As an American living in The City of Light, Amanda has some keen insight as to what might stand out to outsiders as they’re walking about Paris, and this time she’s set her sights on a common scam employed by some of the city’s beggars: the clear cup scam.

In a video she uploaded to TikTok that’s accrued over 20.1 million views on the popular social media platform, Amanda gave the run down on how the scam works while telling visitors what to keep an eye on. “Clear cup scam in Paris. These guys are out here every day and the police control them constantly. They can get aggressive with you so just keep walking if it ever happens to you,” she writes in a caption for the clip.

She then goes on to say in her video: “This is one of the most common scams you’re gonna find in Paris: the clear cup scam. Watch as this man almost knocks it over, you see that?” the TikToker narrates over video footage of the clear cup scam in action.

She then explains why Paris’ hordes of panhandlers sometimes implement this ploy and how the finagling works: “It’s a clear cup filled with coins just a couple, to help weigh it down, and they place it very far out in high traffic areas on sidewalks, knowing that people will probably knock it over, like this guy did,” she says, pointing to footage of a pedestrian accidentally hitting the cup over.

So how does the scam work? Amanda gives the details: “Now you might be watching this thinking, Amanda, where is the scam it’s a homeless person begging for money, like have some heart. And I get where you’re coming from, but that’s not the case.”

She then delves into what the scam is all about: “These guys are out here every single day and when the police see them, they will take away their cups and their stuff and tell them to get out of here because they know what they’re doing is dishonest and a scam.”

Amanda delineates why the police take such a hard stance against these con-artists: “they purposely use clear cups because you’re not going to see it with just a couple coins and they put it very, very far out where people are going to knock it over. What they’re banking on is you know it over and you go oh my God I just knocked over a homeless person’s cup. I’m such a jerk I’m gonna give them money.”

It’s that guilt of knocking over an indigent person’s belongings, a person who is sitting on the street and literally begging for handouts from strangers, where the root of this con lies, however, she says that things can go south pretty quickly. “That’s the tame version of this scam the not tame version of this is when you knock it over and you just keep walking and you help pick it up but you don’t give money.”

Amanda continued, “They’ll start yelling at you. It’s typically a boy who does this, they always do it in my neighborhood so I see him all the time, he’ll start yelling at you and say you knocked over my cup you have to give me money. They’ll start yelling at you getting loud at you. I got a DM from a girl today who told me that she knocked over the cup and the boy was there and he spat at her.”

So while these beggars may be poor and indigent and looking for other people to fund their existences, Amanda says there are instances where they can get aggressive, violent, rude, and disrespectful as part of their con: “He started following her and he spat at her. The police are aware of it as I said but they’re out here every day.”

Amanda said that the beggars in her area who try and pull this con usually pull this scam in areas with high foot traffic like the Louvre and its surrounding area.

“The reason I’m telling you this is if you’re here in Paris and you happen to knock over the cup, don’t feel obligated to give money unless you want and if they start getting loud with you just keep walking.”

A number of people who saw her video commented that the couldn’t understand why anyone would travel to Paris in the first place as this “scam” she listed is just yet another reason they see to keep away from the city for as long as possible.

“Paris sounds ghetto,” one penned, which was a sentiment someone else agreed with: “Damn paris is so ghetto”

Another commenter remarked that being yelled at by a panhandler probably wouldn’t end well for the con artist: “I don’t have the patience to deal with that I’d end up screaming back at them”

Someone else just straight up asked: “why are people still travelling to paris?”

A mom on the hunt for a woman who allegedly put her hands on her young son and his friend while they enjoyed some donuts together at a Safeway went viral on TikTok. In a series of videos she posted on the platform, she asked users to help her discover the identity of the assailant.

In her first clip, the mom seems to think that the color of her and her son’s friend’s skin may’ve had something to do with it: she seems to think that the woman in question must’ve thought it was okay to put her hand on her son because he is half-black and half-white and his friend is Mexican it was all right for her to be aggressive with them, and the mom said she was going to use her “white privilege” to get to the bottom of what happened.

