Sorry You Went Viral

The huge row over a run and a mum teaching TikTok about her son's rare hairy birthmark

• Tim Gatt and Hannah Vaughan Jones • Season 1 • Episode 32

Share episode

On this week's show:

On What It's Like To Go Viral: an influencer who received a torrent of criticism online for posting about sneaking into the Boston Half Marathon - and why users didn't stop attacking her after she apologised.

On What's Gone Viral: 

- Hundreds of people turned up to see Cheesball Man - a masked superhero eat a whole jar of cheeseballs in a New York park

- Alyssa Huser, a mum doing an amazing job on TikTok on educating people about her baby's rare condition, Congenital Melanocytic Naevus, which has left her son with a large birthmark on his back with a lot of hair on it

- Vintage clothes bargain hunter Becky's Bazaar is questioned for her TikTok about rifling through lost luggage 

- The sales bro Bryan Shankman whose tongue-in-cheek LinkedIn post equating his proposal to closing a deal

And in our Timeline Cleanser:
Meet Strong.Like.Sarah - Sarah Frei, who lost her legs in a car accident,a nd is making popular dark humour TikToks about her disability

Links to the viral posts:
Influencer's apology for sneaking into Boston Half: https://x.com/alexa_curtis/status/1785109707721478199?s=46

Cheesball Man: https://x.com/smittynyk/status/1784364026656407568?s=46

Baby with rare birthmark: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGexsF18q/

Lost luggage: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGexsHxbr/

Sales bro's LinkedIn post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7191124158020255745/

Disabled dark humour: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGexp7GQc/

Seen a story we should cover? Get in touch with us!

Email: sorryyouwentviral@gmail.com
Twitter: Twitter.com/SorryUWentViral
Instagram: Instagram.com/SorryYouWentViral
TikTok: TikTok.com/@SorryYouWentViral

Hello and welcome to Sorry You Went Viral All about the human side to popular posts. I'm Tim. And I'm Hannah. Great to have you with us.

On today's show:

an influencer's post about sneaking into a half marathon backfires somewhat. The mum of a baby with a very rare birthmark, using TikTok to really educate and engage. And would you film a TikTok of you rifling through some lost luggage in the hope of finding a bargain? We'll find out more on that in a bit. Starting off with What's Gone Viral. Hundreds of people gathered around a park in New York to see a man in a mask eating a jar of cheeseballs. You can do it! Final ball! Final ball! Cheeseball Man! Cheeseball Man! So that was a scene last Saturday in a park in New York. It's Union Square park in New York. Now, we don't know who the man behind the mask who did this. Incredible achievement, though. He's got a TikTok channel called Cheeseballman, or@cheeseballman427 is his handle. And he basically posts TikToks of him eating cheeseballs. What's really interesting about this is his TikTok's got some decent views, a few hundred thousand views on some of his videos. But a tweet that was posted on Twitter from a guy called @smittynyk of a TikTok from the event got 5 million views, which is just brilliant. What I like as well is he did some old style marketing, not just TikToks. He posted about the event that was coming up of him doing this stunt. And you can see a tweet of one of the pictures of the posters.

He told the New York Post:

