Slaughter once weighed 298 pounds
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The guy who is often called, “The Funniest Man in Pickleball” has a large audience. Evan Slaughter has 305,000 followers on Instagram and 217,000 on TikTok. He is often mentioned when pickleballers talk about the sport’s top influencers. He also has a backstory that is more tragic than funny.
On July 16, 2011, Slaughter was serving in the Army in Afghanistan. He was the gunner of the lead truck in a convoy. He says the truck hit an IED (improvised explosive device) and blew up. Slaughter’s left ankle was dislocated and he suffered what he calls “minor head injuries” and other bumps and bruises.
Slaughter received a Purple Heart and a combat infantry badge. He rehabbed in Afghanistan and returned home in June 2012 to Birmingham, Alabama.
And got addicted to painkillers.
“Addiction was in my family,” Slaughter tells me in his southern drawl during a phone interview.
He also suffered from PTSD, which didn’t help his struggle to stay clean.
“You come back with a lot of different feelings and emotions,” Slaughter said. “You’re on high alert while driving and visiting crowded places. You’re stressed, anxious. It takes time to readjust and get back to everyday life.”
He also got addicted to food. At 5 feet, 5 inches tall, Slaughter ballooned to 298 pounds. In 2021, he entered the Turning Point rehabilitation facility in Thorsby, 45 miles south of Birmingham.
He got sober and, for the first time, while in rehab, played pickleball.
“I saw others playing it and was asked to jump in and the rest was history,” he says. “I loved that pickleball was a sport that anyone could play. It was fun and the socialization that came with it was huge for me. It was fun to laugh while getting exercise.”
After leaving rehab, he decided to pursue comedy.
“I am the youngest between me and my brother so I had a lot of attention,” Slaughter, 40, said. “I liked attention and always liked putting on a show or performing any way I could.
“I was definitely a bit of a smart mouth kid and always getting in trouble running my mouth,”
So he combined his love of getting attention, making people laugh, and pickleball. He started making videos on TikTok and Instagram in early 2022, focusing on things he was doing in his daily life, specifically pickleball and trying to get in shape.
“I tried social media because I enjoyed making people laugh and I liked the thrill of making a video for the public to potentially see and see how they reacted to it,” Slaughter says. “I think the following grew because people find me funny and find that I was being authentic and real with people. Sharing openly about my struggles.”
Slaughter’s videos began to go viral. People loved his deprecating wit, his candor, and his satiric pickleball and fitness videos.
He decided to pursue social media as a full-time career.
Slaughter chose “Fit2Serve” as his social media name. While doing research for this profile, several people I spoke with didn’t know his real name, but knew him as “that Fit2Serve guy.”
Slaughter says, “Fit 2 serve means that we are all ‘equipped’ to be of service in some way. For me, being of service means to make people laugh with comedy but we are all in some way fit to serve.”
Now Slaughter is laughing all the way to the bank.
Pickleball companies have taken note of his having more than a half-million followers on social media. He says he has worked with over 50 brands over the past few years and now has deals with 15. They include a paddle company, an energy drink and clothing businesses. “Most of them approached me and wanted to collaborate,” he says. “They email or message me on social media.
“It has provided a comfortable living that has allowed me to do it full time so far.”
One company wanted to put a pickleball court in his backyard at no charge. One problem: Slaughter has no backyard. He lives in an apartment in Nashville. But his brother has a yard at his nearby home, and the court was installed there.
Slaughter says in an email that he doesn’t have a girlfriend “And no kids, that I’m aware of, lol”
Slaughter about to hit the surf in San Diego in March 2025 after he lost 83 pounds
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He’s often on-camera wearing a T-shirt that exposes his prodigious belly. (He says he’s lost 83 pounds and weighs 215). Many of his videos cover topics that pickleball players can relate to. One is called, “Me when I first learned pickleball.” It fairly accurately illustrates how many new players quickly go over the top buying paddles, equipment bags and the like. It has 12.5 million views.
Some of his videos might seem geared towards teenage boys. One is titled, “The Stinky Dinky,” and shows Slaughter rubbing his paddle in his butt before hitting the ball back to his grossed-out opponent. That one has 8000 views.
Slaughter says he’s around a 3.5 player but doesn’t care about ratings or medals.
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Slaughter says he’s not a very good pickleball player, a 3. 5 at best, but he’s working on that, although not too strenuously.
“I do it only for fun and recreational purposes,” he says. “I’ve never been one to get really competitive at it.”
In the pickleball community, where so many personalities are bland, reserved and conservative, the man known as “Fit 2 Serve” has clearly stood out, in more ways than one.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· I wrote a piece for the March/April issue of Pickleball Magazine about homeowners who have a pickleball court inside their house. If I won the lottery one of the first things I would put in my new oceanfront or lake house would be a pickleball court.
· The Netflix series “His & Hers” is an engrossing murder mystery. It kept me watching for all six episodes despite some dumb inconsistencies. Tessa Thompson is brilliant as the lead actor and co-star Jon Bernthal is very good.
· What were the odds that both the USA Men’s and Women’s Olympic hockey teams would win the gold medal with both defeating Canada in overtime? I had never watched more than a few minutes of women’s hockey until the Olympics. The US women’s team was a joy to watch. As were the men’s. Both gold medal games were thrilling. The men’s victory happened 46 years to the day that the 1980 team shocked the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice” game. I am pretty sure a movie about this year’s team is in the not too distant future.
· Speaking of the Olympics, I find it funny that break dancing and curling are Olympic sports but pickleball isn’t. But it will be.
· By now you have probably heard about the pickleball brawl during a game at a country club in Port Orange, Florida, on February 13th. The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office says 63-year old Anthony Sapienza and his 51-year old wife, Julianne, committed felony battery on another couple during a game. Twenty players got involved trying to control the couple. Sapienza was reportedly angry about an opponent committing a kitchen violation. The deputy sheriff’s report says Mr. Sapienza used a misogynistic vulgarity to describe his opponent’s wife. Sapienza allegedly hit a man over 65 with his paddle and opened up a bloody gash over the guy’s eyebrow. The Sapienzas’ were not club members, they lived elsewhere and were playing in a league match. They have been banned from the club for life. They have pleaded not guilty and their attorney says there’s more to the story. I think if the Sapienzas’ are indeed guilty they need psychiatric help. I’ll tell you one thing: I would never play against them even if they were the only players available.
· I get a kick out of it when pickleball players, especially new ones, ask Facebook users which paddle they should buy. A huge percentage of replies come from ambassadors for the paddles they recommend. I always tell newbies to try out paddles from their friends, their local club if possible, or some pickleball websites. Asking strangers on Facebook would not be my first way to choose a paddle.
· I get an even bigger kick out of people asking strangers online for medical advice.
· I returned to playing after a month off due to foot surgery. I think, however, that my days of playing six days a week may be over. Right now I won’t play more than two straight days. By the way, when I spent four days in the hospital last month it marked the first time I ever stayed overnight in a hospital in my 72 years.
· My friends make fun of my taste in music, especially because I like Barry Manilow, The Bee Gees and Air Supply. They think it’s weird because I also like David Bowie, The Cars, Electric Light Orchestra and Jethro Tull. While they say my taste is strange, I say it’s eclectic.
· Try to make me watch curling.
If you buy a new Hudef paddle, use my discount code, MS, to get $10 off the Viva Pro Gen 2 or 3 or the Mage Pro Gen 2 for only $99.99.
