About

Phone On The Floor / Save Her Life Videos refers to a series of Russian skits popular on TikTok and YouTube where a woman saves a young kidnapped girl's life by placing her cellphone on the ground near the girl as a subtle way of asking her if she needs help. The kidnapped girl responds by subtly dropping another object, followed by the heroine walking away and then turning around and shoving a phone in the kidnapper's face as the police are being called. The trend began on TikTok in February 2021.

Origin

On February 27th, 2021, Russian TikToker^[1] @ahsheva posted a skit where she walks into an elevator to see a suspicious man standing, hugging a young girl from behind. Ahsheva walks into the elevator, stands beside them, then leans over and places her phone on the floor. She quickly picks it up again. The little girl looks up at Ahsheva and then, as she is leaving the elevator, throws a ball of paper at her foot. The elevator begins to close when Ahsheva's arm comes between the gap and stops it, showing the criminal a phone dialing emergency services. The video gained over 6.9 million views in seven months (shown below).

Spread

The video's virality inspired @ahsheva to continue making skits where she saves a young girl using the phone dropping technique, many involving elevators and set to the original sound "оригинальный звук."^[3] On April 13th, 2021, @ahsheva uploaded a similar video like this where a kidnapped girl knocks a water bottle out of her hand to signal that she's being taken, gaining over 80 million views in five months (shown below). This is her most popular video following the format as of September 2021.

Other TikTokers also got in on the trend, most of them Russian. On May 4th, TikToker @vasilenko.tanya posted a video in an elevator doing the trend, gaining over 89 million views in four months (shown below).

Reuploads of the videos are significantly widespread on YouTube, particularly the ones uploaded by YouTuber Candy Platter. For example, on June 7th, the YouTuber^[2] uploaded a skit in the genre from TikToker @okanutie, gaining over 165 million views in three months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References