Virginia Grandmother Goes Viral – NBC4 Washington
Mary Puggoni wakes up between 7:30 am and 9:00 am each day and then sits in the back yard of her Wythe home in Hampton, Virginia, overlooking the water.
Your first job? Coffee and a cigarette.
Next, she usually teases her daughter, Nanci Caceda, and puts on a show for the nearly 80,000 TikTok followers she’s gained over the past few months.
The Italian is 82 years old but insists on being 71 years old. She has three children and seven grandchildren of her own, but has become a grandmother to TikTokers worldwide since she and her daughter started posting videos about six months ago.
Known as the “Grannysoffherrocker” or “Bad Granny”, Puggioni often shooed her daughter away so she could collect her thoughts and enjoy her morning routine, modeling bikinis, posting sexual innuendos and remixing videos from other social media users.
Together they received over 2 million likes and 17 million views.
“Drop those granny panties and let’s start this (expletive),” said one user in a video.
The video then shows Puggioni, wearing a red nightgown, as she drops an empty box of adult diapers on the floor and shouts eagerly, “I’m on my way! I am on the way!”
In the past month, their fan base has doubled. She has fans in Chicago, Italy, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey, Romania and Germany and has met a few, including a group of guys who went to Hampton Roads in June.
“Five guys from other states were just driving in and when they saw that Grandma lived in the area, they said, ‘You have to meet us!'” Her daughter said. “My husband and I took her with us.”
Not many people in Hampton Roads are yet aware of their success, but Puggoni dreams of being recognized by the locals.
“I can’t wait for the day when I’m at Target or Lowe or Walmart and someone says, ‘Oh, you’re Grandma! I see you on TikTok all the time! ‘ She said. “I can’t wait for that to happen.”
The family hails from Brooklyn, where Puggoni has spent more than a decade helping children with special needs on school buses to make sure they get there safely.
The family also owned a business in New York before moving to Hampton Roads about three years ago. They sold the business and wanted to buy a house that is expensive in New York, so they came to Hampton.
Finally, Puggioni’s granddaughter suggested they create a social media profile for her because she’s “crazy” and says the funniest things. They started with a tongue twister joke and it went from there.
Puggioni is pretty grumpy in the mornings but says her daughter is managing her well.
“She’s a good teacher,” said the social media star. “She’s a great editor, and she searches TikTok for ideas on what to do during the day when she’s ready to videotape me.”
A perk of their growing popularity on the internet is TikTok’s Creator Fund, which provides money to creators based on their activity, including number of views, engagement, and compliance with community guidelines and terms of use.
Though her videos are riddled with adult humor and the occasional swear word, there is part of Puggioni’s success that makes her emotional.
For some TikTokers whose loved ones have passed away, she’s almost like a second grandmother. They ask her things like “can you be my grandma?” said her daughter.
“I sympathize with people who tell me they want me to replace their grandma,” said Puggoni. “It’s bittersweet.”
For her own grandchildren, the videos were a bit embarrassing at first. Now they want to participate. Sometimes her granddaughter sends her FaceTime to prove to her friends that she is related to her.
When she’s not shooting videos or talking to her daughter about ideas, she spends hours playing a casino game on her iPad.
She has had health problems for the past eight years, including a brain aneurysm and surgery on her back that has prevented her from moving as much as she wants. But she doesn’t let that stop her and sometimes drives through the neighborhood with her electric wheelchair.
She also enjoys listening to one of her favorite singers, Luis Miguel.
She has seen him live twice, and once he saw her in the front row at a show in Maryland and presented her with a “beautiful white rose.” He also threw her a big kiss, she said and kissed her hand.
“He threw the first one and someone else grabbed it – a greedy woman. So he saw that and actually gave it to me. It was wonderful. I wanted to cry. “
She wants to see him perform at least one more time and go on another cruise.
There is one more goal she wants to achieve.
“Betty White,” said Puggoni with a smile. “I’ll be a ‘Golden Girl’, better than her.”
To stay up to date with Grandma, check out @Grannysoffherrocker on Instagram and TikTok.
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