TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Over the weekend, video surfaced showing a bizarre birthday ritual involving a man being tied to a pole dancing jeep in southern Taiwan.
Instead of the standard pole dance performance for a wedding or funeral, a young man appears to have been "kidnapped" to take part in an elaborate birthday parade. At 9 p.m. on Saturday evening (Nov. 21), a male user of the Facebook group Baoyuan Commune (爆廢1公社) posted a video with the caption "My poor friend is having his birthday and he was tied to a pole dance jeep. He's just now finally passed Tainan's Dawan Road."
In the video, a scantily clad woman in a halter top, skintight shorts, white stalkings, and white high-heel shoes can be seen standing on the roof of a jeep while grasping a pole in one hand and a microphone in another. She can then be heard saying, "I'd like to first apologize to all our friends at the scene if we're disturbing you, I'm sorry! But you only celebrate your 23rd birthday once! Let's join together and help him have a birthday he'll never forget!"
She then called on bystanders to join in, exclaiming, "Can you all shout happy birthday with me? One, two, three ... Happy Birthday ... Yeah!" Next in the frame appears a man standing motionlessly as he is tied tightly with what appears to be several layers of plastic wrap to a dance pole on the trailing jeep, followed by at least two more jeeps with pole dancers at the ready.
(Facebook, Baoyuan 1 Commune images)
At 1:00 a.m. on Sunday, a female member of the group posted another video with the caption, "Let's take a look from the vantage point of the host and dancer. Happy birthday Little Bo Handsome Boy! That face, I'm sorry for laughing."
In the video, the lead dancer points the camera at the "birthday boy" and can be heard screaming "Happy Birthday!" Then, noting the man's sheepish grin, she observes that he has a "helpless expression in his face."
The videos quickly went viral, and some people tagged their friends and asked if they wanted a similar service for their birthday. Others poked fun at the hapless victim of the birthday prank:
"It seems as though they are first parading him before the mob before taking him to the [Beijing] Caishikou Execution Grounds to have him beheaded."
"It's like in ancient times when someone committed a crime and the crowd would throw eggs at them."
"Is this a birthday or debt collection?
"Is this the parade before the firing squad? I'm laughing so hard it's killing me."