"I didn't expect this many people to show up."I had people with," you heard in the video,"people chanting, 'Cheeseball Man!' and 'eat those cheeseballs!'" I love that it's happened inadvertently as well, and that he, despite all of his best marketing efforts, it was actually someone else who got him to go viral, which is just wonderful. It somehow makes it kind of more honest and pure or something like that. But there has been, I think a couple of people are saying, this isn't the first time this kind of trick has been done or anything like that. Some users claim that Philadelphia did this. First, there was the man eating a rotisserie chicken every day for 40 days. I mean, I don't know why... These things are kind of, I suppose if there's a gruesome element to it, there's a kind of discovery, disgusting element. Is he going to throw up? All of that sort of stuff. But he's kind of the Banksy of the culinary snack world. There was a TikTok. He posted one of his latest TikToks saying that people are trying to unmask him again. People can't enjoy the fun that it is. He did say, talking about the curiosity,'was he going throw up or not'? He did tell the New York Post,"There was a moment that I was definitely going to throw up, and then people just started chanting, 'Keep it down!' Really loudly. So I just kept it in." It's just the joy of these random events, which brings people together for a bit of fun on a Saturday afternoon, and then they get on with their lives, really. And thankfully, Cheeseball Man has already said that he's going to be trying to tackle a bigger tub in the not too distant future. We'll see what kind of viral attention, if any, he gets for that. Was there any you would, any eating challenge you'd take on? I couldn't do any of the jungle stuff - you know, all of the insects and bugs and grubs. I couldn't do any of that. I don't know, I mean, I mean cheeseballs, I'm quite, quite a fan of really. All those kind of savoury snacks. Maybe olives, maybe a jar of, a whole jar of olives or something. I don't know. My son would take on the cheeseball challenge, not that I'd let him. It's just basically eating a tub of E numbers, isn't it? But there we go. Next up, and this is a slight change of tone, but some amazing viral TikToks from a mum whose newborn baby has some rare birthmarks or moles. Take a listen to this. Let's talk about hair baby. So this amazing woman is called Alyssa Huser, and she's with her son Jace, her baby boy. And she's been posting on@OurJourneyWithJace. And as she said in that video, little Jace was born with CMN, which is Congenital Melanocytic Nevus. It's a kind of a type of birthmark that can sometimes appear in newborn babies. Now, one in 100 newborns will get some kind of a mole or a small birthmark, but CMN happens with one in 500,000 children. So, it's pretty rare, I suppose. Now, the colour is usually some kind of, it's kind of quite dark, it can be sort of brown to black, sometimes a bit more reddish, though. And often these moles, birthmarks have some hair growing out of it. And as Alyssa was explaining, the hair sort of grew rapidly from a couple of months old. And I just love the way that she's doing these videos. She has the most beautiful little boy, and she's obviously embracing motherhood. I don't know if she's got other kids as well, but this is really about, in such a warm and kind and gentle way, just explaining this condition. Because she's not alone, and Jace is not going to be the only one in the world, obviously, who has this condition. We actually know someone whose child has this condition, a former colleague of ours as well. So it is something that needs more awareness instead of the sort of scared response that some people might have to a child looking different, let's just say. And, yeah, he seems like he's doing brilliantly. And her videos as well have been really hitting the mark in terms of her efforts to try and educate people and build a community of other people who need support or just to build awareness as well. So she's had 18.5 million views for just that TikTok that we just played, which is just, which is wonderful. Sadly, there has been some negative stuff as well. But in Alyssa's own words, she said, "This is just a fraction of the hurtful, insensitive things that people have said. A few internet bullies will not stop us from accomplishing our goals." So 18.5 million views for that TikTok. And then she's got loads more that I think she's going to be doing as well. So fair dues to her and good luck to her and to little boy baby Jace as well. Yeah. As you said, I think she talks about the role that she sees on using these TikToks, and they're so lovely made as well, educating people. And looking through the comments, there's a real combination of responses, as you said, overwhelmingly positive. And there are some negative ones as well, which she highlighted. But it's fascinating. I didn't know of this condition until this TikTok popped up on my For You Page. But seeing how many people then have replied to her saying,'I have it' or 'my child has this', and how they've embraced it. One gave it a nickname, one says they're getting a tattoo around it. But how also people come together, the community, helping each other, I think it's just really fantastic to see. Yeah, absolutely. It just goes to show that there's been a need for some kind of a community support group or grouping worldwide. So with people like Alyssa and others who get involved in just showing their daily experiences of it, then that's a really powerful thing. And as you said, the more awareness that she can spread, the better. I mean, it's fantastic for those of us who aren't directly affected, but just need to be aware that this is perhaps more common than anyone would have thought. Next. We all love a bargain, but would you buy a random suitcase that's been left sitting in an airport for months on the end, and then film yourself rifling through it, like this girl has? Now that was Becky Chorlton who runs a TikTok called Becky's Bazaar. She posts regularly about looking for bargain buys, when it comes to vintage clothing, she calls it. You may not know, you've probably seen, though, luggage just piled up at an airport, at airport carousels that haven't been picked up. What is pretty common nowadays is the airports do all they can, apparently, to try and track down these people. But after 60-odd days, they will either sell those luggage or they just get rid of them. And what Becky's done is she's bought one. I think she said it cost $100/£80. Got it delivered to her home and see what is in it, if there's anything bargain-wise that she could use or sell on. And it's like a lucky dip, you don't know what you're going to get. Yeah. So literally, the first thing you do when you open it is, you don't know what you're going to get. And obviously, this seems to be a woman's clothing. And this video, there's a huge curiosity for it. Because she posted two videos, one kind of teaser video and then one of her going through it, got 12 million views on TikTok in less than a week. Incredible amount. But for me, this is interesting. Some of the comments picked up on it. It kind of oversteps a mark because this is someone's case, this is someone's belongings. And it isn't just saying,"Here's a couple of items", it's really going through, and rifling through someone's belongings, picking up makeup, showing their underwear, even that they've got a pack of sanitary towels and showing them on camera. I find this so uncomfortable, as so many people have commented on videos do as well. It's not just because of the personal nature of the things they're going through, like going through someone's toiletries bag or something, but it's the clothes, a lot of the clothes, you can see they've still got tags on them. This woman was perhaps going on holiday or something like that. She clearly spent some time packing her case and gathering all of her things together. So it just begs the question for

