They say never meet your heroes, and that’s usually interpreted as a warning that they might let you down. Sometimes, though, it’s a warning that you might let them down. Take the unfortunate overexcited birthday boy who was so ecstatic to see Spider-Man turn up at his party that he ended up embarrassing himself in front of his favorite superhero by forgetting the laws of physics. I mean, haven’t we all been there?
As shared by TikTok user @mel068542, this video is destined to create an internal war between your sympathy for the poor kid and your desire to laugh at the objectively hilarious mishap. Although it only lasts 11 seconds, the incident marks a personal crisis for the kid on a par with Avengers: Endgame.
Upon seeing none other than the wallcrawling webslinger walk past outside, the newly minted five-year-old cries out Spidey’s name with excitement. No doubt he was already imagining his dizziest daydreams coming to life before his very eyes as he and his hero become instant best friends and crime-fighting cohorts. Tragically, that wasn’t what happened. Instead, Birthday Boy did his best Juggernaut impression by running face first into a closed door, resulting in a humiliating moment of Tom & Jerry proportions.
This truly is one of those amazing moments of IRL slapstick that gets funnier the more you watch it. The way the kid launches himself at the window in a starfish pose, his Goofy-like cry as he falls down… The icing on the cake, though, has to be Spider-Man’s total lack of care for the birthday boy’s welfare. This sure ain’t your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. This is your Bored Of Having To Take Kids Party Gigs To Pay The Bills In This Pricey Neighborhood Spider-Man.
The comments are gold dust, too. “Spider-man: No way concerned,” one quipped, while another asked, “Why did he jump at the window like Mario?” Others suggested this needs to be turned into an ad for well-cleaned windows: “This needs to be a Windex commercial.” Are we sure this isn’t a Marvel movie, because the Easter eggs keep on coming: “his shoes lit up when he hit the window.”
Some, meanwhile, are a little more empathetic and are fearing this is going to scar the boy for years to come. “Absolutely eating it in front of his hero will haunt him forever,” one predicted. “This is like the villain origin story form the incredibles,” added another. His parents might as well start a fund for his therapy bills now: “To the therapist: ‘it all started when I ran into a window in front of Spider-Man…'”
In an ironic twist it seems our Spidey-loving friend may be missing the real-life version of the spidey-sense. In 2012, an Edinburgh University study researched the human brain’s uncanny ability to perceive that something was a threat without being consciously aware of it, which was compared to Peter Parker’s famous power. Clearly, Birthday Boy needs the Uncle Ben figure in his life to warn him that, when it comes to running forcefully into windows, with great power comes great pain.