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  • 6/9/2025
From social media meltdowns to controversial confrontations, these viral moments didn't just capture attention - they sparked serious legal battles! Join us as we explore infamous internet incidents that went from trending topics to courtroom drama. Did your jaw drop during these viral scandals?
Transcript
00:00They've been handing out the image for free, claiming the photos in the public domain
00:04because they say it was taken by the monkey. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting
00:09down our picks from the most infamous viral internet moments that, after taking the web
00:13by storm, ended up in lawsuits. They knew they would likely get a few looks, but they say this
00:19was just overkill. Number 10, Smoothie Ken. The customer claims when he ordered the smoothie,
00:26he told the staff that his son is allergic to peanuts, but he says when his son drank the
00:32smoothie at home, he had a life-threatening allergic reaction. After his son had an allergic reaction
00:37to a smoothie bought from Robex in Fairfield, Connecticut, James Ionazzo went into the store
00:42and aggressively yelled at the teenage staff, who claimed he didn't tell them about his son's
00:46nut allergy. Ionazzo also threw the beverage at a worker. In addition to getting probation for the
00:55tirade, he was fired from his financial advisor role at Merrill Lynch, but the punishment didn't
01:00stop there for Ionazzo. One of the workers he abused issued a $300,000 lawsuit against him for
01:05damages. In 2022, the case was settled for $7,500. But he tells us in a statement,
01:12my actions at the smoothie store were wrong, and I deeply regret them. I feel terrible that I lost my
01:17composure so completely. Number 9, Fisherman's Fury.
01:21Hey! Hey! Hey! Oh my god!
01:26In 2011, Brian Mace, Chris McMahon, and Roni Durnham were fishing in Oregon's Columbia River.
01:35When McMahon noticed a boat racing towards them, he called out. However, it didn't stop,
01:39causing the three men to jump into the water as it plowed into their boat,
01:42just about escaping serious injury. The shocking footage quickly spread online.
01:47Oh, it's like, no, no, and then boom. It's, it's, it's incredible.
01:54Marlon Larson, who was driving the speeding vessel, claimed he didn't see the group fishing.
01:58On top of a criminal case opening against Larson, Mace and later McMahon also issued lawsuits
02:03against him in 2018. However, after pleading not guilty to the charges, a couple of months later,
02:08Larson passed away. Regardless, the lawsuit was still going ahead against his estate.
02:13Be safe, wear your life jackets.
02:15Yes, lesson learned. I'm not that much of a meathead. I can't admit I was wrong in not
02:20wearing a life jacket, especially when I had him in the boat.
02:23Number 8, Sesame Discrimination.
02:25We're sure that we are going to find that this was indeed a pattern that they were aware of.
02:32They just didn't care.
02:33In 2022, Jody Brown uploaded footage that got the internet raging,
02:37which should have been a clip her daughter and friend could look back on with happy memories,
02:41instead left them heartbroken. While watching a parade at Sesame Place, Philadelphia,
02:45an actor dressed as Rosita was recorded interacting with white children and adults.
02:50Yet, when she walked past the black children, the character shook her head and gestured no to high
02:54fives. Now, in her Instagram post, she says the person dressed as Rosita, quote,
02:59blatantly told our kids no and then proceeded to hug the little white girl next to us.
03:05Sesame Place apologized, claiming the actor might not have seen the girls,
03:08but later confirmed more racial training for workers. While the Browns didn't issue a lawsuit,
03:12other families who'd experienced similar events at Sesame Place did, looking to get $25 million.
03:17However, in 2024, the jury found the theme park not liable.
03:21They also want the courts to force SeaWorld to look at its policy and for any other black families
03:26that feel they were marginalized and experienced racial bias to contact the law firm.
03:31Number seven, tip-taker.
03:33Seeing some people being angry about enforcing the mask law became very common. It's like every
03:38handful of times every week. So COVID-19 really dragged out the Karen in many people.
