It looks like an emergency: a man whose torso and one leg are wedged inside a tennis racket with the strings removed, while bystanders just stand around. The 11-second video has taken over social media this week, and people want to know what happened next. USA Today spoke to the person who filmed it, and the answer is reassuring.
The short answer: he’s fine
“The guy is fine,” says Odigie Efe Alex, who created the original video. USA Today reports that the man in the racket is a contortionist who was hired as an entertainer, and that the whole thing was part of his act.
Alex, 35, lives in Benin City, Nigeria, and says he filmed the clip at his workplace, a local restaurant where he works as an emcee for parties and events. He shared it on his Instagram account on September 28, where it received more than 1.5 million views.
How it went viral
According to USA Today, the clip has been seen more than 23 million times on X since October 31, thanks to a tweet that reposted it. Many commenters wondered how it ended, and one wrote that they needed an update “immediately.” Alex told the paper he was not aware his video had found a new audience on Western social media.
What actually happened in the room
Even Alex and his coworkers were surprised. He told USA Today that the performer began slapping the ground as if in serious trouble. “He kind of tricked the bar; even the waiters and workers were afraid that he was stuck,” Alex said. You can hear people in the background asking others to help him, and later people saying he was only playing around.
Alex stopped filming when people began to get scared, so he missed the moment the performer stood up. He says he has been trying to get the man’s number so he can film another video with him, and he does not know the performer’s name.
A known trick, not a one-off
USA Today notes that squeezing through a tennis racket is a common contortionist stunt. It points to a Kenyan performer on Instagram whose video from April 18 shows him getting in and out of a racket and has more than 8 million views. It also mentions Norwegian contortionist Captain Frodo, who fit through two tennis rackets in front of a live TEDx audience in Sydney in 2015.
The memes
The internet has done what it does best. USA Today notes that the clip has spawned memes, including one in which a woman types, “I’m coming over, you better not be stuck in a tennis racket,” which has more than 79,000 likes. Another user posted a photo of himself on the floor with a racket around his torso, calling it a last-minute Halloween costume.
How to check a viral clip before you share it
This story is a handy reminder of a few habits worth keeping:
- Look for the original poster. Here, the video’s creator was easy to find on Instagram.
- Check the date. The clip was posted in September, yet it started trending in late October.
- Ask what context is missing. A short clip without sound or a caption can look very different from what was really going on.
- Wait for a credible follow-up before assuming the worst, especially when there are many people nearby who appear calm.
The bottom line
The mystery is solved: the man in the tennis racket is a performer, the crowd was watching an act, and nobody needed a fire department. If you want to see how contortionists do it, searching for the stunt will turn up plenty of videos, though it is definitely not something to try at home.
*Source: USA Today, linked above. All quotes and numbers are as reported on November 3, 2026.*
Image: Tennis racket owned by Gerald R. Ford via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain Mark 1.0