Jessica (@jemaesthetic) states in her first video about the incident meant to expose the “Karen” in question: “Okay TikTok I need you to do what you do best and I need to find this lady. So, backstory, my son yesterday went to the local Safeway to go get some donuts with his best friend. These are two brown boys, one is a Mexican little boy and there’s my son who is half white and half black.”

The TikToker continued to give more context into the story which she says culminated a race-based altercation between her son and a grown white woman, who she shows off in the TikTok. The shopper is wearing a pink fleece sweater and a pair of black leggings and has blonde hair: “This lady, right there, decided to grab my son’s hoodie from behind and pull him and choke him to get him away from the donuts.”

Jessica says that despite the fact this woman attacked her son without provocation in an attempt to keep him and his friend away from the store’s donuts that the matter wasn’t pursued further: “Nothing happened after that nothing was escalated and both Starbucks and the manager of the store came into defense of my son.”

“I don’t care. I’m a mom and I wanna know who that is. Because she does not get to put her hands on my child and I am going to file everything possible I can against her and I’m gonna make it clear to her that if she touches my kid, one more time, comes into the vicinity of my kid, talks to my kid, does anything to my kid or his best friend, she will have to answer to me,” Jessica said, stating her threat to the woman directly into the lens of her video.

“And I’m gonna use my white privilege so please get me her name, get me her address we’re in Roseville Grand Bay California, find her for me and I’ll take care of the rest. Thank you!”

She posted more information on the situation in a follow-up video that she recorded from the interior of a vehicle where she describes how she visited the Starbucks inside of the Safeway in order to conduct a bit of reconnaissance.

“Good morning TikTok, so, here’s a little bit of story time or an update for you: I went into the Safeway when into the Starbucks bought myself a little coffee and while the lady is there ringing me out I showed her the picture of the lady. This lady’s eyes got so huge. And she got so nervous about the possible conversation that was just about to happen and so I explained to her I am the mother of one of the boys, the boy that did get his shirt yanked on.”

Jessica broke down the particulars of her conversation with the Starbucks employee: “She immediately was like oh my God I’m so sorry we’ve been waiting for you to come in we are so sorry this happened to you, yes I was there for the entire thing your boys did not deserve this there was nothing that warranted this behavior plus they’ve come in here a ton of times gotten donuts gotten food and been completely respectful and just very very calm, collected boys in our store.”

She went on to state that it wasn’t just the Starbucks employee inside of the Safeway who was party to the conversation, but a manager of the chain as well: “Now at this time there’s actually one of the Safeway managers who is standing behind me, waiting to order her coffee she chimed in real quick and was like yes I saw the whole thing happen I called my manager over at the time because I was dealing with a customer when it happened.”

Jessica said that the Safeway manager went on to say: “I’ll get you her phone number and her information and you can call her and she can patch you through to any resources you need.”

The TikToker added,” She also did tell me to file with Roseville Police Department so that they can pull the tapes as you guys have been saying on here and that it did spark a lot of parents in the store to come over and to like get this lady away from my kids, which I am so grateful for the community for that and I’m so grateful for Safeway and Starbucks for protecting my kid.”

In a third video she uploaded a clear photo of the woman in question in the hopes of folks being able to find her. She uploaded the picture to provide viewers with an unobstructed view of the person she says assaulted her son.

And it looks like all of her efforts paid off, because in a fourth video she says that she was able to ultimately learn the identity of the woman in question and that she’s going to hand over all of that information over to the authorities. She says that “it looks like things are going in the right direction” because she has access to not only security camera footage but also, at this stage, witnesses who seem receptive to speaking to what happened between the woman and her son and his friend.

Although Jessica seems to have accomplished what she wanted with the videos in discovering the identity of the woman who put her hands on her child, she did take issue with some of the responses other TikTokers had to the incident, stating that while most people seemed supportive of her plight, that there was an amount of “bullying” that took place online.

She added that she “prays” for folks who must’ve been abused or victimized by older people when they were younger. These comments are more than likely in response to commenters who remarked that they wanted to know more behind the story, namely the events that led to the strange woman grabbing her son by the hoodie and choking him.