03:44In 2020, Lenin Gutierrez was working at Starbucks in San Diego, California,
03:48when Amber Lynn Gillies wandered in. However, because she refused to wear a mask,
03:53he refused to serve her. Gillies says she has medical problems, but also says masks are not
03:58effective. One of them, I get shortness of breath, dizziness, and it messes with the heartbeat.
04:03And I do have asthma as well. For revenge, Gillies took a photo of Gutierrez and uploaded
04:08it to Facebook to try to shame him. Instead, the internet turned on her. Soon, a GoFundMe was
04:14created by Matt Cohen to raise tips for Gutierrez. By the time donations were stopped, it received
04:18around $105,000, which the barista wanted to use to study dance. Gillies, seemingly looking to become
04:25a full-blown Disney villain, issued a defamation lawsuit against Cohen, which was unsurprisingly
04:29dismissed in 2023.
04:31I feel like I need people to hear a little bit of what I have to say. Like, it's only fair.
04:37Number six, removal refusal.
04:39I think the common sense approach to that is to just look for the person who has the same seat
04:43you have, right? I'm going to look to someone that has another middle seat. That's the fair
04:48thing to do if you're going to be switching seats.
04:50Somehow baffling to some, if a person has booked a specific seat on an airplane, you aren't
04:54entitled to make them move for your benefit. This was the circumstance that Jennifer Castro
04:59found herself in on a Goal Airlines flight in 2024. When she arrived at her designated place,
05:04a toddler was sitting there.
05:0529-year-old Jennifer Castro says she booked a window seat in advance, and when she got
05:11on the plane, the child was in her seat.
05:14So, Castro got the kid to move, which caused the kid to cry. The toddler's mother tried
05:18to get Castro to sit elsewhere, which she refused. Another passenger recorded Castro and uploaded
05:23the footage online. The infamy caused her to leave her banking profession. As such, in 2025,
05:29she issued a lawsuit against Goal and the person who recorded her.
05:32Number five, the blackout challenge.
05:35Significant organ damage, including brain damage, which really is one of the most vulnerable
05:44organs to lack of oxygen.
05:45Internet challenges have become a common pastime. Some, like the ice bucket challenge, can lead
05:50to positive outcomes, as it did when it raised awareness and money for curing ALS. However,
05:55the blackout challenge is not good at all. Originating on TikTok in 2021, it got children,
06:01primarily, to choke themselves. Sadly, this led to several deaths.
06:06Anderson's lawsuit claims TikTok targeted Nyla by recommending blackout challenge content to her.
06:12Tywanna Anderson was one U.S.-based person to issue a lawsuit against TikTok for not doing more to
06:17protect children after her daughter, Nyla, passed away from the trend. After the case was originally
06:22dismissed in 2024, the appeal court overturned the decision and allowed the suit to proceed. In 2025,
06:28four families in the U.K. who lost kids to the challenge also issued lawsuits against TikTok.
06:33Well, the most important thing is just how deadly this TikTok blackout challenge is and how predictable it was.
06:44Number four, prom dress scandal.
06:46I think that might just come from me as a person. I don't take crap from anybody or any person. So I knew that I felt
06:54beautiful and that I felt great.
06:55For some, people challenging gender norms can be the most terrifying thing they've witnessed. For example, Samuel Johnson.
07:01Rather than a writer like his namesake, he was the CEO of VisuWell. In 2021, Johnson was recorded
07:08confronting Dalton Stevens and his partner, Jacob Geitman, as they took photos for their prom.
07:13Johnson, livid that Stevens was wearing a dress, uttered homophobic comments.
07:17I look like white!
07:21You look like an idiot.
07:22Get the f*** white from me!
07:24What does he look like?
07:24Please stop.
