Rusty Cage's Guillotine Livestream

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Overview

Rusty Cage's Guillotine Livestream refers to a March 2024 stream held by YouTuber Rusty Cage in which it appeared that he decapitated himself with a guillotine. The rumored beheading occurred off camera, inspiring skepticism as many wondered if Rusty Cage faked his death. News of the stream and supposed decapitation spread on social media sites like Twitter / X and Reddit where many debated the event's hoax status.

Background

On July 7th, 2022, YouTuber^[1] Rusty Cage posted a video titled, "GUILLOTINE part 1: Time to Build a Guillotine." The video starts with Rusty Cage discussing the decline of his channel's growth as well as the decline of American society due to capitalism and consumerism. In the video, Rusty Cage called his self-made guillotine a "lemonade stand," acting as Algospeak for monetization purposes. Over two years, the video received roughly 260,800 views (shown below).

Rusty Cage continued his guillotine series going into 2024, predominantly using it to cut watermelons and realistic flesh dummies. Evident in his first video and the ongoing series, he used the guillotine as a symbol for revolution.

On March 10th, 2024, Rusty Cage went live on YouTube,^[2] sitting in front of the guillotine for his so-called "Guillotine Party LIVE." The stream received over 71,700 views in 13 hours.

After the livestream's one-hour mark (shown below), Rusty Cage stops speaking to his viewers and turns the camera around. He's heard tinkering with presumably the guillotine. Then, a decapitation-like sound is heard. For the remainder of the stream, the camera does not move.

Online Reaction

Top comments posted by fans and viewers on the YouTube^[1] livestream discussed what happened to Rusty Cage (shown below). One comment posted by @anormalhumaninabigearth guessed that the decapitation-like sound was just a watermelon. Others guessed that the livestream was a stunt to promote an upcoming album from the YouTuber.

@itstyler6567 12 hours ago (edited) The most rusty cage way to retire, good luck with whatever you're heading towards in the future man. 393 5 replies Reply @EspressoAddict 12 hours ago He started the series with a disclaimer that nobody has will or will be hurt during the series lol 342 3 replies Reply @anormalhumaninabigearth 12 hours ago We're about to feel really silly in a day when he tweets about how good that watermelon was 660 27 replies Reply @lowteasupercell39 11 hours ago I'm starting to think this isn't a lemonade stand... B227 ▼ 2 replies Reply

On March 11th, 2024, the X^[3] account of @DramaAlert posted the clip from Rusty Cage's livestream, emphasizing, "It is not clear if it’s a prank or not." In less than a day, the post received over 3.6 million views and 10,000 likes (shown below).

Youtuber Rusty Cage may have decapitated himself via guillotine on a Youtube livestream…. It is not clear if it’s a prank or not.pic.twitter.com/pbpC8NvzST

— DramaAlert (@DramaAlert) March 11, 2024

Discourse about the livestream also surfaced on Reddit, evident in a post shared by Redditor^[4] civilwarrior1 to /r/youtube on March 10th, 2024, earning over 120 upvotes in less than a day (shown below). The Redditor also highlighted a tweet^[5] shared by the YouTuber on the night of March 10th, reading, "Give me liberty," that received over 1,700 likes in less than a day.

Posted by u/civilwarrior1 11 hours ago Did Rusty Cage just Guillotine himself live? Question The stream is still live as I'm posting and very well may be performance art but disturbing. Anyone just see this? Silently sitting in front of his guillotine almost completely silent eating strawberries, a lemon, and smoking a c-------- with a stressed look on his face. He listens to a 10 minute long classical song before he then attempts to make a call to an unknown person 3 times. When the call doesn't go through he pulls a watermelon out of a bag before addressing the camera "Don't worry, just a watermelon". He then turns the camera away from the guillotine before you see him walk behind it in the corner of the frame. You hear him say okay three times, "thanks for watching”, shuffling and then the drop of the blade followed by dripping. The stream has now been left running for some time with his phone buzzing in the background. His social media posts seem like a countdown of sorts while his videos often allude to him doing this very thing. A tweet was made almost immediately as the moment happened: Give me liberty. Update: Police sirens can now be heard on camera that is positioned towards his tent. Stream Ended, wasn't taken down by youtube. Update: This is the only tweet I have seen from someone who knows him (mumkey), does not sound reassuring :( D

Developments

Doxxing and Police Wellness Check

On March 10th, 2024, X^[6]^[7] user @MumkeyStalker posted two tweets in which they claimed that Rusty Cage was still alive (example shown below). The X user purported that they called emergency services in the Gainesville, Florida area to do a wellness check on Rusty Cage. Also, they purported that Rusty Cage's camp had privately confirmed his safety.

kaykayes Jr @MumkeyStalker @RSTYCG IS ALIVE & Well. It appears this was all an elaborate hoax/bit. Please refrain from calling any emergency services. #RustyCage 10:16 PM Mar 10, 2024 16.1K Views •

Replies to @MumkeyStalker's tweets humorously criticized them for doxxing Rusty Cage's location, like X^[8] user @crabacola on March 10th, 2024, who captioned a MrBeast thumbnail with, "you after doxxing rusty because you felt 'obligated'" (shown below).