I give him a 8.0. The turnaround during the dismount left a bit to be desired. Additionally he held onto the right handrail a bit too long which caused a jerky pirouette before he faded into heaven.

SeattleTed

@winexprt: people still go to malls?

Boognish

your guys video player sucks. its just about impossible to rewind and watch just a small portion over and over. i have to watch the whole thing every time.

im pretty sure this is real. if the older man were trying to fake that he was falling, he probably would have broken something.

mwalker05

Many of us also take things for granted...

10 years ago I saw this sweet old Russian peasant trying to go down an escalator.
The whole family was there... they could not get her to go down the escalator... it was THE most hilarious thing for the rest of us watching... but for her... it was frightening.
You should have seen her face of relief when she finally got on.

For some people might be escalators, for others bungie jumping....

aec007

It looks like the handrail may have gotten stuck in place at just the right moment causing his hand to stay in place as his feet moved up and forward. You can see it stick pretty clearly in a couple of spots.

As for those asking what this has to with gadgets, it's pretty clear to me that this is a viral ad for 'life alert'.

Fountain

Looks more like a large business office...malls usually don't have plants like that for tweens to trash and sit on.

Y2KGTP

Either it's fake or the guy is having a stroke.

Either way, not funny. Now, if he was tumbling head over heels, or racing a slinky, then I might laugh.

Tukaro

@mikeklein: As long as he didn't get hurt it's funny. But even if he was my grandfather I'd still laugh.

givemeyourtots

This is messed up. Cut the Grandpa some slack.

zorrillaj

I call B.S. on this too.

I mean come on. This is a supposedly a mall?! WHERE are all the other mall people? NOT ONE other person is seen at all.

Looks like how a mall would look at 3 A.M. and someone was shooting a fake video. ;-)

winexprt

Escalators are gadgets.

People falling on gadgets belong here.

scoobydoo

Ok, what exactly does this have to do with gadgets?

BigBowlOfCereal

ok...how is this related to gadgets?!?

curiousj

Is he going to Heaven?

lucky_you

FAIL.

Khuluna

Amazing.

cloudnine

poor gramps!

Wegmans

!@: Phelander

When you're 80 and have arthitis, bercitis, etc., see how funny it is.

He's an old codger...cut him some slack. Some old folks still (mostly grandmas) still don't drive (and shouldn't) and can't figure out ATMs, etc. Leave 'em alone...they got certain privileges man.

If he were your grandpa...

mikeklein

Totally fake

daftrok

fake, bad actor btw.

lolec

Nice. Old people are funny.

phelander

all you people who don't think this is funny are clearly not initiated with the age-old practice of making fun of retarded/old people.

Don't forget about laughing when somebody gets hit in the nuts, too. C'mon, that has to be the #1 most common thing sent in to those "funniest home videos" shows!

jennyfur

@yogibimbi: Blatantly cctv, dude.

Collins1

He's lucky there's no escalator to heaven.

Collins1

I love how people are trying to justify the fall: "Certain mechanics can cause the 2 to be out of synch." or "Perhaps he was having a stroke or maybe this happened."

Newsflash: Old people lose coordination, reaction time and strength over time. They do fall down, and rather easily. Hence the "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials. And you know what? These same people are driving all around you on a daily basis. Just hope you aren't in any farmer's markets when they go ballistic...if they weren't such a large voting demographic, we'd come to find out certain age groups are probably far more dangerous than drunk drivers.

Saboth

all you people who don't think this is funny are clearly not initiated with the age-old practice of making fun of retarded/old people.

It's pretty much a cultural standard. Haven't you ever studied the Inuit people? They make their old people walk off and die.

We just laugh at ours who can't work things like, you know, escalators.

This is classic.

nachobel

@joe23521: eeeh, somebody did the filming. And did NOT lend a hand.

yogibimbi

"I've fallen and I can't keep from going up..."

ideaman2020

@mikeklein: Dude if he was my grandfather he'd laugh at himself along with me.

hagrun

It's not fake and it's not funny. Can't wait for you punks (accept Yokozuna, he's funny) to get old. Although, based on Darwin's law of survival of the fittest you won't make it past 30...

