It’s rare that someone is graced with the opportunity to live out a scenario from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim first-hand, but one TikToker is breaking the mold.
User @officialmisterstump likely regretted his choice of exactly which Skyrim moment to reenact after the fact, given its resulting injury, but his video is no less hilarious for the misstep. The details regarding the content creator’s wound are still thoroughly unclear, but he seized his moment with effortless aplomb, leading to glorious results.
Regardless of how exactly it happened, the “kid at heart with a passion for people” found himself in a unique situation recently, one which thankfully didn’t affect his sense of humor. In a clip uploaded to his TikTok page, @officialmisterstump reveals a painful-looking injury to his left leg, and the hilarious response that proved his funny bone was still intact.
The brief, nine-second video shows as @officialmisterstump carefully writes “not this leg” on his right leg, before panning the camera to reveal a long, thin object protruding from his other knee. Giggling all the way — even past irritated concern from his partner — the TikToker then hobbles to his feet to make his way to the hospital.
The video is half Grey’s Anatomy storyline, half Skyrim homage, and people absolutely ate it up. Noting in the caption that he’s “seen too many scary movies,” @officialmisterstump leaned into the medical horror stories that drench popular culture and, just in case, prevented a potential disaster.
Medical horror stories are far too common, and a well-documented — and terrifying — trend sees dozens of patients undergo incorrect surgeries on a weekly basis. According to a Johns Hopkins study on the matter, “surgeons performing the wrong surgery or operating on the wrong patient happens about 20 times per week, and operating on the wrong body part happens about 20 times every week.”
If only for that reason, @officialmisterstump’s extra level of caution was well worthwhile. It may not have been necessary — particularly since it appears his injury isn’t bad enough to require amputation — but, if exclusively for the humorous aspect, it was well worth the extra time that it took to both shave his knee and write a special note for the doctors.
It also made quite a few people think of a perpetual Skyrim favorite, and one that was reportedly inspired by a staple in fantasy writing. A little 2007 book titled The Name of the Wind — a personal favorite of mine — first made reference to “an arrow to the knee” and Skyrim made the line an everlasting meme a few years later.
These days, it lives rent-free in the brains of gamers everywhere, and they showed up in droves to gush over @officialmisterstump’s unintended reference. Jokes abound in the comment section — where people drop teasing quotes like “I used to be an adventurer like you…” — and people wasted no time in sharing in @officialmisterstump’s humor.
It seems no amputation was necessary, based on plenty of two-legged uploads in the wake of his hospital visit, so thankfully @officialmisterstump’s clarification was unnecessary. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, however, so anyone who finds themselves with a unique limb problem may want to take a page out of the TikToker’s book.
