About

Russell Wilson Working Out On a Plane refers to parodies of a story told by Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson detailing how he worked out on a team flight, performing high knees down the aisle of the plane for "four hours." The story was deemed ridiculous and disrespectful to Wilson's teammates by many commenters. Online, the tale was parodied by people posting humorous videos of workout routines as a way of imagining Wilson's workout.

Origin

On October 26th, 2022, Denver Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson claimed to reporters that he'd spent an eight-hour team flight watching tape and working out a sore leg, including that he worked out by doing "high knees," a workout wherein one raises and bends their legs as if running, down the plane's aisle. He claimed he was doing the workout while his teammates were asleep.^[1]

Parodies of the story followed soon after it broke on Twitter. One of the earliest parodies was posted by @itsYDG2, who used a clip of wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin smacking Vince McMahon with a guitar to represent how they would have felt were they one of Wilson's teammates. The tweet gained over 40 retweets and 200 likes in two days (shown below).

Spread

Throughout the following days, Twitter users posted videos of people being disruptive to parody Wilson's plane workout. On October 26th, user @FSUMollz posted a video of a man doing a bizarre workout, gaining over 2,900 retweets and 34,000 likes in two days (shown below, top). The same day, user @itszacharyj posted a parody using the Back At It Again At Krispy Kreme video, gaining over 50 retweets and 700 likes (shown below, bottom).

Wilson was criticized for the plane workout by sports commenters. Podcaster Kyle Brandt posted a video explaining that he thought his teammates would think the workout was absurd, gaining over 30 retweets and 540 likes in two days (shown below, top). On October 28th, after the Baltimore Ravens won a game, their kicker Justin Tucker was filmed joking that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson would lead the team in high knees on the ride home (shown below, bottom).

Various Examples

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External References