me:

this is someone's, this is a part of someone else's life that Becky is just exploiting for her own kind of personal gain or something, and she's only like a $100 out of pocket for it, for the privilege of it. And I just find it really unsavoury. I can't think of anything worse than someone going through my stuff. It's like the thought of having a house burgled or car nicked or something like that. Just anyone being in your personal space is just really, really unsavoury. And, yeah, I mean, the comments have been similar to that. I mean, she obviously got a lot of people who thought it was brilliant or they just enjoyed the content, but, that's terrible. Your address is on your case, so it should have been returned to the owner. I mean, you said that the airport make, generally, they make every effort to return cases to the owners. I don't know how much time and effort they probably put into reuniting people with their case. I mean, you'd think for the most part, someone would want to get their case back. So it kind of begs the question, what's happened to this woman? Is she still alive? I mean, it'd be amazing if she saw. Imagine if she saw this TikTok and just went, "Hang on a minute. You're showing off, you're trying to flog my stuff in Becky's Bazaar. That's my case, that's my makeup!" There are loads of messages saying, "I'd go mad if my lost luggage was sold.""I can't believe lost luggage is usually sold at the end. It just doesn't make any sense.""Why would you buy someone's lost luggage?" Why Becky? You don't know what you're gonna get. How many times has she done this? What else is in Becky's Bazaar? That's what I want to know. To be fair to Becky, she replied to some of the comments. She did say, explain, as we mentioned before, that they try and find the owner. And she said, look, "I guess it's better than heading to landfill", though some of the comments about one of them saying,"This makes me feel so uneasy". It's got around 7,000 likes. People do feel uncomfortable with it, but I think it's just going through every single item in this, in the suitcase, like an unboxing style. This is with someone's own personal belongings, which I think probably goes a bit too far for people. Yeah.

Okay, next up:

