Grape Lady (1998)

About

Grape Lady (also known as “Grape Lady Epic Fall”) refers to the viral video that first surfaced on YouTube in January 2006 and became internet famous for its epic-scale FAIL caught on live broadcast. Originally aired as a local news clip for WAGA-TV in Atlanta, Georgia, the footage depicts the news reporter and another woman competing in a grape-stomping contest, during which the reporter makes a playful attempt at “cheating,” shortly before losing balance and falling face-first into the earth. While today’s inter-web users have witnessed many a tragic falls and similar on-air blunders, the level of rawness behind Grape Lady’s fall is something to be noted as extraordinary.

Epic Fall: How It Happened

On that fateful day, FOX 5 News Reporter Melissa Sander was on location at the Chateau Elan Winery and Resort to report on a grape-stomping competition. During the friendly round of stomping with an event staff member, Ms. Sander waved her hands at the competitor to raise a false alarm. She then began stomping even faster than before to take advantage, but then she fell off the raised platform and landed flat on the ground below. Because Sander’s microphone was still on, the audience as well as the studio anchors could hear her howling in pain and saying: “OUCH OUCH OUCH, STOP- STOP- I can’t breathe.” While this accident eventually catapulted Ms. Sander into internet stardom, she suffered fracture injuries from that day and had to spent a few weeks under hospital care.

YouTube Derivatives

The Grape Lady Music Video:

Family Guy Parody of Grape Stomping:

Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat: Grape Lady edition

Animated version of Grape Lady:

Grape Lady: Drum and Bass REMIX:

YTMND collection

Grape Fall Cheater
Grape Lady Original
AWW OEEWW WEE OOOEWW
Valentine’s Day Greeting
Grape Lady – Techno Remix

In Search of Grape Lady

As the Grape Lady became evermore popular on YouTube, a few dedicated folks at OddCulture began tracking her whereabouts since the incident. While their attempt to locate the Grape Lady was unsuccessful, they managed to dig up the paper trail of her news broadcast career (click here).

In 2008, Ms. Sander made an appearance on the syndicated radio program Totally Real Exposé to discuss her unforgettable day at work nearly ten years ago. When the host asked of her thoughts on the incident, she replied:

“Am I embarrassed that I fell? Of course. I also broke a couple ribs, thanks for asking. I had to spend a few weeks in the hospital under observation. I suffered quite a bit for an honest mistake, a momentary lapse in concentration, and now I’m trying to move on.”

You can click here for the full transcript of interview.