The Lawnmower Guy and everyone’s favorite spirit animal, Ricky McWells learned about the power of social media and the power within himself…by simply cutting the grass one afternoon.
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Has anyone ever shared your Facebook post? You know, like when Grandma Sue shares your Easter picture so everyone at her retirement club can see it? Okay, Great! So you know how it feels!
Now has it ever been shared 300,000 times? Yes. You read that right: Three Hundred Thousand. Well it happened to me, all because I simply mowed the grass. Yep, you read that correct, too! I mowed the lawn, and I broke the Internet doing so.
First and foremost, I can firmly say I’ve always been a humorous person. It’s one of the numerous reasons my friends love me, and one of the many other reasons why my husband married me. I grew up as a child who was always “on.” Being a closeted gay kid, I didn’t have a choice: give people something to laugh at before they laugh at you. This motto didn’t last when I finally came out as a gay man and realized it was easier finding humor in the everyday things and people I encountered—add my husband to the mix, and everyone says we could have our own show.
Back to the grass.
In our four years of homeownership, I have maybe cut the grass 20 times. My husband is a huge fan of the intricate “mowing lines” that leave our yard looking like a chessboard or a freshly cut baseball field. Me, on the other hand, I’m a fan of just getting it done while also praying a strong wind comes along and cleans the sidewalks for me.
I admit, It was a surprise he asked me that Thursday to mow for him. Expecting it would be raining by the time we got home from work, I accepted immediately—
“Sure babe! I can do that!”
It didn’t rain. To this day, I still feel that it was Jesus scolding me for not trying to help out around the house. As I stood by the mower before beginning (my phone in my hand as I replied to a Snapchat from a coworker) my husband left the house and gave me a look.
“You know,” my husband smirked, “you can actually get the grass done pretty fast if you’re not on your phone.”
I smirked back at him as I opened my Snapchat again.
He asked for it.
In total, it only took me 45 minutes to cut the grass. Adding in my ever-so-perfect “selfie breaks” and “lunch breaks,” I was impressed it didn’t take me longer. I laughed as I went through the photos I had shared to my Snapchat story and to my husband (back when I had a grand total of twelve friends on Snapchat!) The horrible line jobs and the entire section I’d missed, all tied together with comments that only I would make. I laughed again, wondering how long it would take for my husband to see it.
An hour and a half later, I posted the photos I had taken to my Facebook after a friend suggested I do it. She was a friend on Snapchat, and found it hilarious. I agreed, they were pretty funny. My husband still hadn’t seen them, so I casually tagged him in the post. The Facebook likes began pouring in. My everyday friends commented on how hilarious it was; this was totally something I would do! When my husband did see it, he only rolled his eyes and chuckled. So typical of me. And why he married me. As we watched television that night, the number of likes my post had gotten grew, and upon a closer look my husband yelled to me in the kitchen, “Thirty-three people have shared your post!”
I sat down on the sofa next to him, shrugging slightly as I looked at the number. “People think I’m funny,” I said, still not believing it.
I had simply mowed the lawn.
“But you’re always like this.” Calvin Reminded me, and by the time we went to bed at midnight, my post had already been shared 1,000 times!
Friday morning started early.
“It has already been shared 4,500 times,” Calvin said as I lay in bed next to him, still not ready to get up.
’Okay, so people think I’m hilarious.’ I said to myself. By the time we got to work an hour later, it had been shared another 2,000 times.
What the what?!
My Coworkers took notice quickly and the day was spent watching the numbers rise.
“You’re going viral!”
Friday at noon, we went to lunch and by then it had been shared 40,000 times. At this point, I had to turn the notifications off on my phone and my Facebook could barely open without crashing. Walking out of work that evening, I had already surpassed 100,000 shares and likes. I posted something that night, praising the power of social media. Friends who had known me for years had been dropping texts all day, explaining how they had somehow seen the post via their college roommate or sisters ex-boyfriend—people who would never have a connection to me in real life.
My inbox on Facebook was flooded. I could barely keep up. People from all over the world sending me praise and thanking me for making them laugh. It sounds terribly cruel, but the messages that I had made pregnant women pee themselves from laughing in at least four different countries still make me laugh.
I went to bed that night in absolute disbelief.
The next few days were like nothing else I had ever experienced. The comments and messages kept pouring in. People recognized me out in public—I had become That Lawnmower Guy and articles were being written about me online. I was trending as being everyone’s “Spirit Animal” and the more people crept through my Facebook, the more people followed me. The feeling was indescribable.
I was making people laugh by just being myself.
The messages I received became more meaningful. My Snapchat was now constantly full of requests, making it easier for people to reach out to me. People told me how I made them feel better. Some people confided they had just lost their job and had needed the laugh, or they had been having a horrible day—one woman thanked me for keeping her spirit up while her infant daughter had brain surgery. I couldn’t seem to grasp the amount of people who now knew me as the funny guy from Facebook.
For every fifty positive comments, I had to endure a negative one.
“This fag needs to get AIDS and die,” one commenter said.
Wow! I couldn’t help but think about how angry a person could be to write such a remark about someone they didn’t even know. Sure, these kind of comments were only “one percent” of the total response, but I’d never felt something hit me so hard. Again, it was all a joke and these people didn’t even know me. I suddenly felt guilty for all the times I’d ever written about a celebrity in a rude way. I thought about all the people who bashed celebrities for the simplest things—but still! This was me!
I’m not a celebrity! I’m a real person.
My anxiety spiked for a day. I shut down the comment section on my post for an hour. I wished for a moment that I hadn’t posted it at all. I couldn’t stop looking at the negative. It made me physically ill. It took everything in me to continue looking back at the positive—the thousands of people who actually liked me and who understood it was a joke. My husband watched at my side. “Are you okay?” were the first words out of his mouth when we spoke.
I was okay though.
On my phone, I had screenshot a message I’d received from a woman in Texas a few days after I posted. Her name was Rebecca and she quickly told me about her son who was also gay. I broke down in tears as I read “Thank you for being you! You make moms like me cry because you and your followers restore faith in humanity.” In the end, the message itself wasn’t what got me. It was the fact I was once her son—and quite frankly…I still am her son. This single message from Rebecca allowed me to look past everything.
If I had somehow restored the faith in humanity for one person–then I had done my job as a human being.
Going viral the way I did, made me realize there are still so many people who just need to laugh—and if I could help at least one person a day to do that by being myself, or The Lawnmower Guy, as everyone now knows me—well, that would help fulfill my desire to make the world a better place. After all, everyone has to mow the grass sometime, and they might as well do it fabulously!
Read on for Ricky’s entire lawn mowing story!
Photo credit: Getty Images
Hilarious post, I loved reading it. You’re a great writer! I’m sorry you had to put up with disgusting and hurtful comments. Ignore the haters!
You and the “I’m a happy Chewbacca” lady have made the world a happier place. I am responsible for sharing you with my friends early on. Then this happened: https://goo.gl/6EujIy So again, THANK YOU!! By the way, the pumping gas post was awesomesauce!!
I saw it from a friend of a friend and my gosh how I laughed so hard. I think it’s because we can all relate. IMy brother saw it too and laughed really good. This combined with the Chewbacca lady video. This is what we need more of. Just good ol’ belly laughs and things we can relate to. I think the viral post in this case went to someone who deserved it. You just seem like a really great person so enjoy it. 😀 And yes I’m so totally following you now! P.S. We should really all spam Ellen… Read more »