Justin Leff

Editor-in-Chief

Milken junior Jordan Pardo ’18 didn’t expect to become a viral hit when he attempted to follow the senior class in their Heely shoe revolution. For those not familiar with Heelys, they are a shoe company that makes shoes with wheels, allowing users the option to roll instead of walk. While the trend was popular in 2005, Milken seniors have brought it back to Milken in 2017 by wearing Heelys on Fridays.

Now whether it was bad juju for reaching above his class and infringing on a senior tradition that brought Pardo to the ground, or just poor coordination, you can watch the original video below to decide for yourself. Below the original video, you can find the meme that is going viral, made by former Milken student Jeremy Becker. The fall has become a huge hit at Milken and has drawn the attention of the famous comedy Instagram account Hoodclips and the Youtube channel The Best Fails. An interview with Pardo on this whole experience follows the videos.

What motivated you to go heeling?

Well, I’ve always seen people wear them and I wanted to give it a shot. I asked Adam Krekorian for his and he gave them to me. You know everyone makes it look so easy, so I thought I could do it. [Jordan] Kalman ’18 told me not to do it because they are hard to ride which motivated me to do it even more. I always love to prove the haters wrong. So I took a shot and it clearly failed.

Did it hurt?

It did for a second, but I have experienced worse hits than that.

When did you realize this had the potential to become viral with meme videos?

I knew this was gonna be big right when Kalman got it on video.

Do you like the meme videos being made?

At the end of the day people can make whatever they want. I like them because they are funny and even if it wasn’t me, I’d still laugh. It’s all sh*** and giggles. From what I understand people aren’t laughing at me, they are laughing with me.

What have you learned from this experience?

Believe it or not, when I fail I always try again. I never give up on something and right here is the perfect example of me not giving up. I have been working on it and will soon be able to do it. The major thing I take away is safety. I know we are able to laugh about this now, but I easily could have fallen on my head and cracked it open. I have to be more careful and try to not put myself in danger. I’m glad this was able to be very funny and everyone is having a good laugh. We need to be able to laugh and have a good time. One of my favorite quotes is from Jim Valvano: “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day.” We should build off this and incorporate it into our lives.