If you didn’t know, there was a trend going around on TikTok wherein a young prankster would tell—usually adult—relatives a certain celebrity had died. Not in good taste in general, but particularly awkward and poorly done if your parent is friends with and worked with said celebrity before.
Slater Vance—16-year-old son of acclaimed actors Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance—found this out when he tried the prank out on his parents over the holidays.
In a now-deleted video on TikTok, he pranked his parents and said Michael B Jordan died.
It did not go well, especially because first, Bassett worked with Jordan on Black Panther. And second, in that same movie she also worked with Chadwick Boseman who did actually pass away unexpectedly.
Lesson seemingly learned, Slater Vance posted his apology on TikTok saying he was sorry and he hopes others can learn from his mistake.
“I hope this can be a teaching lesson to anyone out there who also uses social media as a tool and a source of entertainment to truly understand that your actions can have consequences that extend beyond you.”
@slater.vance Visit TikTok to discover videos!
Having his apology be public after his mistake was also public was good parenting, people said.
Not many people wanted to be on the other end of that family discussion.
Some were wondering why the backlash for a widely used trend was just on this one kid.
It was the context, others replied.
It's a tasteless prank when it's a celebrity a person only knows of, but very different when the person is a friend.
Generally, everyone seemed OK now that the teen issued an apology.
But this incident certainly highlighted how actually not-great the trend was to begin with.
In essence it's just cruel.
Indeed.
Here's hoping the next TikTok trend isn't as tasteless and hurtful.
