Man 'Stuck' in a Tennis Racket Video Goes Viral: More Than 23 Million Views on X, Creator Says He Is a Contortionist and Is Fine
An 11-second video has gone viral on X: it shows a man with his entire torso and one of his legs trapped inside the oval of a tennis racket whose strings have been removed, while people stand around him and do not help, leaving many commenters asking what happened next. According to USA TODAY on November 3, since October 31 the clip has amassed more than 23 million views on X thanks to a repost, and one X user joked, 'Fire department gonna be talking about this for generations.'
The video's original creator is Odigie Efe Alex. 'The guy is fine,' Alex told USA TODAY. Alex, 35, lives in Benin City, Nigeria, and first shared the video on his Instagram account on September 28, where it received over 1.5 million views; he said he was not aware of its newfound popularity on Western social media.
Alex said he filmed the video at his workplace, a local restaurant where he is hired as an emcee for parties and events. The man in the tennis racket was also an entertainer hired by the restaurant, a contortionist whose act also involved dancing and magic. Alex said even he and his coworkers were surprised and concerned when the man began slapping the ground, acting like he was in serious trouble, while people in the background could be heard saying, 'Please, you guys should help him.' 'He kind of tricked the bar; even the waiters and workers were afraid that he was stuck,' Alex said.
Alex said he stopped filming when people started getting scared, so he missed the moment when the performer 'just sort of stood up.' He said he does not know the contortionist's name and has been trying to get his number so he can film another video with him.
According to USA TODAY, squeezing through a tennis racket is a common contortionist trick: a performer from Kenya named @pancho_.tz posted a video on April 18 showing him getting in and out of a racket, which now has over 8 million views, and Norwegian contortionist Captain Frodo fit through two tennis rackets in front of a live TEDx crowd in Sydney in 2015.
The man in the tennis racket has also made his way into memes, including one showing a woman typing, 'I'm coming over, you better not be stuck in a tennis racket,' which has drawn more than 79,000 likes, and one user posted a photo of himself lying on the ground with his torso in a tennis racket, calling it the best last-minute Halloween costume. GSM has not downloaded or reposted the viral clip; readers can view it on the original post.
Source: USA TODAY
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 网球拍与网球资料图（Vladsinger摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经Wikimedia Commons；非视频现场图）
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