And to stop your thread crapping ahead of time... I'm not an old man. Just sensible.

Oh yeah, and something else... It is Darwin's "LAW" not "THEORY". Don't give the Creationists an inch.

keerock

Anyone who thinks this is fake is mentally challenged. I have actually witnessed this happen to an old chinese lady going up the customs escalator at JFK.

mspaeth

I have to give props to the escalator. Despite his best efforts to impede it, it still acted like a professional, did its job and carried him up.

Benzido

lol well at least 'Fall UP' is better than "Fall Down" ....

kittenman

101 ways of using a escalator...

trailingedge

Mall!?!?! That is clearly NOT a storefront on the right, is it? And he is carrying a briefcase, for goodness sakes.

It is an OFFICE building! (After all, mall security doesn't watch the cameras.)

eufreka

@lucky_you: just wanted to say this was the funniest comment

jcy

He's pretending to be Asimo.

sold2early

ha ha ha this is hilarious!

alin0steglinski

@hughjass:

Yep. I see them now.

winexprt

Old people aren't to be discarded like so much escalator food. They need to be studied to determine what nutrients they have that might be useful for the rest of us.

yokozuna

Humor is making fun of people who CAN help themselves, and still do stupid things.

This...not so funny.

digitalpoet

you sure say a lot. @mikeklein:

YoHenYo

I"m disappointed that he didn't fall indefinitely.

00000000

You people are sick! Thats my grandfather and he's not THAT old! He was going to work and the thing slipped!! Where did you get this????? I'm SO going to sue for this. He really got hurt bad!

homerjay

I'd like to think that this guy was laughing about it afterwards, rather than the disheartening feeling of being feeble.

Kaiser-Machead

Considering I'm so clumsy I nearly gave myself a concussion a week ago by falling on my head, I found this video quite funny and realistic. You don't have to be old to do this sort of thing guys. There are plenty of us out there that just lack coordination. It's a riot to watch if you catch us in the act. ;)

jennyfur

maybe one day when we are as old as the poor grandpa, we will understand that being old is not cool!

sotark

That's not an old man, that's the dopey robot from Honda still trying to make it up and down a staircase!

frigg

It's only funny because it's a video clip. If it happened in real life, I have the faith that most people would lend a helping hand as opposed to standing around and laughing at him.

joe23521

At least it was a gentle fall. He wasn't slamming into the steps or anything.

Sort of looked a little like he stepped on with his feet just a little bit between two steps so when they came apart, the front half of his feet were going up and the rest of his body wanted to stay down.

een

Dude... Now more than ever I want to put a slinky on an escalator.

EVERLASTING AND NEVERENDING FUN! GO SLINKY GO!!!

dragonphyre

I was in an airport over the summer and saw this happen to a group of about 5 elderly folks. The man in front grabbed the stationary stairway rail instead of the moving escalator rail. He took about 5 of his comrades down with him and it looked almost exactly like this x5. It was scary at the time but once they all got up the ones who fell where the first to laugh. Remember the saying "It's all fun and games 'till someone gets hurt, then it's hilarious".

dwight-schrute

Most likely real and decidedly unfunny. Surely suffered some good bruises and scratches; those metal steps are unforgiving.

I hope some of you folks would have lent the fellow a hand if you were there in person rather than take pleasure in it as you did here.

MichaelS

I'm not laughing at him, I'm laughing towards him.

strider_mt2k

i sure am glad there's not a hell because as hard as i was just laughing i'd definitely be going there.

CyberSpy

good job Gizmodo, you have sunk to an all new low - now making fun of old people. I think I just gave up on this site. It's as though a bunch of 14 year olds run this place =(

AlexNC

Damnit... I thought I got away with that too.

elchristobale

If you think this is faked, talk to anybody that sells insurance - people are injured on escalators all the time, and not all of them are elderly.

outlanderssc

not funny. That is some old dude, prolly with arthritis.

NZRUSS

I call: real, funny.

crycry

Seems real to me. No faker would move that slowly. Poor guy. This isn't funny.

