaxxing and figures such as Clavicular). But towards the end of 2025 and with little progress, he decided to put it in the driving seat, concocting Kyle University.
“I basically wanted to make something that proves there is an audience and an appetite,” he says.
Thankfully for the youngster, he knows just how to generate that online audience. After various stints, including working in unscripted TV (“when I say work, I used to get the tea,” he says) and cleaning the pools at a gym, he founded Yoof, a social-first talent management agency that now reps various British content creators, several of whom appear in the Kyle University videos alongside O’Hearn. It is literally Caplan’s job to generate online audiences.
Ironically, he says that through his company he’s worked on marketing campaigns with the same major studios that were ignoring his cold calls years ago about the film.
But Kyle University and “Impressionable” couldn’t have made a noise at a better moment.
Thanks to “Adolescence” and Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary, the manosphere has been dragged into mainstream conversations. What once lurked in the online shadows has become a major talking point and cause for global concern among parents and politicians alike. Coincidentally, the Kyle videos were shot around the same time Theroux’s “Inside the Manosphere” was released, with Caplan worried that he should have cut them up quicker to piggyback off the headlines.
Just when he thought he might be too late to capitalize, “Obsession” and “Backrooms” — both from young first-time directors who had already built an audience online — landed and turn the movie industry on its head.
“Suddenly, the idea of a 20-year-old director is quite interesting to everyone,” says Caplan, who started getting “really exciting emails” and a “lots of DMs with agents, sales, producers and production companies” within days of the first Kyle University video posting. Doors that were firmly shut on an Gen Z first-timer are now creaking open and enquiries are coming in from those who never replied to earlier emails.
“I just want to talk to anyone and everyone — and I think there’s no better time now,” he says. “We’ve managed to build an IP that has attracted 10s and 10s of millions of eyeballs. So I’m hoping this could be the next bit of original IP coming from social media.”
Before any deals are signed, however, there’s still the Kyle University campaign to complete, with many more videos yet to come (all posted by Caplan, who notes that “as it’s effectively a one-man operation, I’m often having to excuse myself from the pub to post the next one”).
But the story of Kyle is going to take a bit of turn, with our ripped gigachad set to become more reflective and showing what Caplan says are the “insecurities and layers behind the machoism.” It’s something he admits will likely lose him views, or at the least slow down the sharp trajectory they’ve been taking, but could “spark more conversation in the comments section.”
Because the point of Kyle University isn’t to simply make a joke at the expense of those drawn to the manosphere, but to use same toolkit as those who preach within and the absurdity of what they spout to create something entertaining that can pull people in a different, more positive, direction — and eventually towards “Impressionable.”
“By creating that ecosystem, you’re basically replicating the algorithm,” says Caplan. “And it’s now working, because instead of sending them to an online course, we’re sending them to kyleuniversity.com, where you can find out about the film.”
The campaign has another few weeks left to run, after which Caplan says he’ll “see if the hype turns into something real.” And if hasn’t gotten the sort of the attention he was hoping for — at least not from the industry — he’ll just turn up the hustle again.
“I had an idea of sending a bunch of bodybuilders — in the full ‘Kile (with an I)’ costume with the bandana — to near where the big studios are to hand out Kyle University enrollment packages,” he says. “Because I want to be really brash. I want to create a character that people dress up as for Halloween.”
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