A video on TikTok posted by Jess (@jesspoulter1) has gone viral after revealing the hilarious moment a gondola tour guide in Venice, Italy, grabbed her phone while attempting a wide-angle selfie with her friends, leading to an awkwardly long video. S
ince the video was posted on August 10, it has received 2 million views and more than 270,000 likes.
"POV: You're trying to take a 0.5 video and the gondola guy just takes your phone," Jess captioned the video. "Here's a tutorial on how to get the most awkward video ever."
The video shows Jess and her friends in selfie mode before the phone was taken by the gondolier. As he angled the phone toward the women, he let out a half-hearted "hello."
Viewers in the comments loved the spontaneity of the moment, and many noted the women's awkward response with a laugh: "Aren't you guys bundles of joy," @tofillthenile wrote.
"The silence is deafening," @wintrrfox wrote.
In the comments, Jess said that the gondola guide took "heaps" of photos for the women, and that he did a great job. Not everyone was completely convinced about his phone-grabbing actions, though.
"You still ask first because boundaries," @x123tiktok wrote.
Some had a different interpretation, giving the gondolier the benefit of the doubt for his professional actions: "I think he just thought you were too shy to ask for help, I bet most costumers ask him to take pictures, so it was an instinct for him," @ana.santillan_ wrote.
"He probably thought you were handing it to him so he could take photos for you guys," @lgr.v_ wrote.
But the real answer to why the gondolier grabbled the phone might lie in his demeanor on the rest of the trip. In a follow-up video, Jess posted a reveal of the gondolier and his actions on the rest of the boat trip. Almost unsurprisingly, the gondolier spent much of his time on the gondola with the women singing. For this, Jess called him a "legend".
Gondoliers, according to some in the comments, can be known to be friendly and playful with tourists. "Once my family and I were taking a picture on the gondola, and the guy just joined in the picture. He was so cute," @verycooljuju wrote.
And for select others, the gondolier's voice in Jess' video was even a familiar dose of comfort: "He said hello like my 83-year-old Italiano dad," @bernadettenovembre wrote.
Newsweek has reached out to @jesspoulter1 for comment via TikTok.
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