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/GbaPjQCabtpic.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.