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Buddha Ben Is Back: Barstool Welcomes Home A Legend

By JR·2 min read
Buddha Ben Is Back: Barstool Welcomes Home A Legend

TLDR: Dave Portnoy teased a big acquisition, and it turned out to be one of Barstool's most beloved original stars.

  1. The reaction from the Barstool roster was instant and genuine. Gaz called it "big whale hunting" and welcomed back "Buddha Ben" by name, while Megan admitted she went home and immediately threw on a Ben Fredette original — a nod to the actual paintings and merch Fredette built a following around after he left the company. Cons, who's watched plenty of people cycle in and out of Barstool over the years, framed it as part of a bigger pattern: "a lot of companies out there are prone to boomerangs... great to have @BenFredette back!" Pat kept it simple, calling it an "EXTREMELY RARE GET."

    Pat
    Pat
    @BarstoolPAT

    EXTREMELY RARE GET WELCOME HOME @BenFredette!!

    Then came the old-friends energy that only makes sense if you've been around Barstool long enough to remember it. TJ Hitchings dug up what he billed as "extremely rare bts footage" he shot back in 2019 while working as an intern on a music video set — in reality just a clip of shirtless guys jumping and splashing around in the ocean near a jetty, tagged with a crew of names including Fredette, Frankie Borrelli, PFT Commenter and more. It's not literal behind-the-scenes footage of anything, it's a bit — old friends ribbing each other with a throwback clip to mark the occasion.

    TJ
    TJ
    @TJHitchings

    LFG welcome back @BenFredette Here is some extremely rare bts footage I shot as an intern on the @puppunkrawx “Song Of The Summer” music video set (2019).

    Fredette's return taps into something Barstool has leaned into more and more as the company has matured: bringing back the people who helped build its early identity. Cons's read on it as a "boomerang" trend isn't wrong — Barstool's roster has seen plenty of names leave for other ventures and eventually find their way back into the fold, whether full-time or in guest spots. For a guy who built a post-Barstool career as an artist under the Buddha Ben name, slotting back into the company that first gave him a platform feels less like a career pivot and more like unfinished business.

  2. Dave Portnoy has been dropping hints for a while now about guys he'd bring back to Barstool given the chance. On July 30, he got cryptic about it, posting that he had "a list of guys that I knew would come back one day" and that he was "very close to acquiring one of them." Anyone who's followed Barstool's history knew that list was short and stacked with legends.

    Dave Portnoy
    Dave Portnoy
    @stoolpresidente

    I have a list of guys that I knew would come back one day. Very close to acquiring one of them

    Less than 24 hours later, the mystery was solved. Portnoy posted a photo with the caption "We got him" and tagged Ben Fredette — better known across the internet as Buddha Ben. For longtime Stoolies, that's not just a hire, that's a homecoming. Fredette was one of the earliest and most recognizable faces of Barstool's video era, known for his art, his weed content, and being an all-around fixture of the office culture before he left the company back in 2019.

    Dave Portnoy
    Dave Portnoy
    @stoolpresidente

    We got him @BenFredette

    Dave Portnoy: We got him @BenFredette

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