Gen Z Influencer Dares A Vulnerable Older Woman To Jump In A Lake — Then Runs Away When She Says She Can’t Swim
"You just murdered a lady."
AntonSokolov / Shutterstock After a popular social media influencer dared a stranger to leap head-first into a lake, she laughed amongst her team about the stranger’s willingness.
However, the innocent joke quickly turned into a dire situation when the stranger shouted that she couldn’t swim.
In a state of disbelief, Reynolds and her team took off, leaving the stranger to fend for herself, and her “prank” video was not met with the "LOLS" and "likes" she thought it would.
Influencer Natalie Reynolds talked a stranger into jumping into a lake as a dare.
Streamer and social media influencer Natalie Reynolds, who boasts over 2 million followers on TikTok, recently found herself the subject of the latest internet gossip after she shared footage on Reddit of herself chatting with a stranger at Lady Bird Lake in Texas.
The stranger, who appeared to be intellectually disabled, was persuaded by Reynolds and her streamer friends to jump into the lake, seemingly for some cheap social media prank.
Reynolds allegedly offered the stranger $20 to go through with the dare.
In the video, the unnamed stranger said her feet were “getting hot” and that she would jump in with her shoes on. She proceeded to jump into the lake headfirst as Reynolds turned to her friends and said, “Did you see her [behind]?”
As Reynolds and her peers laughed amongst themselves, the woman could be heard thrashing about in the water.
“I can't swim, I can only float!” the woman yelled off camera.
Reynolds put a hand over her mouth, appearing to be in shock, unsure if the woman was telling the truth. “Stop, seriously, you're actually freaking me out,” Reynolds said to her team. “I'm going to [expletive] kill myself. She says she's drowning.”
“She could literally die,” one of Reynolds’ friends commented about the woman as they began to realize that she was not joking.
Most likely fearing that they would get in trouble, the group fled the scene without offering the woman any help.
“I think you just murdered a lady,” one of Reynolds’ friends said to her. “No, I didn’t, I swear! No, I didn’t, let’s go!” Reynolds giggled as she sprinted away from the scene.
“This is really bad,” Reynolds said as the footage cut to her and her friends driving away in a car. Little did they know, it was about to get worse.
A fire truck was then shown racing toward the scene. The Austin Fire Department later posted that they were called to Lady Bird Lake for a “medical call.”
Thankfully, according to the post, it appears the stranger survived.
Since Reynolds shared the footage, she has received every kind of backlash you can possibly imagine.
“What an absolute [expletive],” one TikTok user commented about Reynolds. “Is this girl okay like actually?” another user pondered.
However, the criticisms likely rolled off Reynolds' back. She is certainly no stranger to controversial online “pranks.”
On numerous occasions, she has found herself caught in heated debates over her videos that many viewers label inappropriate or troubling, including a video where she catfished a Tinder date by wearing a “fat suit” and one where an irritated stranger nearly pulled a gun on her after she claimed to be a Walmart employee and criticized the stranger for not returning her shopping cart.
As these “prank” videos become increasingly popular among online influencers, we must differentiate between an innocent prank and straight-up cruelty.
Innocent pranks are generally lighthearted actions that will not harm anyone. Examples include placing a whoopee cushion on a person's chair, putting a fake spider on their desk, or leaving sticky notes all over their bedroom wall. These pranks simply evoke a laugh (and maybe some slight annoyance) from people.
What Reynolds gleaned her popularity from, however, is controversy and outrage.
Innocent pranks do not include putting people in dangerous situations where they could become seriously hurt, such as daring them to jump into a lake for money when they cannot swim.
When creating content, some influencers focus more on the shock value and nature of their videos, which will draw in more clicks and viewers.
However, what they fail to realize is that innocent strangers are not content, and neither is subjecting them to cruelty.
If Reynolds and other influencers are interested in gaining more views and followers, they could use their resources to surprise strangers they run into by buying them lunch, not talking them into jumping into a lake and risking their lives.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.