Sam Smith Trends On Twitter Following Viral Fake Stage Dive Clip

A viral video has been circulating online that shows an individual in a green Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume jumping into the crowd and not getting caught by the audience.

Some Twitter users believed the individual to be Sam Smith diving off the stage at their concert in Seattle, causing the pop singer to trend on the social media platform. Others body-shamed the person involved even after the rumor was debunked when a clip from a different angle was shared, revealing that it was not Smith.

One fan explained that the video was of a man leaping into a Vanilla Ice crowd in Oregon that same weekend.

Earlier this year, fans similarly defended Smith, who uses they/them pronouns and identifies as non-binary, when their controversial music video for “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” was released, showing them in a series of skin-baring costumes.

Some argued for age restrictions to be placed on the music video for its sexual nature, but Smith’s fans claimed that the criticisms were homophobic and transphobic.

Journalist Owen Jones tweeted, “Sex has always been a running theme in modern pop music, and music videos often flaunt it. But Sam Smith has made the criminal offense of being a) queer and b) not skinny, and in an increasingly anti-LGBTQ culture, that can’t be tolerated.”