A TikTok star caused quite a commotion on a New York City subway, and now he's facing quite a backlash. Per BuzzFeed, Josh Popkin, the 23-year-old also known as @fckjoshy, shared video on the social network showing him carrying a plastic bin filled with Fruity Pebbles and milk onto a crowded subway car, then "accidentally" dropping it all over the train's floor. "I was like, oh, my God, this is the worst day of my life!" Popkin says in a voice-over for the video, seen here. When he sees no one willing to help him, he starts scooping the mess up with his hands. The New York Daily News details how hard the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been working to keep the subways clean during the pandemic, even shutting down trains overnight to sanitize them. The MTA's official take on Popkin's stunt? It's "a new low," the agency tweeted.
"Pulling a prank on essential workers in the middle of a global pandemic. And making essential workers clean up your mess. Despicable," it added. Popkin posted an apology on Instagram Thursday, as well as a longer, five-minute apology on YouTube, per Insider: "I f---ed up," he noted. "I mean I really f---ed up. In such a dark time in the world I was trying to do something funny to give people a laugh but I was wayyyy off." How sincere he really was is being debated: Insider notes that just hours after he posted his mea culpa, he put up an Instagram video with a racist joke. The Daily News also notes it's not the first time he's tried to prank essential workers: He recently provoked a verbal confrontation with a Duane Reade worker over his purposely ripped face mask, and he had a pal tie him to a subway pole with plastic wrap. Police are investigating his latest stunt. (More prank stories.)
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