A senior NCO serving in the Virginia Army National Guard in the United States has found popularity on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube with his uplifting and funny videos, many of which have ended up boosting recruitment.

Sergeant First Class Tyler Butterworth hopes to inspire and encourage young people to pursue a career in the armed forces by “humanising the uniform” with videos such as his parodies of model Alla Bruletova’s ASMR videos, Call Of Duty gameplay, the film Top Gun or his affectionate teasing of military life.

At a time when world news can sometimes leave us feeling disheartened, SFC Butterworth’s self-imposed mission is to brighten someone’s day and show the military in a positive light, saying: “I want people to laugh at the end of the day or see that we’re people – that’s the most important thing to me.”

“We’re people first. I mean that’s what I tell people is that… you have the ability to be yourself.

“Yes, we wear uniform, we all look the same in that respect, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t be an individual.”

SFC Butterworth, known as @Butterworthdasyrup on social media, joined the Virginia Army National Guard as an infantryman when he was 18.

His first year-long deployment was in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After that he went to Community College, worked a civilian role and eventually volunteered for a reconnaissance deployment in Iraq.

Upon his return, SFC Butterworth joined the civilian police and continued his part-time role with the Army National Guard.

He now plays a crucial role in recruiting for the Army National Guard by posting videos of himself and his colleagues hilariously, yet respectfully, mocking everyday life in the armed forces.

He grabs the attention of the future generation of the US military with witty lines such as “smells like preservatives, tastes like freedom” while eating food from ration packs.

However when he first started he quickly realised that in order to do it successfully he would need to switch up some of the old rules.

Most of the time, a recruiter’s target audience will be communicating with each other using platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, so despite not having any accounts SFC Butterworth signed up and fully immersed himself in learning social media, digital advertising and marketing.

Inspired by comedic actors such as Will Ferrell, the star of Anchorman and Barbie, and Bill Hader, a former cast member of Saturday Night Live and the star of tragicomedy Barry, SFC Butterworth has blended his own brand of humour into the hundreds of videos he has posted since May 2022.

He said: “Comedy and humour can reach anyone and the amount of messages that I get – and why I really do this – is the messages that I get where people are like ‘you know, I was having a really bad day or I’ve been depressed or whatever and then I saw your videos and it made me smile’.”

“That’s all I need. I don’t need anything else and that’s why it’s kind of like it’s more past the recruiting thing for me.

“[It’s] more about… actually benefiting people because that’s what I want to do.”

SFC Butterworth is very clear that his presence on social media is purely personal and not an official US Department of Defense (DOD) account.

However, he sticks to the social media guidelines set out by the DOD which means he never has to get a video cleared before publishing. This is purely his own creative journey.

SFC Butterworth’s videos originally started as a tool for recruitment, but now his work has been received so well that he often has service personnel approach him to teach them how to create social videos and collaborate on content together.

About 90% of the content creator’s enlistments are from social media alone, but he also refers people nationwide to all branches of the US military and has even spoken with people who have gone on to join the British and Canadian armies.

He said: “I get messages from people that are like ‘hey, Sergeant, I just joined the Air Force’ and I’m like ‘awesome’.”

With his flare for comedy and passion for the armed forces, SFC Butterworth is setting a precedent for the future of military recruitment and encouraging the next generation to see the uniform as an exciting prospect that’s easily within their reach.