07:26Due to the video getting traction online, including getting celebrities like Kathy Griffin to comment on it,
07:31Johnson was fired from VisuWell. So, he issued a lawsuit against UH Cleveland for pressuring his
07:36removal. He also issued a suit against Griffin, claiming he was standing up against what he called
07:40the woke social mob.
07:42When you come up to somebody and publicly harass them, shame them for what they're wearing, that's just not
07:46acceptable. Everybody should just wear what they want and that you shouldn't be ashamed to wear
07:52anything because of societal standards.
07:54Number three, Central Park Karen.
07:56If there was a Hall of Fame for Karens, Amy Cooper would be in it as a first inductee.
08:09In 2020, birdwatcher Christian Cooper, no relation, clashed with Amy for not leashing her dog in New York
08:15City's Central Park. This resulted in her calling the cops, falsely claiming that Christian, who's a
08:20black man, was threatening her life.
08:21You had your phone.
08:22I had this. And so, I was like, alright, well then I'm gonna record your scofflaw behavior of your dog
08:28being off the leash. You know, I had no idea she was gonna take it to a racial place.
08:32The backlash was severe when Christian posted the recording online, especially as Amy was hurting
08:37her dog by grabbing its collar. Amy ended up getting fired from Franklin Templeton for her racist
08:41behavior. In response, she issued a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal against the investment company.
08:46The case was dismissed in 2022, as was Amy's appeal in 2023.
08:51We live in the age of Ahmaud Arbery, where, you know, black men are shot, gunned down because of
08:59the presumptions that people make about it.
09:01Number two, monkey selfie.
09:03The legal question is whether or not a monkey can be given human legal rights. And although we share
09:09these behavioral and cognitive and social abilities, I just don't think it will quite get there.
09:14In a national park in Indonesia, photographer David Slater went to take images of the endangered
09:19Salib's crested macaques, and he got the primates to take iconic selfies. As a result, Slater's work
09:25took the internet by storm.
09:27Once I knew that the monkeys were gonna start playing with the camera, they'd already accidentally
09:32pressed the button, then I realized that I could get that close-up impact shot by just simply letting
09:37them approach the camera.
09:38In 2011, the photos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a free content site. Slater requested
09:44the images be removed, which caused animal group PETA to get involved. In 2015, the non-profit
09:49issued a lawsuit against Slater, demanding ownership of the photographs go to one of the
09:53monkeys, Naruto. In 2016, the case was dismissed, which PETA appealed. In the meantime, the two
09:59parties agreed to a settlement. However, in 2018, PETA's appeal was rejected, as animals
10:04can't hold copyright.
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10:33Number one, Lincoln Memorial Confrontation.
10:36I have the utmost respect for Mr. Phillips. It's another person that freely uses First
10:43Amendment rights.
10:44In 2019, clips from a confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. went viral.
10:50The video showed Native American activist Nathan Phillips singing in the face of MAGA hat-wearing
10:54Nicholas Sandman. Stories began to spread online and through the media that Phillips was responding
10:59to racist chants from a group of MAGA supporters, including Sandman. However, the supporters denied
11:04the allegations as further videos proved additional detail.
11:07There's video of some of them who appear to be doing what's called a tomahawk chop, as
11:12Philip bangs his drum. There's also a lot of laughing and more school chanting.
11:17Sandman issued various lawsuits against media organizations for defamation, seeking hundreds
11:22of millions in damages. CNN, NBC, and the Washington Post all settled cases. However, in 2022, a
11:29suit against several groups, including the New York Times and ABC, was found against Sandman.
11:33He appealed the decision multiple times unsuccessfully.
11:36At one point, both sides appeared to reconcile their differences.
11:40Let's sit down and have a cup of coffee.
11:41That's good.
11:42I'll buy a meal. We'll just figure this out.
11:45What viral incident that led to a shocking lawsuit did we miss? Let us know in the comments.
11:50The center of the firestorm, what critics characterize as a smirk on Sandman's face.
11:55Some saying it was an attempt to stare down Phillips.

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