Teen’s pre-prom tumble becomes video seen ’round the world

WELLINGTON — A Welling ton teen’s stumble down the stairs before going to a high school prom with his girlfriend has gone viral with 11 million people seeing the tweet and national media picking up the story.

Austin Cooper, 18, was walking down the stairs with Jordyn McManus, 16, before going to her Dreyfoos School of the Arts prom Saturday night when one misstep sent him tumbling down a few stairs.

McManus, who also lives in Wellington, posted the video on Twitter the next morning with the c aption “At least we tried #Prom2017” and it has circulated the internet — even making appearances on TV shows such as “Good Morning America” and “Today.”

Jordyn’s father, Terry McManus, is still getting a kick out of showing it to all his friends.

“Once you know that Austin fell down and he didn’t get a scratch on him other than his ego, it’s hilarious, man,” he said. “He comes around the corner like he’s James Bond and then he’s James Klutz.”

McManus posted the video because she thought it would be funny, but they never expected that it would blow up this much. It has more than 111,000 retweets and close to 300,000 likes.

“When something goes viral, it goes insane,” Terry McManus said.

But that same insanity brings in people who want to profit off it.

Jordyn McManus was contacted by multiple viral marketing companies that wanted the family to sign a contract giving them the rights to the video for a share of the profit.

Because Jordyn is a minor, she needed to have her mother or father sign their name, but Jordyn