We've all seen those posts on LinkedIn that turn pretty much anything into a sales pitch. But this one has both delighted and enraged users. We'll bring it up on the screen now, and you'll forgive me for going through it and reading through a lot of it, but it's from a guy called Bryan Shankman, who is in marketing sales. He wrote this post on LinkedIn accompanied by the picture of him proposing to his girlfriend."I proposed to my girlfriend this weekend. Here's what it taught me about B2B sales. Like a sales cycle, key milestones must be met." He starts off with, 'Prospecting'."Not every prospect or partner will be the right fit. Identifying the right fit takes time." He goes on to 'Handling objections'."Even after pricing and negotiations, there may be some resistance. Use this time to assure the other party that they're making the right decision." The next one is 'Closing'."If you've done your work in the earlier stages of the relationship, when it comes to time to close the deal, you'll have nothing to worry about. Send the docusign, touch your knee and get ready to move the deal to closed one." I mean, honestly, I mean, I think it's really funny and obviously quite clever. I don't know how his fiancée, whether this is actually a real story or not, and whether she's happy that her kind of special moment has been exploited for a sales pitch. But it has really annoyed some people as well. Some comments saying,"Can we just, like, not do this?""This is ridiculous.""This is one of the reasons I can't wait to retire so that I can delete my LinkedIn, not have to listen to this again." It's a really clever marketing technique, though. It has gone viral on LinkedIn, it's gone viral on Twitter, on X, and the same on Reddit. It's been covered by mainstream news sites as well. And so fair play to Bryan and I think even one of the comments came from someone who I can only assume is a relative, perhaps his sister. And her name is, let me find it. I think it's Samantha. And she said basically, like, "If only I could write a pitch that was." And other people responding, saying"Is this satire, really?" So, I mean, it worked for him. It's really clever. And I think Bryan's played a very good game as well with this, because as you said, newspaper news sites, so-called reputable news sites, have written this up straight as if he really did mean it. And look, it's clear he doesn't. But what's really interesting. So I was just looking to see if he made any comments on any of his social channels, and he hasn't on LinkedIn, and neither is he on Twitter. But if you look at his likes, you can see that he is, he knows it's all a game. And he's been liking some of the funnier comments around this all. And he's having a bit of fun with it. And I'm sure it's giving good publicity to his own sales business. So it all counts as marketing at the end of the day, I guess. Yeah. I mean, he hasn't hurt anyone with it. It's annoyed some people, but I mean if you don't like the platform, get off the platform. I suppose. Now, What It's Like To Go Viral. This entrepreneur influencer has caused a huge backlash for sneaking into the Brooklyn Half Marathon and then posting about it on social media. That woman is Alexa Curtis, and she has a company called Be Fearless. Now, as I said, it really has upset a lot of people on social media, and some have gone a bit too far, frankly. Some were appalled at her for what is called 'banditing'. It's basically when you sneak into a race, an organised race, without paying. Now, of course, there are fees associated with putting on a race, which some may or may not like, but it costs a lot of money to put on an event like this. The stewarding, all the costs associated with putting on an event. But also there's sometimes a donation to charity as well. And some didn't like how she kind of LinkedIn-ified her experience as well, which I think kind of antagonised some people in terms of some of their reaction to it. People pointed out that she was wrong for what she did. Others went a bit further and just got a bit abusive about it all. And she deleted her tweet on Twitter. So that video we showed you is still on her Instagram. And she posted a graphic talking about how she was "sincerely sorry for any upset that her hasty actions caused by unofficially joining this marathon". She said,"It was never my intention to hurt or upset the running community, the esteemed team who worked feverishly to organise and keep everyone safe for the charities that benefit from this." And she says,"I made a terrible mistake. I thought I was engaging in something uplifting that would inspire others to do the same. It was a last minute choice to join in from the sidelines. I didn't think how my actions may impact the community in a negative way. But that wasn't enough for people. They still went on, still harassing her on social media. One of them still, after she posted that graphic, demanded proof of donation. And she replied to say,"I've received thousands of messages and replied to the kind ones, including multiple charities who've reached out to me." And she shows a conversation she had with the charity Tucks Travels that she donated to, and she said,"I've made good and fixed my mistakes to my best ability." And then worryingly, she says,"I will note how scary it is, how much negativity could push someone to the brink this traumatic for me to experience. Years of therapy pays off when you go through this kind of backlash." She's a young woman as well. Clearly she messed up. She's owned her mistake as well, and she has tried to make amends for it as best, there's not really much more she could do other than what she's done to try and make amends. I think people have taken it a bit too far. I mean, LinkedIn's getting a right bashing on this show as well this week! Clearly, some people just, well, a lot of people, don't like the content that is marketing for marketing's sake, especially if it's self serving marketing. So presumably with her company, Be Fearless, she'll change her approach in the future. But, yeah, one hopes that she'll be left alone and that people will stop scouring through her entire social media history and background and trying to find fault in her with everything that she's done. She's a young woman, she's made a mistake, she's owned it. You know, people have to fail a lot in order to properly succeed in life. And I wish her the very, very best for moving forward with a bit of conviction and integrity. I mean, you said that. Yeah. People scouring back through her social media pages to see any proof that she's done any kind of training towards this half marathon. And look, I run my own company, so do you. And there's always a time where you trying to market what you do and your experiences. And as you said, she's only in her twenties and it's very hard when something doesn't go right. But to people to take it out on her like this and to the point where she's clearly having some mental health issues over it, it's really affecting her, is just the kind of the nasty side of social media which don't really like to see. Next up, it's time for the Timeline Cleanser. A new take on this TikTok trend for you. So this woman is called Sarah Fry, she's from Utah in the States. And as you might be able to see, if you're watching the video feed, if not, if you're listening to the podcast, then I will tell you that she has no legs. Her handle on TikTok is@Strong.Like.Sarah and brilliantly, her bio reads, "I have no legs and am wheelie funny." Awful, awful, awful story about how she found herself in this physical condition. So she had her legs amputated and her spinal cord was left damaged, leaving her paralysed. This was after a drunk driver hit her head-on, back in 2020. She was just 17 years old at the time. But she's documented her entire recovery on TikTok. And she's also, as you will have heard from that video, seeing the funny side or the dark humour in her condition. So, she's kind of being picked up and shown around her home, shown into the cupboard that she can't reach or the microwave or the mirror that's too high and all of the rest of it. And people have just really, really enjoyed it, have been absolutely lapping up this kind of content. People saying,"Can this be the one that wins this trend? I absolutely love it." Other jokes coming in, in comments as well, like, have you been drinking? You look a bit,"You're looking a bit legless." And, "The way you looked at the microwave!" like she was just completely amazed by it as well. So it's just very easy and very funny kind of content. And no one's laughing at her, of course, just, it's very much kind of being entertained along with her. Yeah, she's really nailing these humorous TikToks. There's another one which if you just did listen to the podcast, which we're showing on here now, of her friend complaining, she's on a step machine saying,"I can't feel my legs." And it cuts to her going,"Hmm..." So, she's just having a bit of fun with it, of what must have been horrific experience for her to go through. But we very much enjoying your TikTok, Sarah. Please keep them up. That's the end of this week's show. We'll be putting links of all the content we featured on our social accounts for you to see in full. And we will be back next week or in two weeks time, I should say, with another episode of the show. See you then. Thanks so much. See you soon.