The Untold Story of What Happened Later on 'Back at Information technology Again at Krispy Kreme,' the Best Vine of All Fourth dimension

There are many good Vines, simply few perfect ones. Cats, dogs, pranks, visual trickery, six-2nd operas — at that place's no shortage of swell work on the video platform that created the Loop, a new type of video format. Vine was founded in January 2013, and its first year, like whatever growing platform, came in fits and starts. But I never really understood the mesmerizing nature of the loop until I saw "Back at It Once again at Krispy Kreme," the best Vine of alltime.

Two years ago, on Jan 13, 2014, the Vine account Fab Cheerleader posted a video captioned "He hit the sign😂," and it is incredible. In the offset shot, a homo holds a Krispy Kreme hat upwards to the camera and says that famous line, "Dorsum at it again at Krispy Kreme." In the second shot, he does a dorsum handspring into a neon Krispy Kreme sign, knocking it from its housing. Roughly a quarter-second subsequently — before the sound of the sign being wrenched from the wall has even finished — the video begins again. It is amasterpiece.

I love many things about this Vine. First of all, the punch line is insane. "Dorsum at it again at Krispy Kreme," we hear. What does it hateful? I can all merely guarantee that nobody assumed the phrase meant "back handspring into a neon sign." I love how it ends earlier the sign hits the floor. We go merely enough to know that the handspring — impressive in and of itself — has caused some impairment. Only we don't know the extent of the damage, nor how our stuntman reacted, or how the employees of Krispy Kreme reacted. It'due south a blank space that our imagination fills — made all the more dramatic by the eternal, endless loop ofVine.

So much of what made Back at It Again at Krispy Kreme fantastic — as well the guy crashing into the sign — tin be attributed to the odd formal characteristics of Vine, chief among them the lack of context. Vines create an odd tension in the viewer: Each video is a mere six seconds, but it loops on endlessly. You develop an intimate knowledge of the six seconds you're given through the peephole of the Vine — but are left totally in the dark about the context and resolution. Theories and speculation grow. The viral Vine economy, where Vines are copied and reuploaded with no credit or explantion, only heightens the mystery. Vine purists, if such a matter exists, might insist that such mystique is essential to a Vine. But as much as I could admire the frail artistry of the unresolved disaster in "Back at It Once more at Krispy Kreme," I still needed to know: What the hell happened after he kicked the sign downward? Then, on its two-year anniversary, I set out to find the origins of this incredible Vine — as well every bit learn itsaftermath.

Of grade, as is frequently the case with Vines, it wasn't going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. While "Fab Cheerleader" was the account on which the Vine went viral, information technology didn't create this video — it'due south but a page filled with freebooted (that is, ripped and reuploaded without credit) clips of cheerleading and tumbling. On a site chosen FunnyVineVideos.com, I was able to find a improve-quality version of the original Vine — one that had been posted a week earlier Fab Cheerleader'due south. But, like Fab Cheerleader, FunnyVineVideos didn't credit the original author of the video.

I decided to take a different tactic. I called up the scene of the crime: Krispy Kreme. In the first shot, one can clearly brand out a building number for the Krispy Kreme location: 9301. A quick Google query will direct yous to a Krispy Kreme location in Matthews, North Carolina. (Credit where credit is due: This deduction is not my own. I vaguely recall seeing someone having done this on Tumblr months ago.)

I spoke on the phone with Heath, a manager at the Krispy Kreme location who well-nigh knew the incident I was describing. He was, notwithstanding, slightly surprised that I knew of the video. "Actually, that video was supposed to accept been removed from the web," he told me, "so I'm surprised information technology's still out therecirculating."

I told him that the video had millions of loops, and that I wanted to follow up on it, see what the aftermath was. At this point, Heath said that he could non tell me annihilation, and said he would have to direct me to Krispy Kreme's corporate role. I called the phone number, which presented me with a list of options that did not include "viral video response." I had no luck. I followed upward with an electronic mail to Krispy Kreme'south media contacts, merely have not heardback.

I couldn't stop thinking almost that video, though — the best Vine of all time. So I turned to Twitter,searching for posts that contained the words kicked and sign, as well as the URL string "vine.co" and restricted results to before the appointment of Fab Cheerleader'southvine.

What I found were a number of tweets, all of which reference the same now-removed Vine. Many included the hashtag #tumblingislife, and a few referenced the user @TumblingIsLife1. The man who runs that account, Aaron, is the hero of our story — the human being who kicked the sign off the wall at Krispy Kreme. Aaron, who originally hails from the Bronx and at present lives in Atlanta, told me that he took upward tumbling at an early on age. He was inspired by watching his cousin tumble, and besides by Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He now teaches tumbling toothers.

I tin can try to tell the story of that infamous night whatsoever number of ways, only none of them can compare to how Aaron described the incident to me immediate. It is an amazing story. In his ain words:

Oh my God, let me tell y'all well-nigh that night. So I take a gratuitous coupon to get like a dozen doughnuts, so I go, "All right, say no more." I go make moves — we're all in line, nosotros're only talking. I was like, "Yo, I'k about to brand a video, I'm about to do a flip." So I give them my coupon, I'thou similar, "Stand in line, get the dozen doughnuts, I'm gonna go over hither and brand this video," and all that.

And so it was me and my two friends. I tell them to set at the table. I was similar, "Oh, I gotta go my intro real quick." I did my trivial intro — "Dorsum at information technology again at Krispy Kreme" — and I was like, "Y'all set up?" And then we flipped the camera around.

I back up. I told myself, I'k not gonna striking anything. So I practice my flip, simply the second flip that I did — the back handspring, the back one with hands going into the spin — I stretched it out too long. Then when I went into the air and started spinning, my left leg hit the sign off the wall clean, and it dropped backside the counter. And it was similar [glass shattering audio event].

Information technology was packed. There was a expert hundred, a hundred and some alter, people inside. Everybody was talking. As soon as that thing dropped, everybody didn't talk for a proficient 30 seconds. It was nothing only silence. As shortly as I landed — I didn't autumn after that, you saw me, I landed on my feet. I looked upwardly and I saw that it brutal, I didn't expect at nobody, I only kept walking, and I walked out the door. Everybody was like, "What the heck? Oh shoot, he but kicked downward the sign!" Everybody started going crazy.

Then I was just outside chilling. 3 people from backside the desk that were making doughnuts or whatever ran outside and it was like, "Yo, that shit crazy, bro!" And he was like, "Bro, I think somebody in at that place's calling the cops," or whatever. And then they called the cops on me, and I had to do a little whipping and running. They didn't find me, and and then that was it for the night.

In the aftermath, Aaron said that he did go a visit from law enforcement. " The sheriff came to my house, and we talked nigh it, but he was like, 'You don't have to pay for annihilation like that, just don't practise anything like that again.'"

And that was it. Afterward, Aaron deleted the video from his account in gild to avoid attention from law enforcement, merely it nevertheless lives online. And thank God it does, because it is the all-time Vine of all fourth dimension. The phrase "Back at information technology once again at Krispy Kreme" is still referenced on a daily basis. That famous sentence is now a mantra — every time you inject a trivial bit of boggling flair into the mundane, you, too, are back at it again … at Krispy Kreme.

Asked if he had any other thoughts to add, Aaron stated, as a matter of fact, "Tumbling islife."

The Story of 'Back at It Again at Krispy Kreme'