YouTube prankster thankful after rescue from microwave stunt

Some may call Jay Swingler a blockhead — but at least he’s a grateful blockhead.

The British YouTuber recently made headlines after a prank — in which he tried cementing his head in a microwave oven — went horribly wrong. He responded to the mishap in a video on Friday.

“You don’t know how grateful I am, I was so scared,” Swingler, 22, said after firefighters rescued him.

“You guys (fire department) are awesome at your job, and so are the paramedics. I appreciate you guys a lot,” he added in his TGFbro YouTube channel post.

Swingler’s plan to cement his head in the microwave using spackling paste took an unexpectedly bad turn when the substance solidified faster than he anticipated.

“The plan was literally to set my head in there, but not let it set complete. At one point it was like a thick jelly and I could keep it on my head and I could move the microwave standing up,” he said. “But, if I really wanted to I could pull it off and it would slide off cause the [spackling paste] was kind of like a thick jelly around my head.”

In the video posted Thursday, Swingler is seen covering his head with a plastic bag and using a tube to breathe, before sticking his head into a microwave oven filled with the paste. His friend then uses a hairdryer to speed the paste-hardening process.

But Swingler’s breathing is cut off when he stands up with the microwave attached to his head after the paste has solidified. His friends are able to chisel away at the plaster just enough to provide some space for him to breathe until help arrives.

“I was panicking, and I was telling them, ‘I’m about to die.’” Swingler says in the video.

Swingler said he’s “never appreciated life so much,” after the fire department spent about an hour chiseling and hammering away at the hardened paste to free his head from the kitchen appliance.

To some, it may have seemed a funny scenario, but the first-responders were not amused.

“All of the group involved were very apologetic, but this was clearly a call-out which might have prevented us from helping someone else in genuine, accidental need,” said Watch Commander Shaun Dakin, officer in charge of the West Midlands Fire Service crew who responded, USA Today reported. 

However, looking back on the whole escapade Swingler said it’s a story that people are going to remember.

“I had a damn microwave stuck to my head. Do you know how many people are going to remember that? In comparison to, do you know how many people are going to remember that news article that said, ‘Man stole toy from a shop, gets a fine,’” he said.  

The YouTube star also addressed the backlash on social media, in which people called him anything from an “idiot” to a waste of emergency services time.

“Literally, 100 percent I should be fined and I’m expecting a fine,” Swingler said. “I don’t know whether that’s going to happen or not, but I’m expecting a fine. And I’m more than happy to pay it, and I’m more than happy to donate my money to the people that helped me that day.”

As of late Friday, the video of Swingler getting his head stuck in a microwave has been viewed nearly 2 million times. 

Benjamin Brown is a reporter for Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @bdbrown473.

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