‘I’d rather embarrass myself’: TikToker defends viral MRT matcha spill post
A TikToker who received flak for filming himself after spilling his matcha drink on the MRT has defended his actions in a post, explaining that he wanted to “take away the power from people to embarrass” him by posting about the incident himself.
Wilfred Lee, who goes by @wilfredleeck on TikTok, posted a video on June 14 showing himself holding an empty cup while on the train, with a puddle of green liquid at his feet that appears to spread as the train moves. The caption read: “How much aura did I lose for spilling my matcha on the train”.
Speaking to Stomp, Lee said that the paper bag holding his drink had torn due to the condensation, causing the spill.
The post drew sceptical responses from netizens, some of whom argued that he should have cleaned up the mess instead of filming it.
Lee shared a follow-up video on June 17 addressing the criticism, saying that he “had nothing” on hand to clean up the spill.
“So I decided to just own it and stand beside it, because it was embarrassing enough. I didn’t want to run away because I think that would be even more embarrassing,” he explains, expressing gratitude for other commuters who placed tissues on the floor in an attempt to contain the mess.
Lee says he informed station staff about the incident after alighting at his stop and apologised for it.
Wanted to ‘take power from people’ to embarrass him
Addressing comments questioning why he recorded the incident and shared it online, Lee says: “Instead of other people recording me and posting me online and embarrassing me, I’m going to do it myself and embarrass myself online.”
He adds that he wanted to “take that power from people” to embarrass him and chose instead to “own” the situation.
Lee also takes a jab at the “haters”, pointing out that their response reflected more on them than on him.
“It says more about you than it does about me,” he adds.
“People just love to blame someone else for their wrongdoings and feel like they are superior.”
Before posting the June 17 follow-up video, the content creator had uploaded two other videos about the incident, seemingly poking fun at AI-generated content related to the spill. One of the posts was later shared on the SMRTRabak subreddit, where it garnered hundreds of upvotes.
Netizens divided over TikToker’s response
Lee’s explanation, which garnered over 40,600 views, received mixed reactions.
Some netizens were dissatisfied with his response, arguing that he “could have followed the staff to help clean up the mess”.
Others were supportive, sharing similar experiences of paper bags giving way while carrying drinks.
“Blame the worst quality of the paper bag. It’s okay man. At least you did your job,” one netizen chimed in.
“Matcha or not, I enjoy your content and reviews. Haters be gone!” another encouraged.
In a separate incident on June 10, a woman’s Luckin Coffee delivery order splattered over her doorstep after the paper bag it was in gave way.
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