James

If that was me, I would take it as a personal affront if you didn't laugh.

ReductiMat

It looks like the hard work of the good people at the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation is totally being ignored by far too many. How many more old people have to fall down moving stairs for our amusement before the fun and free activity guide at [www.eesf.org] is required reading in every retirement village?

trebas

i took my dog on an escalator twice. 1st time, going up, she freaked. i've never seen a dog actually climb a glass wall but that bitch did it do get the hell off that thing. kinda like a live chicken on an electric floor to make it dance. bloody fantastic it was. a few hours later, back down the same escalator, just nervous. after all, where the F are the stairs going at the bottom. this guy. not even funny.

pacopaco

You're suppose to go limp when you fall...

pupaboy2

@mikeklein: And ppl say that about old ppl driving on the road too...

Stang70Fastback

Hello new hobby! I'm going to one-up this guy with the Perpetual Upwards Fall. You pretty much fall backwards over and over again, with funny twists and turns a little slower than the escaltor asends. Your routine is complete when you reach the top. This is going to be the new free-running, people. I swear it.

decerbo

he must tought... PUFF! thanks god the mall is empty and no one is watching :)

lolec

While this video is funny. There are people who have never seen or used an elevator or escalator, or even stop lights. In Ishmael Beah's book A Long Way Gone he describes the strange box that stood still as things outside changed.

Years ago, I was in a South East Asian country that had it's first escalator and was giving "lessons" on how to use it at a mall. They were also using long poles and people to train drivers to obey the newly installed traffic lights.

That all said- we all know that escalators eat people! My mom said so! This guy was lucky that his corps didn't feed the mall trolls that live under escalators.

DeadWriter

I laugh with him, not at him, as that's exactly the kind of thing I might do. And I'm only 33. I've not been blessed with physical grace you might say.

HDC

Hmmmm...looks like a place of business instead of a mall, yes, and he has a briefcase. He is wearing shorts and it could be he did some work on a Saturday...thus not too many people around. Seems too stupid for anyone to stage, but ya never know.

clr550

It looks like the railing was moving significantly faster than the steps. It's not uncommon for the two to get out of sync, and if the old guy had stability problems I don't doubt that it could have pulled him off his feet.

jeremiahbritt

@winexprt:
There is a set of legs on the first couple frames of the video, farther up the same escalator.

hughjass

ok, I DID double-post. Sorry for that. Although, I think the argument in the second one is slightly better;-) But most probably no one cares.

@pepelicious: the angle simply says it's a surveillance camera. Nobody can hold a camera up that high. I was wrong in blaming the guy who held the camera. But the guy in the surveillance cubicle could have helped. But he would have been too slow to arrive on the scene to figure in that sequence, probably.

yogibimbi

[hmmm, I think there is a problem with comments. - anyway, here comes the rest, hopefully, to the other comment] it falls down, that's a law, because any time you repeat it under the same circumstances, it has the same outcome.
Evolution cannot be reproduced and the evidence stretches over periods of time and degrees of complexity that are becond our human understanding. So, it's a theory.

But I second the Creationist part: not one inch. But they will eventually run dry as everything does that needs a considerable amount of energy to be held up against facts and evidence. Self deception and denial can only go so far.
[hope this gets posted;-) and hope I didn't double-post...;-)]

yogibimbi

Not funny... but he seems not hurt.
But I saw some joke on this, and it was funny.
Was it Family Guy? Something like the torture of forever falling off an escalator...

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I call shenanigans!

Nelson

[hehe, here comes the rest] and let it go, it falls down, that's a law. When a species evolves and you can observe it through fossils and by genetics, that's a theory, because you infer but cannot observe directly.

But as far as Creationists go, you have my support: not an inch;-) But they will eventually run dry anyway, because upholding something against overwhelming evidence to the contrary costs too much energy in the long run. Self-deception and denial can only go so far.

yogibimbi

Some of you are GOING TO HELL...
HAHAHAHAHHAHA

p.s. not gadget just mean

tomaartist

1) Where are the other people in the mall?

