Note: this story contains suicidal themes.
It takes place at night on the basketball court behind Twitch streamer Kai Cenat's extravagant mansion. He's surrounded by friends who have live-streamed their journey out of the house to discover a surprise waiting for them. The surprise? A makeshift structure has been built in the basketball court. Strung from it are three nooses.
Magician Max Major is there, standing on a yellow painter's platform below the three nooses. He informs Kai that he'll need to pull one of three cables. If he pulls the wrong one, Max will be hoisted into the air by his neck and likely not survive.
Kai’s friends stand silent around him. Two assistants help Max remove his shirt and loop one of the nooses around his neck. Kai protests. He seems afraid. Max’s hands are tied, and, to be honest, he looks petrified.
Kai pulls one of the handles, and everything seems to go disastrously wrong. Max's entire body is pulled several feet into the air by his neck. His team rushes in to help, pushing away the yellow painter’s platform and releasing the noose so Max can fall to the floor.
Medics rush in, too, as members of the production crew hold Kai and his friends back from helping.
Max survives, though we do not see him on stream again. There’s enough confusion that most people watching are likely thinking that whatever is going on, Max put Kai in a terrible situation.
None of it makes any sense. Why perform such a distasteful and seemingly dangerous stunt live and seemingly out of nowhere as a surprise? It’s traumatizing for viewers both present and at home.
At no point did Max suggest that his team didn’t know which handle was connected to which noose.
Are we supposed to believe that his entire safety team saw Kai pick up the wrong handle, and no one stepped in to stop it?
After the live hanging, for the first time, the words "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" can be seen appearing on the screen in clips online. The text is moved to the left corner as if a member of Kai's team has added it hurriedly.
Kai reacts audibly, "Wait, no; I might get banned!"
It's a little wild that that's one of his first reactions, but Max can be seen to have survived. Twitch’s strict rules could very well have resulted in Kai getting banned for apparently live-streaming himself hanging a man. Twitch's primary user base trends young, with a significant portion between 13-34.
