‘Popcorn Guy’ Goes Viral on TikTok

And now we guess he’s headed to the Oscars?

January 06, 2023

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Photo by: Image by Marie LaFauci/Getty Images

Image by Marie LaFauci/Getty Images

Butter on movie popcorn is great, but is more butter better? And is it better still to drizzle in the butter gradually, alternating between popcorn scooping and butter applying, spinning the bucket like a basketball (a la Harlem Grobetrotters) to mix it all up as you go? These are some of the questions raised by a video that has recently gone viral on TikTok.

In said video that has racked up more than 6.2 million views since it was posted on December 26, TikToker @oanderle shows off the skills of a concession worker he encountered while at the movie theater.

@oanderle This was totaly awesome! 😃 #oanderle #popcornguy #movie #cctx #thepopcornguy #popcorn #avatar2 #corpuschristitx #corpuschristi ♬ My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from "Titanic") - Céline Dion

“He called himself the Popcorn Guy,” @oanderle writes atop the video, in which the worker displays his popcorn-prepping prowess, set to the strains of Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

“This was [totally] awesome!” the TikToker added in a caption.

Commenters (more than 21,100 comments and counting) wholeheartedly agreed.

“Artist,” wrote one.

“He’s the real hero,” opined another.

“How absolutely majestic,” gushed a third.

@oanderle followed up that first video, which has garnered upwards of 935,700 likes, with a series of related videos, including the original video footage he captured, unadorned, which has been viewed more than 14.6 million times.

And now something truly amazing has happened: Jimmy Kimmel not only put the Popcorn Guy, whose actual name is Jason Grosboll and who has been working for years at the concession at Cinemark16 Theater in Corpus Christi, Texas, on his show and had him walk him through his remarkable process, but also offered to bring Grosboll out to show off his popcorn-scooping skills in March at the Oscars, which Kimmel is set to host.

“What are you doing on March 12, Jason?” Kimmel asked. “Because I’m hosting the Oscars this year, and if you’re interested, and we could probably use the world’s greatest popcorn bucket filler at the door [of the theater]. Do you think you could get the weekend off to make popcorn for Tom Cruise? Is that possible?”

Grosboll seemed up for it. What a happy turn (spin?) of events.

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