2) Who has a camera conveniently positioned to capture someone on the escalator? Mind you one on a tripod as there's no noticeable camera jiggle.

pepelicious

@keerock: well, it IS a theory as everything in science. Science is just an approximation of reality, whereas belief, or creed is trying to squeeze reality into something that is not even trying to approximate anything but a collection of sometimes weird ideas of how things should be.
For Darwin's theory to be proven correct, its scope is a bit too complex, involving periods of time way beyond our comprehension and personal experience, as well as organisms that we also can only understand on a very superficial and generalized scale.
When you pick something up

yogibimbi

I think that desrves a medal.

Pieman2

If that were my grandfather, I would be impressed, he's been dead for more than 8 years.

samueladamski

@lucky_you:
Not if he can help it. Although, I always assumed the stairway to heaven would have better maintenance.

@CyberSpy:
And if there is, I'll see you there.

Darkest Daze

I don't think is fake, but I believe he got dizzy and lost control of his balance. the first time I found it funny, thinking that was a fake video. Now that i think is real I am glad/hope the man is ok, not because the falling but the lose of balance issue.

Either way in both occasions I wondered why this is posted in giz. it's not a gadget and is not a squirrel video. So?

dysthymia

"Ohhhhhh Lordy! Somebody please help me! I'm fallin' down the steps! Ohhhhh lordy! My shoe!"

(old Eddie Murphy routine. Look it up.)

golferal

That was TRUELY hilarous.

eddiehart

Man I havent seen this much response from people on a Gadget Article and here i had to scroll down a mile to write this on a fake video!!!!

waukeshadude

funny or sad?

bodypainter

@Collins1:
why? he would have got there EVENTUALLY either way...

nutbastard

I rolled backwards down an escalator in Vegas once. Too many of those "yards" of alcohol. I'm sure that video was shown at their annual holiday party.

J-ROD

Yeap, I'm going to hell, I have to go back to work tommorow damnit...

Amuro

@miguelon918: ill see you in hell!

kamakazikorean13

Well...i am going to hell...i laughed a lot!

miguelon918

YOU ALL ARE STILL GOING TO HELL!!!

tomaartist

@outlanderssc: Well just cause a lot of folks are injured on escalators, doesn't mean this is or isn't a fake. I vote for authentic in any case.

Also, did I miss the memo as to why the video can't be played on the front page?

gordeaoux

first time i watched it,i tried to figure out if it was fake or not. Second time i watched it i busted out laughing.

doubleodusty

falling down the up escalator has to start at the top, not the bottom. when you do it at the top, you get stuck in an infinite loop! epic fail, grandpa.

Bloody_Sorcerer

I'm a bit late to the game on this one, but no one seems to have mentioned/noticed it.

The Railing seems to be stripped or not tensioned properly and when he lost his balance and began to fall backwards he went to use it to support himself it slid backwards with him.

It wasn't this guys fault... entirely.

Rob Spence

i see no humor in it

Amiash

Reminds me of the game Porrasturvat (Stair Dismount) available here: [skinflake.com]

Given the scoring system in that game this guy got a pretty low score especially considering that he could have theoretically continued to fall for a very long time.

John Laur

@Collins1:
"He's lucky there's no escalator to heaven. "

That's because this is the Hairway to Steaven

ANoel

@trebas:
Even funnier than the video is the fact that there really is an EESF!! They'll give anyone 501(c)(3) status.....

balloondoggle

I was hoping to see a kid pretending to fall up the down escalator. That would have been classic!

Dave Barak

@mikeklein:
totally agree with you, give them some respect!

Airblade

i don't think it's funny at all! he's clearly an old man and i don't really think you'd laugh if it was your grandpa...

soundengineer

Looks to me as though he latched hold of the handrair prior to stepping onto the moving part of the escalator.
Rookie mistake = funny.

halogeton

There's nothing wrong with laughing at something like this; it's not malicious, and it's not like we're standing right there watching and laughing and not doing anything about it.

I just think if that was me, I'd like to know I was getting my fifteen minutes, that's all.

Twp3pf2