LA fires get a 'meme queen' as resident goes viral

As fires blaze across the Los Angeles area, one resident is going viral after relieving the tension of the last three days by being sassy and hilarious on the nightly news.

Content creator Courtney Barnes has just been catapulted to "Meme Queen" status after stealing the show while being interviewed on KCAL about the fire.

Sporting a yellow beanie, long red nails, hoop earrings, and a fierce set of false lashes, the instant icon appeared on the local news after having used a bullhorn to help direct his fellow residents to safety.

"I was watching the news, I looked out the window, I seen the fire," Barnes said on KCAL. "Some of it went in my eye — I can almost feel like I was going blind — so I just grabbed my bullhorn, halfway got my shoes on my feet, took off running, and said, 'Lord carry me as far as you can.'"

Barnes' bold personality and Jackson, Mississippi accent instantly won viewers over, inspiring drag queen and activist Pandora Boxx to post a clip from the news on her Instagram account, making Barnes — who also dresses in drag as Martin Lawrence's Sheneneh Jenkins character — an instant hit after captioning the video, "And in a tragedy a new meme queen shall rise."

See on Instagram

You'd never know it from their sassy interview, but Barnes told PRIDE that he was outside helping his neighbors near Runyon Canyon as the home he was living in burned down.

"I said, since I'm gone, and my house is gone, I might as well just walk around see if I can help everybody else," Barnes explained. "And so I just started walking around and screaming and shouting and telling everybody to get the fuck up, get out, stop doing what you're doing, there is a house fire and there's a fire on the roof!"

Barnes said that he hoped bringing some levity and humor to the situation would help people who are feeling "sad and scared and emotional" because "someone gotta be the strong one to keep us going so we can know it'll be a better tomorrow."

He cautioned that although people might be finding his interview with the local news funny, he wasn't taking the situation lightly but wanted to put "a little smile, a little sense of joy back in their spirits, and so I was just keeping it real and if keeping it real reminds people how to laugh and how to be happy again then that's what it was sister girlfriend!"

While going viral for something you said in the spur of the moment might be overwhelming for most people, Barnes is just happy that he was able to be a voice for people who are "too heartbroken" to speak and to help get the message about the dangers of the fire and the need for safely evacuating out there for the public.

See on Instagram

Barnes isn't just hilarious and someone who likes to help his neighbors, but he also does community outreach with his nonprofit called the Courtney Cares Foundation, where they bring care packages to the homeless people in Los Angeles with the help of troubled teens who sing, rap, and perform poetry for them.

"We pass our package out with a smile and entertainment, which means we allow troubled teen youth to come out on our journey with us and perform their art," Barnes explained.

Not one to let a conversation get too serious, when asked his age, Barnes had the perfect retort: "Oh honey, you ain't gonna believe it, but I've been around since the dinosaurs been extinct. I'm 7,947. No, I'm just playing, I'm 33."

If you want to help the Courtney Cares Foundation reach more people in the Los Angeles area, you can message Barnes on Instagram.