After watching Tyra Banks’ recent stint as a judge on the most recent season of Project Runway, I found myself disappointed. She was acting like a normal, well-adjusted human being who was judging the contestants through a more practical lens. At times, she was even portrayed as the voice of reason in comparison to Law Roach and some of the other judges.

Quite frankly, it scared me. 

I wanted the old Tyra back. The Tyra who never cared about how weirdly she was being portrayed on television. The woman who used to make up new words with reckless abandon and torture aspiring models for the fun of it.

To hopefully remind her of her true calling, I’ve decided to put together a list of some of Tyra’s weirdest moments.

1. Fake fainting: In the 6th cycle of America’s Next Top Model (and yes, the seasons were called cycles), Tyra visited the contestants in the model house to have a seemingly normal conversation. As the conversation progressed, she became increasingly lightheaded, ultimately leading to her fainting and falling to the ground. The girls were distressed and not sure what to do, with some of them pleading through tears for someone to save her. In a sudden moment of clarity, Tyra stood up and exclaimed that she was simply just teaching the girls about acting. This was one of the first moments where I understood what Tyra was really capable of.

2. Music video: One of ANTM’s earliest challenges had the cycle 2 contestants starring in the “Shake Ya Body” music video for Tyra Banks. The girls had to learn choreography and do a fake runway walk for a small segment of the video. You might find yourself asking: what does this have to do with modeling? And that’s a great question! To be fair, the song absolutely went platinum in my household. I just think it’s funny that the fate of one contestant was determined by how well she danced in one of Tyra’s many side projects.
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3. ‍Tyra-isms: Tyra has an innate ability to invent new words and, whether they catch on or not, incorporate them into many different aspects of ANTM. She has made up so many that she even started a “Dictionary Hour” YouTube series explaining some of this terminology. You might be familiar with the more popular ones such as smize, for which she famously campaigned to get added to the dictionary. There are also words like tooch, flawsome, and my personal favorite, pot ledom. This is simply just the phrase “top model” backward and has no discernable meaning.

4. Rabies scare: If you were unaware, Tyra had her own talk show called “The Tyra Banks Show” which aired on the CW from 2005-2011. Perhaps my absolute favorite moment from this show is when Tyra opened by telling her audience that she felt off after being bit by a dog with rabies. After assuring everyone about her wellbeing, she sat down to interview her guest…only to start foaming at the mouth. She ultimately started to scream, fell out of her chair, and finished by barking at several audience members. You just have to respect the commitment to the bit.
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5. Beyoncé interview: In 2008, Tyra was lucky enough to land an interview with Beyoncé on her talk show. Instead of conducting the interview normally, she asked every question through the lens of a pun on either Beyonce’s name or her alter ego. For example, she used the name “Brieoncé” to ask about her favorite kind of cheese, and coined the term “Squasha Fierce” to ask what her favorite sport was. I personally love this interview, but many people joke that it’s the reason why Beyoncé doesn’t do interviews anymore.‍
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6. ‍Homeless cosplay: One controversial episode of the talk show showed Tyra pretending to be homeless for a day in an attempt to show “how homeless people really live.” What this really meant is that Tyra wrapped a scarf around her head and sat down on a street corner to beg passersby for money. As tone deaf at this is, it ultimately strikes me as bizarre. The idea that Tyra thought this would come off well shows that her brain works in mysterious ways.

7. ‍Harvard degree: Back in 2012, Tyra posted on her Twitter (which has since been deleted) to proudly show off her newly-earned degree from Harvard Business School. There was just one problem: this was not actually a degree. Several internet sleuths deduced that she actually completed a 9-week program, which took place on the Harvard Business campus, that simply provides the recipient with a certificate of completion. Whatever the truth may be, I personally consider Tyra Banks to be Harvard’s most noteworthy graduate.
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8. Beauty MLM: Only two years later, the entrepreneur herself launched TYRA Beauty, a makeup line featuring products with “proprietary Ty-Glide technology.” Product innovation aside, it was shortly revealed that the company was actually an MLM. TYRA Beauty associates were called “Beautytainers” and were told they would be “rackin’ up them bank signs.” The brand closed operations by 2017, not before Tyra made a song for her Beautytainers to refer back to.
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9. Modelland: In 2011, one of the most groundbreaking YA fiction novels of all time was released…and it was written by Tyra Banks (and a ghostwriter). The novel follows a girl named Tookie De La Crème as she attends Modelland boarding school in an attempt to join the Intoxibellas modelling group. So yes, it’s about as weird as it sounds. Tyra even incorporated the book into the all-star cycle of ANTM, making the final four girls all say “I am Tookie” into the camera for some reason. You might know Modelland from its recent social media resurgence, led by the discovery of the very experimental song that Tyra made to accompany the novel.
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10. SMiZE & DREAM: After being a world-famous model, having a talk show, and even writing a novel, the natural next step for Tyra was to start an ice cream business, of course. The company launched in Santa Monica in 2021, moving to Washington, D.C. for about a year before landing in Sydney, Australia, where it operates currently. According to the website, Tyra considers herself an “ice cream sommelier” and loses sleep over thinking about her ice cream dreams. What SMiZE & DREAM is most known for, however, is the invention of hot ice cream, or Hot SMiZE Cream. Explained as “a delicious contradiction that challenges expectations,” it is essentially a warm, sweet milk with a unique viscosity. But don’t be fooled: according to Tyra herself, it is not simply a latte, a flavored hot chocolate, or even melted ice cream. One thing is clear: I’ll have to plan a trip Down Under to try it for myself.