It was no small feat for Mike Smalls.
The Florida influencer is getting dragged online for bizarrely camping outside during Hurricane Helene so he could film the deadly storm.
Originally posted to the video platform platform Kick, footage of the “Jackass”-style stunt is currently blowing up across X.
“I knew some may find shocking, entertaining, dumb, comical or even off-putting,” the 26-year-old Tampa resident told Jam Press.
The Darwin Award candidate frequently films himself performing outlandish and harebrained feats, including trolling people at McDonald’s and on college campuses.
For his latest challenge on September 26, Smalls attempted to brave the Category 4 storm, which battered the Gulf Coast last week, leaving more than 160 people dead across six states including Florida (although White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall said the toll could be as high as 600).
This makes Helene the second deadliest hurricane to pummel the mainland US in the last 55 years, eclipsed only by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Nonetheless, Smalls, who was in the coastal neighborhood of Bayshore when the storm rolled in, said he wanted to film himself camping out during the hurricane because it was “something creative and new [that] the live streaming industry hasn’t really seen before.”
“I’ve always liked storms growing up so the idea of ‘storm chasing’ really appealed to me,” the live streamer explained. “And I’m always looking for ways to increase viewership just like any other creator.”
Accompanying footage shows Smalls trying to pitch a tent during the ferocious winds, which reportedly blew at up to 130 mph in some areas of the Sunshine State.
“I’m going out with bang,” declares the Floridian while huddled in his tent as it’s getting buffeted by the howling gale.
Moments later, the clout-seeker can be seen calling for help as water threatens to engulf his campsite.
The Florida man was subsequently slammed for the only-in-Florida stunt with one critic writing on X, “Anything for views these days.”
“Bro’s risking his life for some views, this generation’s cooked,” commented another.
Many were surprised that Small wasn’t a dead-streamer. “The money’s not worth it if you not alive,” observed one.
The amateur storm-chaser wasn’t surprised by the reaction, which he said was exactly how people responded to most of his “live streaming stunts.”
“Many people gave me props for the creativity and guts to pull something like this off, while others thought this was a cry for attention, very dumb, or something I did ‘just for views,’” said the daredevil. “Although I knew that regardless of the reactions I got from the audience, and what people’s opinions were, people would still tune in just to see what would happen.”
Plus, while the stunt certainly wasn’t for the faint of heart, Smalls claimed that he did “extensive research” before attempting to pull it off.
“I knew the hurricane was going to be bad, but not that bad in my area if I timed it perfectly,” the bozo insisted. “It was just enough to get a highly suspenseful live stream in.”
“There were parts of the stream in which I was a little worried but overall, I’m an entertainer and a very calculated person,” said Smalls, who claims he would’ve never done it if his life was “at risk.”
The content creator said that ultimately, the storm challenge was worth it, declaring: “I’m a relatively small streamer and this was my biggest stream I’ve ever done.”
This wasn’t the first hurricane-related stunt for Smalls, who filmed himself earlier that week standing in an inundated parking garage for a video flippantly titled “all the Ubers are unavailable.”
Helene, combined with an ancillary rainstorm in the days preceding its landfall, dumped over 40 trillion gallons of water across the south in just five days, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Water Center director Ed Clark.
“That’s an astronomical amount of precipitation,” Clark said.
