Online prankster and Instagram comedian Charles Ross, @creationross, just went viral on the platform after an unlikely interaction at a traffic stop. As he was in a car with his fellow comedians at a traffic stop in Florida, a man stopped just to tell one of them that he needed to be on a diet, then called him a “fat boy.” Immediately, the passenger retorted, “At least I have teeth,” and the passerby couldn’t handle it.
The reel went on to rack up 20.7 million views, which is a league above the usual 1 million views they get on a successful, well-orchestrated prank. Usually, Ross’ signature sketches involve defying social norms in plain sight. In a previous post, one member of their crew pretended to siphon gasoline from a Tesla.
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Obviously, Teslas don’t have combustion engines, nor do they have gasoline to be siphoned, but that didn’t stop the car owner from recording the man and even calling the cops. Those are the types of sketches and the brand of comedy that their crew makes.
He refused to take in the cheap shots
Now, are these types of content creators generally seen as a public nuisance? Perhaps. It depends on who you ask. But they’re not new either. Back in the early 2000s, they just existed in other ways, with the most popular version being MTV’s Punk’d, where celebrity subjects were the exclusive targets of the pranks. But even then, people would have endless debates about whether these pranks were too mean-spirited.
Ross’ own bio claims that his pranks are never mean. Which would explain why, over the years, his audience has kept growing. The team around him appears to share the same ethos of making sure that they don’t scrape the bottom of the barrel for a couple of laughs.
But this latest video showed that just because someone is not cruel doesn’t mean you can take cheap shots at them.
In the video that gained so much attention online, a man is seen passing by as Ross and his friends in a convertible, who are waiting for the traffic lights to turn. The man then asks if they have something for him in their cooler, to which Ross’ friend in the backseat says, “We have nothing for you.”
The man is then heard saying, “Hopefully nothing for you either because you need to be on a diet, fat boy.”
Instead of just letting it go, Ross’ friend proved to have a quick mouth of his own. He smiled and said, “At least I got all my teeth,” since the man in the video appears to missing at least half of his front teeth.
The man then turned back and shouted profanities, while Ross’ friend chuckled and told him that was why he was walking.
An eye for an eye, tooth for tooth
In the caption of the Reel, Ross wrote, “He called my friend fat, but couldn’t handle the comeback.” The comedian seemingly loved the interaction (whether staged or genuine) because he immediately started laughing and saying, “Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”
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The friend then retorted, “He went for my obvious feature, so I went for his.”
In the comments, everyone seemingly loved the comeback, and the Reel is still getting hundreds of thousands of reshares, with many lauding the friend in the back for being quick with his clap back. “If people had these kind of speedy replies, there would be a way less bullies in the world! Way to go pal!” wrote one, echoing the sentiments of mostly everyone else praising the absolute genius of the comeback.
