- Meagan Glesmann determined to shock her boyfriend after being away from him for 4 months.
- She posted a video of the shock on TikTook, and it blew up, receiving 18 million views.
- The couple obtained intense criticism for his response, however they’ve learnt to take care of it.
When Meagan Glesmann, a 21-year-old school scholar based mostly in Winnipeg, Canada, obtained residence after touring in Hawaii for 4 months, she determined to shock her boyfriend with a grand gesture — exhibiting up at a social occasion with out telling him in advance that she was again.
The second was captured by his buddies, who filmed 22-year-old Matthew Boyle trying shocked as his girlfriend walked over to hug him. Glesmann determined to put up a 17-second clip of the shock on her TikTook account as a result of she thought his shocked expression in the video was “funny.”
But issues took a bitter flip when Glesmann, who has 8,500 TikTook followers and who sometimes receives 1000’s of views on every of her posts, went explosively viral in a matter of days. To her shock, the put up has obtained 18.5 million views.
Glesmann and Boyle, who instructed Insider they’re solely occasional TikTook customers who aren’t conscious of most viral developments and memes, mentioned they’d no concept what they have been in for after going viral.
Meagan Glesmann and Matthew Boyle
Viewers rapidly in contrast the video to a earlier comparable viral second — nevertheless it wasn’t constructive
Glesmann and Boyle outdated Insider they have been blissful to see one another, and that the night was not awkward in any respect regardless of Boyle’s preliminary response, which he mentioned was down to him “processing” the state of affairs as he was caught off guard.
But Glesmann’s TikTook viewers didn’t see something that occurred between the pair after the cameras stopped rolling, and their responses to her brief video have been harsh.
As the video started garnering extra views, commenters started dissecting Boyle’s response and physique language in the clip, saying that he appeared “guilty” and “worried” to see her. Some commenters additionally mentioned that his response recommended that he’d been dishonest on her whereas she was approach away.
Many commenters in contrast Glesmann’s video to a similar clip that went hugely viral September 2021. It confirmed a girl shocking her boyfriend at school, however his obvious reluctance to arise from the sofa the place he was sitting led to livid debate in regards to the nature of their relationship, and widespread hypothesis about his constancy. He rapidly turned often called “Couch Guy,” and the video obtained 50 million views.
Some viewers of Glesmann’s video mentioned that they thought the clip was a deliberate parody or recreation of the “Couch Guy” video, particularly because it utilized the identical audio — a clip from “Still Falling for You” by Ellie Goulding. But Glesmann mentioned she had by no means heard of the unique video, and selected to use the sound as a result of she noticed that it was widespread beneath the hashtag #longdistancerelationship.
“When I posted it and people started commenting, I was like, well, ‘what is couch guy?'” she instructed Insider. When she appeared it up and realized the comparability was not constructive, she mentioned it was upsetting.
“I probably shed a few tears,” she instructed Insider.
Going so viral can topic the folks on the heart of those clips to on-line abuse
Almost three months after the unique “Couch Guy” TikTook blew up, the person in the video wrote an nameless opinion piece in Slate Magazine, describing the extreme expertise of reaching that stage of notoriety. He mentioned the web hate uncovered him to “invasions of my privacy” and “the threat of doxxing.”
Glesmann and Boyle instructed Insider that for them it was additionally initially overwhelming to obtain an enormous inflow of unfavourable feedback on their video.
Online commenters have constantly ridiculed their relationship.
When Glesmann posted a brief compilation of pictures of her and Boyle to have a good time three years of being collectively on October 13, commenters beneath the put up expressed skepticism about how blissful their relationship was, suggesting they have been attempting to cowl up their points or “justify” their relationship.
The couple instructed Insider they’ve come to anticipate that persons are going to have opinions about something they put up. “This is kind of sad, but, you just have to expect it,” Glesmann mentioned.
“People are on these apps for entertainment. And when you get a video that goes kind of viral, you immediately have an opinion about it,” Boyle added.
The couple have mentioned they turned desensitized to plenty of the negativity. “With the first few comments, I was like, ouch, that kind of hurts. But then there were just too many,” mentioned Glesmann.
Boyle instructed Insider that after just a few days, he merely “brushed off” the web hate and tried to transfer on. “I haven’t lost any amount of sleep over it,” he mentioned.
He continued, “It’s pretty funny that something that was so innocent turned into something so big, but it doesn’t affect me really at all.”
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider’s Digital Culture team here.