When the historic riverboat Harriott II attempted to dock in its usual spot on the Alabama river on Saturday, the resulting argument between its co-captain and the boating group blocking the way turned into an instantly viral brawl — one that ended with at least three people with criminal charges, dozens of clips posted to social media, and an instant deluge of memes.
But the real winner of this whole thing, at least in the eyes of social media users, is a single plastic folding chair.
According to police and multiple videos of the incident (which are shot from almost every conceivable angle), the fight that is now being referred to as the “Montgomery Brawl,” began with a simple request that the riverboat captain, Damien Pickett, move the boat. The Harriott II was attempting to dock in its usual spot along the city’s Riverfront Park, but was blocked by a pontoon filled with boaters.
After trying and failing to get the pontoon to move for almost 45 minutes, Pickett took a small boat to the dock to speak with the boaters. The group was “hostile” and began attacking Pickett, Darryl Albert, the Montgomery Police Chief, said in a press conference.
But while Pickett, who is Black, began the fight outnumbered by the boaters, who are largely white, several Black bystanders came to his defense, eventually turning the fight into an all-out battle. Footage captured by bystanders shows a Harriot II employee jumping in the river and swimming to Pickett’s aid, a group of three men cantering up to join the fight, and even a pair of white Crocs being turned into anklets by the sheer force of body slams.
But the clip that seems to have resonated with people the most is footage of an older Black man indiscriminately hitting the white assailants over the head with a simple white folding chair, WWE-style.
Since videos of the fight were first posted online on Saturday, the amount of content inspired by the Montgomery fight has ballooned.
And while the hashtag #montgomerybrawl has more than 100 million views on TikTok and thousands of videos analyzing each angle, slowing down the fight to focus on each individual punch — even giving the fighters clever names, like AquaMayne and Scuba Gooding Jr. —, the one throughline is the comedic importance of the folding chair.In the past five days, the chair has gone from a one-off prop to the hero of the whole fight.
One day after the fight, several Montgomery residents posted photos of themselves at the dock, holding up what appears to be the same chair in the video. At least two TikTok users have even claimed that the chair has gotten so popular that stock is low at Montgomery’s Walmarts and Targets. Singer Joy Oladokun even got the folding chair tattooed on her arm.
