- Meagan Glesmann decided to surprise her boyfriend after being separated from him for four months.
- He posted a video of the surprise on TikTok, and it blew up, getting 18 million views.
- The couple was criticized for their response, but they have learned to deal with it.
When Meagan Glesmann, a college student living in Winnipeg, Canada, returned home after visiting Hawaii for four months, she decided to surprise her boyfriend with a big gift – show up at a social event without telling him in advance. he is back.
The moment was captured by his friends, who captured 22-year-old Matthew Boyle looking shocked as his girlfriend walked over to hug him. Glesmann decided to post a 17-second clip of the shock on his TikTok account because he thought his shock statement in the video was “funny”.
But things took a turn for the worse when Glesmann’s 8,500 TikTok followers, with thousands of views on each of his posts, were rejected within days. To his surprise, the post has received 18.5 million views.
Glesmann and Boyle, who told Insider that they were just TikTok users and didn’t know most of the trends and memes, said they didn’t know what they were after reading.
Meagan Glesmann and Matthew Boyle
Meagan Glesmann and Matthew Boyle
Viewers are comparing the video to a viral episode of the past – but it’s not good
Glesmann and Boyle Old Insider were both happy to see each other, and the evening was not at all confusing despite Boyle’s initial response, saying he was “processing” the situation at the while he is wearing it.
But Glesmann’s TikTok viewers didn’t see anything happen between the two after the cameras stopped rolling, and they reacted negatively to her short video.
As the video began showing the scenes, commenters began to criticize Boyle’s reaction and body language in the clip, saying that he looked “guilty” and “worried” about see him. Some commenters even suggested that her response suggested that he cheated on her while she was away.
Many commentators have compared Glesmann’s video to a similar video that went viral in September 2021. A woman revealed that she was surprised by her boyfriend in college, but that she didn’t want to. getting up from the bed where he was sitting, there was an angry argument about the nature of their relationship. , and general opinions about its authenticity. It quickly became known as “Couch Guy,” and the video received 50 million views.
Some viewers of Glesmann’s video said they thought the clip from the “Couch Guy” video was parody or entertainment, especially because it sounded the same – a clip from “Still Falling for You ” by Ellie Goulding. But Glesmann said he had never heard of the original video, choosing to use the audio because he saw it was popular under the hashtag #longdistancerelationship.
“When I posted it people started saying, I’m like, ‘what’s the bed guy?'” she told Insider. When he looked up and realized that the comparison wasn’t good, he said it was sad.
“I shed a few tears,” she told Insider.
The intensity of the exposure allows the people in the middle of these threads to be harassed online
About three months after the “Couch Guy” TikTok was shot, the person in the video wrote an anonymous opinion piece in Slate Magazine, describing the real experience of riding to that level of popularity. She said the internet’s dangers make her feel “invasions of my privacy” and “the threat of doxxing.”
Both Glesmann and Boyle told Insider that they were initially overwhelmed by receiving negative comments on their videos.
Online commentators have always mocked their relationships.
When Glesmann posted a short photo of herself and Boyle to mark their three-year anniversary on October 13, commenters expressed disbelief under the post about how happy their relationship, saying they were trying to hide their affair or “fix” their relationship.
The couple told Insider that they hope people will have an opinion about everything they post. “It’s kind of sad, but you just have to wait,” Glesmann said.
“People are on these apps for entertainment. And when you get a video that goes viral, you always have to think about it,” Boyle added.
The couple said they were overwhelmed by the number of negatives. “From the first reports, I was like, oh, that kind of pain. But there’s a lot more,” said Glesmann.
Boyle told Insider that after a few days, he “brushed off” the internet negativity and tried to move on. “I haven’t lost much sleep over it,” he said.
He continued, “It’s funny how something so innocent can turn into something big, but it never happens to me.”
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