World of T-Shirts

Joshua Block in 2023.

Joshua Block (born August 7, 2001), known online as World of T-Shirts, is a TikTok star who gained popularity in 2020 for his eccentric personality caused by his autism. This would lead to more funny videos/live streams in New York in 2021, and more recently, rampant alcoholism while terrorizing the streets of New York City and refusing to get help. Throughout his TikTok career, Joshua has had several online interactions with Daniel Larson. Joshua’s manager, Michael Quinn, is another notable figure in the Larsonverse.

After Daniel met up with Joshua and Quinn in May 2023, Joshua mostly fell out of relevancy in the Larsonverse, though he still maintains his own following and is considered a lolcow.

Personal life

Joshua was born on August 7, 2001. His high-functioning autism is clearly shown through his hyperfixations (such as the New York subway system,) speech patterns and lack of social awareness / empathy. In June 2015, Joshua's mother passed away from cancer. Josh has said that his father is a drug addict (ironically). After his mother's death, Joshua's older brother with schizophrenia was sent to a group home, and Josh would live with his grandfather in Long Island.

Daniel Larson Records collaboration

In May 2021, Joshua announced that he would sign a record deal with "Daniel Larson Records" and collaborating with him to make a new song, however Joshua canceled the deal shortly after he discovered Daniel's past. Joshua warned viewers to avoid Daniel at all costs and that he needed to be canceled. It is unknown how Joshua was made aware of Daniel Larson, however it is likely that trolls reached out to him and claimed to be part of "Daniel Larson Records."

Daniel shouts out World of T-Shirts

In May 2021, Daniel posted a TikTok in which he responded to a viral video of World of T-Shirts screaming the lyrics to "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z. In his post, Daniel says, "This message is to World of T-Shirts. In New York."

A very old picture of Joshua, likely taken in 2019 or earlier.

On January 3, 2023 Daniel posted another video in which he says, "This message goes out to Joshua, World of T-shirts. You need to go back to selling t-shirts because you are not ready for this industry."

On April 27, 2023, Daniel posted another TikTok ominously requesting that his fans, "...stop talking about Josh from past management," due to the fact that, "...he is banned," with no further clarification.

Before Meeting

Upon hearing news of Daniel’s plans to travel to New York City, fans and Michael Quinn wanted to see a meet-up between the two figures. On Reddit and TikTok, many people attempted to convince Daniel to find Joshua and fight him. While it seemed neither were interested, Michael Quinn and both of their fan groups certainly were. The consensus was that even if this did happen it is likely that Daniel would back out, to the disappointment of many.

Later on, 'fans' would continually harass Daniel about doing a collaboration with World of T-Shirts. Many fighting with him, or taunting him by claiming that Joshua was on his way to his current location, as well as a plethora of other creative ways to try to get under Daniel's skin.

A frame from the video where Josh and Daniel first meet in person

After Daniel arrived in New York City, trolls attempted to arrange an 'accidental' meet-up between Daniel and Joshua. Daniel was sent to multiple locations that Joshua frequented, being under the impression that Grace VanderWaal would be at these locations. Joshua expressed multiple times on TikTok that he does not wish to meet Daniel, and even had to leave establishments after Daniel was likely to show up at.

After the Bodega Incident, Joshua posted a TikTok in front of Little India Bodega, the location at which Daniel was assaulted. In the video, Joshua announced that Daniel Larson got punched in the nose at the Bodega, and that he, World of T-shirts, runs New York City.

Meet Up

On May 10, after Michael Quinn and Daniel had met two days prior, Quinn got Daniel and Josh to finally meet. Caught on film, as Daniel walked through the doors of the Starbucks at the World Financial Center in downtown New York. Daniel is visibly smiling in the video. The tension of the moment quickly faded as the two shook hands despite all the online arguments, Joshua then recorded his well known rendition of "Empire State of Mind" with Daniel in the background gleefully waving to the camera. The two broke bread together and discussed Josh's drinking problems, and Daniel's experiences along the west coast on a livestream.

Cameo

Around May 29, after creating a Cameo, World Of T-Shirts got an order in which a Daniel Larson fan paid to have him say that he was dating Grace Vanderwaal. Mistakenly however, Josh said that he was doing Grace instead.

In what appears to be Daniel's response, posted around the same time, he announced that both World Of T-Shirts and Michael Quinn are banned from all of his concerts.

Later, this creation lead to fans pushing Daniel to make a cameo, which he eventually did.

Controversies

Being a lolcow, and due to the way he acts, Joshua has had his own controversies on social media throughout the years. Joshua is similar to Daniel in which he has some white knights / enablers who try to defend his actions, using his autism as an excuse for everything. However Joshua has also been shown to exhibit this behavior as well.

Fish Incident

In June 2021, Joshua would be given a live fish by a fan (who was fishing,) only to proceed to repeatedly throw it on the floor and stomp on it while laughing. Joshua claimed the fish was dead but this was clearly false as the fan was shown to be fishing. This psychotic incident caused Joshua to lose tens or hundreds of thousands of followers.

Meltdowns

Like Daniel, Joshua is prone to autistic meltdowns. These became significantly more common after his alcoholism would begin. Joshua has been spotted having drunk, autistic meltdowns in the streets of New York City (or other cities he's traveled to such as Chicago, or Reykjavik) usually about his hat being stolen or being "poor".

Racism

Unlike Daniel, Joshua has not used the tactical slur (or at least, there is no surviving footage of it). He does, however, exhibit racist tendencies, or pure ignorance about the topics, such as when he "unknowingly" said "porch monkey" and "knee grow" on a Cameo. Not to mention that he does not have a good track record of saying other slurs.