Trying to rack up those TikTok likes can be a perilous venture, especially when your roommate walks in at the exact wrong time. Bryson Getz learned that in a very funny way.
Getz is a student at the University of South Carolina who does comedy bits on TikTok. He's pretty responsive with his viewers and commenters, one of whom recently encouraged him to take part in the "maid boy" trend.
"Maid boys" is a whole thing unto itself. Getz decided to run with it and got himself an outfit. That gave him a video idea: What if he were the male "diversity hire" at a maid café?
"And from that joke, I built a little scenario of what it would be like," he told BuzzFeed News. He wrote a little script, trying to squeeze as many jokes as possible into 15 seconds. He also managed to get a pair of heels.
"I thought wearing heels are funny because I’m particularly very tall and the heels take it to an absurd level," he said.
The skit itself is pretty funny and includes the line "we're cuter than kittens!" and some delightful click-clacking of heels, which are about to become very important.
But the final result is even better because, thanks to some truly divine timing, Getz's roommate walked in to find him in the outfit.
It's pure comedy.
The video has now been watched more than 4 million times. Getz promises it wasn't staged — the timing was just that perfect.
"The heels are what led to my roommates walking in on me in the first place," he said. "I had to film in the living room because my bedroom is carpeted and I didn’t get that satisfying click-clacking."
Since Getz is a TikToker, his roommate (and his roommate's girlfriend, who also walked in) wasn't terribly surprised to see him in the costume. Confused, yes, but not surprised.
"I would say any time you walk in on your roommate in a maid costume, it’s a little weird, but I’ve done stuff similar to that before," he said. "I’ve learned from this sort of thing that you really need to get ahead of any objections or questions that you have. I needed to tell them, first off, that this was for a TikTok, not for any other type of content."
Getz said the reaction from his viewers has been great, with some taking the time to animate the scene.
Others have put on their own maid costumes to re-create the video.
Getz said some people have wondered what sort of commentary he was trying to make with the video, but it truly was just for laughs.
"That’s giving me too much credit," he said.