Kid who went viral after dropping a hot dog gets the education of a lifetime
Four-year-old Matthew Hoobler went viral for dropping his dog at a White Sox game.

A tasty major league baseball hot dog.
Four-year-old Matthew Hoobler went to his first major league baseball game on August 14 and sat in the first row with his father and 2-year-old brother at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field. The Block Club Chicago reports the family was there to see the visiting Detroit Tigers, the dad’s favorite team, play the hometown Chicago White Sox.
During the TV broadcast, the announcers caught the boy eating a large hot dog when, oops, it slipped out of the bun and fell to the ground. The boy reacted to the mishap by giving himself the ultimate facepalm.
"Oh, the horrors!" and "Oh, the humanity," the announcers exclaimed when the frankfurter hit the floor. Video of the dropped dog went viral, with more than 2.3 million people seeing it after it was shared by the White Sox.
\u201cAbsolutely brutal \ud83e\udd26\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\u201d— White Sox Talk (@White Sox Talk) 1660507980
Reporters at Block Club Chicago tracked down the family and learned they lived in the suburb of La Grange, Illinois. After their identities were discovered, The Wiener's Circle, a legendary hot dog stand on Chicago’s north side, invited the boy for all-you-can-eat dogs and lessons on how to safely hold one in a bun taught by Chi-town’s dog-eating experts.
The Wiener's Circle is known for being a raucous place for people to chow down after a night out in Chicago. The staff is famous for hurling insults at customers or “curbside abuse,” as they call it. It’s also notorious for the $20 “chocolate shake” that offers a lot more than dessert.
\u201cWe\u2019ve crowdsourced pops via @Twitter and will be providing all you can eat hot dogs for his \ud83c\udf2d-less boy and his best buds. Pops is clearly an @tigers fan, maybe we should make him dress up in a 1919 black Sox uni? @shane_riordan @fromthe108 @ronnychieng\u201d— The Wieners Circle (@The Wieners Circle) 1660669973
Little Matthew learned the art of eating a hot dog from the best in the business. He even managed to learn how to hold a dog upside down.
\u201cWe will be hosting the young lad and his family today, and working on his hot dog holding form. Da kid is apparently an expert on the digestive system, so look for him to drop some scientific knowledge for our fans later\u201d— The Wieners Circle (@The Wieners Circle) 1661096398
He also showed off his famous facepalm.
\u201cCheyenne taught young Mathew how to properly hold a hot dog upside down without it dropping\u2026more to follow!\u201d— The Wieners Circle (@The Wieners Circle) 1661116911
Young Mathew did sone Q&A with Cheyenne in da relish room, and showed off his facepalm 🤦♂️ signature move! https://t.co/GbaPjQCabt pic.twitter.com/LF3xIAfna1
— The Wieners Circle (@TheWienerCircle) August 22, 2022
Matthew’s dad, Rob, told Block Club Chicago that although his son gave a dramatic facepalm after losing his dog, he didn’t mind it all that much.
“He’s a bun fan. He likes the bun more than anything. So we got him a dog, and the rest is history,” Rob said. “When he started chomping at the bun, there wasn’t enough to hold the dog in place.”
Rob never even considered picking the dog up off the ground, even though the White Sox charge $5 for one.
“A lot of people in the comments mentioned the five-second rule,” Rob said. “Maybe at home, but not at a major league stadium.”
The Hoobler drop wasn’t the only major league hot dog debacle highlighted by The Wiener's Circle this week. A viral video with nearly 10 million views shows a man taking a hot dog, turning it into a straw and drinking his beer with it at a New York Yankees game.
\u201cThe most environmentally friendly, edible straw known to man. @OfficeHrsLive and @VicBergerIV please do something with this!\u201d— The Wieners Circle (@The Wieners Circle) 1661217002
The controversial move has been applauded by some and angered others. "Arrest this man," Nicolas Heller, posting as newyorknico, wrote on the original clip, which was later shared by Jomboy Media.
The Wiener's Circle applauded the move, noting that a hot dog is the “most environmentally friendly, edible straw known to man.” It also tastes a lot better drenched in mustard.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."