Worm people strike again — New Yorkers are wiggling around on their bellies, and no one knows why

Viewers were scratching their heads after a bizarre post from TikTok creator @The.Eats.Village went viral. As the creator reviews a vodka cutlet sandwich from Cello’s, it begins as a typical food review. Then @The.Eats.Village (Zackary Bird) shows several people crawling or wiggling on the sidewalk behind him on their bellies.

“I just got a sandwich from Cello’s. I don’t know what’s going on right there,” he says in the post, gesturing toward the unusual scene. He quickly pivots back to his food review. But needless to say, viewers weren’t satisfied.

Ignoring what he had to say about the sandwich, viewers flooded his comments with reactions ranging from bemused to bewildered about what the people were doing on the sidewalk behind him. Many also noted how quickly he noticed the people and moved on.

For instance, one person joked that the video looked like a “literal bar crawl happening here,” while another wrote, “yea yea cool sandwich — wtf is that,” and yet another begged, “what could they POSSIBLY be doing😭.”

Is it an art prank?

Meanwhile, the odd trend isn’t limited to @The.Eats.Village. Similar footage surfaced on @NewYorkers, showing more people crawling or wiggling like a worm on the streets of New York City, captioned, “Would you still love me if I was a worm.”

Finally, one @NewYorkers comment offered one potential explanation of what on Earth those people might be doing: “It’s Pope L. how does no one know this?”

Who is Pope.L and does he explain the New York “worm people”?

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Pope.L (born William Pope), a renowned American performance artist known for endurance-based, street-centered art, died in 2023. His works often involved crawling through public spaces, sometimes in costumes, other times in everyday clothing, as a statement on social dynamics, inequality, and the human body in public spaces.

Notably, there is no confirmation that Pope.L or his work is connected to these viral videos, but it does look similar. The comment referencing him appears to be speculative, a nod to his history of crawling performances.

For New Yorkers and TikTok audiences alike, the videos are a mix of performance art speculation, humor, and mystery. Not to mention, horror over what those people are crawling through on a typical New York City street.

Further comments on @The.Eats.Village said “You had the right reaction as a New Yorker 😂 we just keep it moving lol,” “There were people swimming on the sidewalk and he just ignored it,” and, “forget the food wtffff???”

Whether the crawling is an organized event, a viral stunt, or just a spontaneous street phenomenon remains unknown. So, for now, New Yorkers will have to keep walking — and wiggling — while everyone else watches online, trying to figure out what’s really going on.