Ottoman Humpers

About

Ottoman Humpers, also known as Peer Pressure, is a series of viral videos featuring groups of people grinding on an ottoman or couch while listening to rapper Pretty Ricky in an attempt to showcase their sexual prowess. The first video appeared online in 2007 from the group "Peer Pressure" and has since been parodied by numerous TV shows or other users online, as well as being covered by online news outlets.

Origin

Although not the most well-known video, the first example of the Ottoman Humpers (shown below) was titled, “pretty ricky-Lingere,” uploaded to the YouTube^[1] channel of amp6 on January 7th, 2007. In the video, three members of the group called “Peer Pressure” grind on a set of brown couches and an ottoman while listening to Pretty Ricky’s “Lingerie” with the curtains drawn closed in one of the member’s living rooms. According to the description, the members appearing in this video are Dez (Spec), Lando (BLK n RED Shorts) and Ant (Low Hair). The video currently has over 380,000 views, 921 likes, 183 dislikes and 402 comments.

The most well-known video of the Ottoman Humpers (featured below), titled, “Pretty Ricky – Late Night Special,” was uploaded to YouTube^[2] on January 31st, 2007, by user amp6. In the video, five members of Peer Pressure can once again be seen showing off their various moves by grinding on a brown ottoman while Pretty Ricky’s “Late Night Special” plays in the background. As each person takes turns, their name appears on the screen, starting with “Relentless,” “X2C,” “Pipelayer,” “Pressure” and “Satisfaktion.” At the end of the video, credits roll while listing the names “Allen P. Hasberry (Relentless),” “Anthony Terry (X2C),” “Terry Vinson (Pipelayer),” “Orlando Cannon (Pre$$ure)” and “Desmond White (Satisfaktion).” Since being uploaded, the video now has over 2.5 million views, 6,500 likes, 5,900 dislikes and 5,600 comments.

Spread

After the first two videos from amp6 (Peer Pressure) were uploaded, they released a third on the YouTube^[3] channel titled, “Pretty Ricky – Up and Down (Peer Pressure).” Uploaded on February 6th, 2007, this video features all members of the group (except for Pipelayer) once again humping furniture, but this time next to a Christmas tree. The video (seen below) received over 1.1 million views, 2,500 likes, 500 dislikes and 790 comments.

On April 29th, 2007, a follow-up video was uploaded to the YouTube^[4] channel under the title, “Peer Pressure's Address to the Public,” in which one of the members “sets the record straight,” as described below the clip. This video (shown below) has since been viewed over 433,000 times, liked 700 times, disliked 480 times and commented on another 355 times.

Uploaded to the Dailymotion^[5] account of A Week of Kindness Sketch Comedy on June 20th, 2007, the video “Handsome Richard's Late Night Phosphate--Pretty Ricky Parody” parodies the viral video by depicting a man performing similar acts on a vintage footstool. The sketch (seen below) received over 1,300 views.

MTV^[6] reporter James Montgomery covered the trend after it gained notoriety in an article titled, “Pretty Ricky, What Have You Wrought? Ottoman-humping Videos Spread Across Web,” published on August 15th, 2007. In the article, MTV discusses how the trend emerged and interviews some of the group’s members. About the videos, Peer Pressure's Desmond "Satisfaktion" White said:

"We just like what Pretty Ricky raps about, and all of us have been dancing for a while, so one day we just decided to record it. We all just combined our ideas and made something up. We filmed it at [group member] Ant's house. It didn't take long to do, like, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and then we put it up."

During the first season of Comedy Central’s Tosh.0,^[7] specifically the third episode “News Puke Kid,” Daniel Tosh can be seen discussing the viral video during an opener that he follows up with by parodying immediately after. The episode originally aired on June 18th, 2009 (seen below around the 2:38 mark).

American Dad ^[8] also created a parody of the clip during season six, episode 13, titled “I Am the Walrus,” which aired on March 27th, 2011. The clip (shown below) depicts several of the show’s characters mimicking the Ottoman Humpers while Ginuwine’s song “Pony” plays in the background.

Search Interest

External References