Woman's Security Videos Make Dancing Amazon Driver An Internet Sensation, But Some Say It's Exploitative
Watching a funny Amazon driver twerk to Ginuwine's "Pony" may be one of life's greatest joys, but some say we're treating him like a "court jester."
shirvsss/TikTok Security cameras pick up all sorts of wild stuff nowadays, and for one woman on TikTok, her doorbell camera footage of her dancing Amazon driver has become nothing short of a viral sensation.
But not everyone is laughing along, with some feeling like the Amazon driver is being exploited, especially given the company's notoriously problematic working conditions.
Is it all in good fun? Or is a moral line being crossed?
A TikToker has gone viral after sharing funny security footage of Carl, her favorite funny Amazon driver.
It all began with a sassy driveway interaction between Carl and the TikToker, named Christine, and has now grown into a full-on TikTok fandom.
After Christine shared her interaction with Carl, her TikTok followers begged for more videos of the funny Amazon driver.
"This is Carl! WE LOVE CARLLLLLLL," Christine, known by the username @shirvsss on the app, wrote in her caption of her first video of the Amazon driver.
It starts off like any other uninteresting bit of doorbell camera footage — Carl approaches Christine's Glendale, California porch, drops off a delivery, and begins walking back to his truck.
But just as he was leaving, Christine pulled up in her car, and Carl decided to give her a show, giving her a dramatic, flirtatious flourish that many commenters likened to the iconic "bend and snap" routine between Jennifer Coolidge and Reese Witherspoon in "Legally Blonde."
Christine's fellow TikTokers were instantly in love with Carl's sassy sense of humor. "Carl is a whole vibe!" one wrote, while another begged, "we need more Carl content, I think we all live for Carl!"
Christine seemed to anticipate this reaction before ever posting the video. In the footage, she can be heard telling Carl "You're about to be TikTok famous," as the two share a hearty laugh, a prediction that turned out to be prophetic.
The TikToker left a note for Carl telling him his fans on TikTok were dying for more funny Amazon driver content.
As Carl walked up to Christine's porch for a subsequent delivery, he was greeted with a note she left him which read, "Carl, you're famous on TikTok. Dance for your fans."
Carl did not even hesitate to oblige.
He took Christine's packages and fashioned them into a sort of stripper pole, then shimmied around them suggestively, punctuating the whole thing with a bit of twerking. In true "Magic Mike" fashion, Christine naturally scored the whole thing to Ginuwine's "Pony" — as if there was any other choice!
As she predicted, her TikTok followers were nothing short of obsessed with Carl's hilarious viral moment. "Carl doesn't JUST deliver... he DELIVERS," one TikToker commented. "I can watch him every day," another wrote. "Carl from Amazon where do I order him?"
Another commented, "Amazon GIVE CARL A RAISE AND PROTECT HIM AT ALL COSTS!" But given the litany of accusations from former Amazon employees about the way the company treats its staff, that's unlikely to happen.
This is why some on TikTok found Christine's videos deeply problematic.
Some on TikTok accused Christine of exploiting her funny Amazon driver by making an overworked and underpaid worker perform for her social media posts.
Christine's videos are all in good fun, of course — and the joy Carl has brought to people on TikTok is undeniable, but some TikTokers felt the whole thing was unseemly.
"I hope Carl got left a tip somewhere for him providing your entertainment," one TikToker wrote. Another, a man named B.D. Collins posted a stitch of Christine's video calling her out for exploiting a low-paid worker for clicks.
He told Christine that "it should feel a little wrong to exploit wage employees" by asking them to dance on camera "just for the amusement of the privileged folks who don't even have to come into contact with them."
Collins, who himself has worked as a delivery person, also told a story from his own days working as a delivery person. "I used to deliver pizzas years ago…and sometimes customers would leave comments like, 'have the driver sing a song when they come to the door.' Like, no dude, f--k all the way off… I'm not a f--king paid monkey on a string."
He had a pointed message for Carl himself, too. "Don't let yourself be exploited by your fellow man," he said, before pointing out that Christine and others like her are not the ones who pay Carl for his work. "Carl, if you see this, do not dance for those f--kers at all."
Amazon is notorious for allegations of mistreating both its warehouse employees and its delivery drivers.
Collins may be taking Christine's funny Amazon driver TikToks a bit too seriously, but he's not exactly wrong.
As the video below details, delivery drivers like Carl have reported everything from unsafe delivery routing that forces them to defy traffic laws, to resorting to urinating into water bottles in order to avoid taking bathroom breaks so they can keep up with Amazon's unrealistic delivery scheduling demands.
Amazon has even been accused of exploiting employees for profits even in the midst of disasters like its 2021 warehouse collapse in Illinois that killed six workers, in part because employees were not permitted to leave the building as a tornado approached.
In fact, Amazon's warehouse employees have reported so many labor violations that Senator Bernie Sanders has even gotten involved in the company's labor practices.
When a commenter pushed back on Collins' video, he claimed Carl was "taking part in his own exploitation and degradation" by allowing Christine to make him a "court jester."
That may be taking things a bit too far — Carl seemed to be having just as much fun making his dancing video as TikTokers have had watching it, and in today's world, it's hard to fault people for finding joy wherever they can get it.
Still, given what seems to be going on behind the scenes for Amazon workers, it's hard to fault people who find a video like this cringe-worthy.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.