Fell Down The Apple Stairs

About

Fell Down The Apple Stairs or Apple Stairs refers to a viral video of TikToker medazelli falling down the glass staircase at the Apple Store in New York City. The video went viral numerous times throughout 2021 as Medazelli continuously reuploaded it and videos referencing it, becoming a joke among his viewers. In September, he continually reuploaded it with altered context surrounding it creating a fictitious narrative about falling down the Apple Store stairs then going on life support and making a miraculous recovery. Around October, he started posting bait-and-switch videos that appear to be unrelated, then pan to a green screen showing Apple Stairs.

Origin

On September 21st, 2021, TikToker^[1] @medazelli posted a video where TikTok's text-to-speech voice reads "that one time I didn't see the stairs at the Apple Store and fell" then cuts to footage of the TikToker walking down the glass stairs at the Manhattan Apple Store^[2] with a MacBook in a bag. Medazelli trips on the way down and the camera pans upward quickly as if he's falling. The video ends abruptly. It gained over 3.1 million views in a month (shown below).

On September 22nd, @medazelli posted the video to TikTok^[2] again, this time just the raw footage of him falling down the stairs and in slow-mo, gaining over 13 million views in a month (shown below, left). On September 23rd he posted a video captioned "never taking the stairs again iykyk" that shows him going down the elevator at the Apple Store, referencing the viral video, gaining over 153,000 views in a month (shown below, right).

Medazelli continued to reupload the viral video and videos referencing it, along with other comedy and vlog-style content. The comments sections on videos about the stairs, known colloquially as the "Apple Stairs," started to fill with comments teasing Medazelli about how much he uploads the video, some seemingly annoyed about it. On September 23rd he uploaded the fall with the original audio to TikTok,^[3] gaining over 300,000 views. On September 24th he uploaded a video to TikTok showing his hand in the hospital with an IV bag captioned "Update after the fall almost off life support," jokingly implying he went on life support after falling down the Apple stairs, gaining over 500,000 views (shown below, left). On September 25th, he uploaded an extended edit of the video showing the fall, followed by chopper footage and the hospital footage, gaining over 10 million views in a month (shown below, right).

Medazelli kept the narrative going into October. On October 1st, he uploaded a video where of Apple Store employees applauding on the Manhattan Apple Store stairs captioned "Apple applauding me after I got out of the hospital from falling on their stairs," gaining over 19.7 million views in just under four weeks (shown below). One of the top comments with over 200,000 likes reads "Dudes whole account is about him falling down apples stairs💀." Medazelli replied, "I'm the Khabane Lame of falling down stairs."

Medazelli kept uploading the video in slightly different contexts throughout October. He gained 4.1 million views in three weeks on an October 5th post to TikTok.^[4] On October 7th he posted a video to TikTok^[5] captioned "whoever designed Apple's stairs is an opp" showing photos of the stairs, gaining over 12 million views in three weeks. On October 8th he posted the viral video to TikTok^[6] again and claimed he would never post it again. On the same day, he posted a video showing the steering wheel of his car and saying that the Mercedes Benz logo reminds him of an "A," that "A" stands for apple, and that it reminds him of the time he fell down the Apple Store stairs, gaining over 1.9 million views in three weeks (shown below, left). On October 10th he uploaded a similar video claiming a plane reminded him of the time he fell down the stairs, gaining over 1.3 million views in a similar span of time (shown below, right).

On October 15th, Medazelli posted a video where it appears as if he's in a theatre about to watch a film. The 20th Century Fox logo plays then text on the screen says "The Apple Stairs" and he flips it off, gaining over 7.9 million views in under two weeks (shown below, left). On October 17th he posted a video claiming to be a face reveal, but when he shows his face it's the Apple Stairs video, gaining over 1.2 million views in a week (shown below, right).

Spread

Throughout October 2021, as Medazelli continued to gain a following for spamming the Apple Stairs video in comedic ways, other TikTokers began making videos referencing it. On October 14th, TikToker @demonhellfart posted a video showing footage of him allegedly also falling down the Apple Store stairs, gaining over 250,000 views in just under two weeks (shown below).

On October 15th, TikToker @duckymanofficial posted a video showing off how many videos Medazelli has about the fall and saying "we get it dude you fell of Apple stairs," gaining over 230,000 views in 10 days (shown below).

References soon began spreading outside of TikTok. On October 18th, Twitter^[7] user @okyspaz posted "Someone should make a book about the guys who fell down the apple stairs i would def read it" along with a photoshopped book cover of someone in a full cast at the bottom of the stairs (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References