The Gist:

• Matt Rife is a comedian with over 18.2 million followers on TikTok.
• His Netflix special, Natural Selection, hasn’t set well with many people.
• One joke in particular about domestic violence has put Matt in the hot seat.

As of the time of this writing, the Rotten Tomatoes audience score for comedian Matt Rife’s Netflix special, Natural Selection, is sitting at a dismal 16 percent based on over 500 ratings. How can someone whose TikTok account boasts an impressive 18.2 million followers have such an embarrassing response? Perhaps he should have taken a page out of Todd Barry’s handbook, who once did an entire special based entirely on crowd work. After all, crowd work is what got Matt Rife all of his fans.

To be fair, a great deal of Matt’s fans are women and they have flocked to the under-30 comic based on his good looks. This is why it was especially surprising to hear that Matt “doesn’t pander to women,” per Variety. No one is saying Matt has to pander to anyone, but he seems to have gone too far in an effort to prove that he isn’t kowtowing to his female fanbase. So, why do people hate Matt Rife? Let’s get into it.

In June 2023, five full months before Matt’s special dropped, he went on Tana Mongeau’s podcast to chat all things Matt Rife. When Tana said the coolest part about being a comedian was never apologizing or caring about cancel culture, Matt jumped on that sentiment. As a reminder, cancel culture doesn’t really exist. For proof look to Louis CK, whose 2022 album about cancelation earned him a Grammy. Incidentally he filmed that on March 8, 2020, which is International Women’s Day.

To no one’s surprise, Matt hates the fictional idea of cancel culture. “The world is full of the most insane people in the entire world and everybody wants to be mad at everything. Everyone’s feelings are hurt all the time, and I just don’t have it in me to care anymore,” he said. Matt goes on to say that all things are forgivable if your “intentions are pure.” I couldn’t disagree with that more. Saying horrible things and then quickly saying they’re just jokes, doesn’t make them less cruel.

Around 45 minutes into the podcast, Matt talks about how success is what makes people want to come for you. He adds that when you get to his level there’s an image you want to portray but the “reality is you’re going to say things people don’t like” or take out of context. This is also when Matt reveals a possible resentment towards his lady fans because he can’t tell if they like him because he’s funny or because they are attracted to him. It’s clear that doesn’t sit well with him.

We finally learn that according to Matt himself, people hate him for “no reason” but they actually hate him because they are jealous of him. Historically that’s why he has disliked someone ergo, that’s what’s happening to him. It turns out there is at least one reason why people are unhappy with Matt Rife.

As someone who is from Maryland and currently lives in Baltimore, I have heard and made my fair share of jokes at its expense. Baltimore has been the butt of many barbs, even though The Wire is still one of the best shows ever made. She simply can’t catch a break. This is what makes Matt’s joke about the city, and one woman in particular, all the more trite. Better people have referred to Charm City as rachet.

Hating on Baltimore isn’t why Matt is receiving so much backlash. His special begins with Matt telling a story about eating at a diner in Baltimore where the hostess had a black eye. A friend who was allegedly with him said she should be back in the kitchen where no one can see her face. To which Matt said, “Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye.”

The responses to this story were predictably quick and angry. It prompted an “apology” from Matt via his Instagram stories. “If you’ve ever been offended by a joke I’ve told, here’s a link to my official apology. Tap to solve the issue.” Upon tapping, folks taken to a website that sold helmets for individuals with special needs.

There are some subjects that require a certain amount of comedic finesse and domestic violence is definitely one of them. It’s not untouchable as long as a person, and please forgive this turn of phrase but it’s common in comedy, punches up not down. The person you are ridiculing shouldn’t be part of a marginalized group and they certainly shouldn’t be framed as a victim of assault. This is especially true if the comic making this unfunny observation is a straight white man.

It’s not that people with a disability, sexual assault survivors, members of the LGBTQIA community, people of color, or women don’t like jokes at their expense. They just don’t like bad jokes, and Matt is simply not funny enough to joke about these sensitive issues. Now, if Matt wants to joke about how he looks like a Dick Tracy villain working at an Abercrombie and Fitch outlet store, then I’m tuning in. Until then, perhaps he should stick to crowd work.