It's the kind of life event fairytales are made from. . . usually. The public marriage proposal at a music or sporting event can capture all the joy and romance or turn you into an instant meme or an unrequited viral star.
While most times the "will you marry me?" is followed by "yes!", as Coldplay taught us in 2025, when you bring your romantic life into a public setting, humiliating results can occur from time to time, which is what happened in Brisbane at the weekend.
Psych-rock, hip hop stalwarts Bootleg Rascal where in town to kick off their national tour, and one of their local fans decided it was the perfect get-down-on-one-knee-with-ring-in-hand moment.
In a video shared to their socials titled 'PDA gone wrong', it features a young lad holding a microphone onstage telling the crowd how he and his partner met at a Bootleg Rascal show a couple of years ago.
"My partner and I came to watch Bootleg Rascal about two, three years ago," he says, before calling out, "Jamie, where are you? Can you come up onstage quickly?
"I thought, you know, they're our favourite band, and I thought today why not, maybe today is the time."
He then drops to his knees as 'Jamie' shakes her head, attempting to get him to stand before turning and fleeing the scene. Ouchie ouch!
A person wearing a Scooby Doo costume then enters the frame to console old mate, who looks genuinely gutted.
The comments section was flooded with sympathy. "I don't think I have ever felt that awkward on stage in my life!!! 💔💔💔." Another posted: "Hurts to watch." While someone nailed it: "Scooby said YES 🙌."
However, not everyone was buying this as a genuine soul-crushing moment especially when the clip segues to Bootleg Rascal's break-up song and newest release 'Reasons', the post also plugging the group's remaining tour dates.
"First show off to a great start. Not sure we'll be helping out with another public proposal for awhile," the band posted. "In any case, tour continues this week."
Others commented they felt it was orchestrated content. "Damn. Bro didn't even plan a speech other than 'we saw this same band two years ago so it's probably the thing to do ae'. Romantic stuff 😂."
Another was more blunt. "Amazing way to advertise the tour."
