The clip shows Steven, a 20-year-old TikToker who uses the handle @undeaddot, standing on a small stepladder next to a large sink filled to the brim with water and suds, in the kitchen of a Taco Bell restaurant in West Virginia.
Steven jumps into the air and cannonballs into the sink, sending water gushing to the floor. He is completely submerged in the water for a few seconds until his head bobs up from under the froth. The action is set to the song “Into The Thick of It” by The Backyardigans, which is currently trending on TikTok.
Steven told Newsweek that he was the guy at work who “lightens the mood and has a good time, all while somehow keeping things professional.” He said the video had been filmed during his final shift after three years at Taco Bell. He wanted to have fun, he added, because his co-workers were sad he was leaving.
Steven said: “Near the end of the night as we closed, I decided to fill up the sink after we were finished with everything, and dive headfirst into the sink off of a step stool for some harmless fun, and then leave the place exactly how I did every night, after cleaning up any mess, of course.
“Well, as I was getting up on the stool to ‘dive in’ I realized my nearly 6-foot body wasn’t going to exactly fit, so I was only going to be able to jump from the side. And then literally last few seconds I realized the best way I could fit would be to tuck myself, like a cannonball, and just full send it. And of course, that’s what happened.”
He added: “Not a scrape or a bruise, just some harmless fun.”
The TikTok video has been viewed 18.9 million times and has been liked by 4 million people. The comments under the clip have also amassed hundreds of thousands of likes. One comment that read, “I didn’t realize the sink was that big,” had 240,000 likes. Another stating, “Bro, I’d kill to work with him,” had 242,000 likes.
TikTokers are also wondering how Taco Bell management reacted to the stunt. One comment that read, “Yeah, go ahead and clock out for me,” had 50,000 likes. Another user suggested that the manager was the person filming, and encouraging Steven by saying, “Yeah, do it, bro.” That idea garnered 161,000 likes.
Other commenters were concerned about health and safety. One user said, “Imagine there was just a knife at the bottom,” and another asked, “Did you not get hurt or what? Because I know that had to have hurt.”
Some TikTok users were content to crack jokes about the footage. One wrote: “Actual footage from my baptism.” Another posted: “Sir, I found a guy in my soup.”
Steven’s impressive leap was applauded by many of the commenters. One said, “I’m going to have to give that cannonball a 10/10.” Another raised the stakes, writing: “He jumped in so perfectly 100/10.”
In a follow-up video, Steven explained that he did not get fired for the stunt because he had already handed in his notice. “We already had this planned, we wanted to focus on streaming. This is what we were going to do.
“We just [jumped in the sink] on the fly and we just left. We were off the clock and everything, so I wasn’t even on the clock for this.”
Steven added that he now plans to focus on streaming gaming content full-time.