Julia Reel's Hubbard Inn Drama

Submission 12,198

Overview

Julia Reel's Hubbard Inn Drama refers to a controversy involving TikToker Julia Reel (@juliareel) allegedly lying about being assaulted by a bouncer at the Hubbard Inn in Chicago, Illinois, which resulted in a video response from the business on TikTok that included surveillance footage. Reel alleged that she was "manhandled" and thrown down a set of stairs by the bouncer. The surveillance footage seemingly revealed that she was lying. Discourse and memes about the drama surfaced on other social media sites like Twitter / X. Reel made her TikTok account private to curve criticism in March 2024.

Background

Sometime on or before March 12th, 2024, TikToker^[1] @juliareel (since private) posted a video in which she alleged that she was thrown down a flight of stairs and manhandled by the security team at the Hubbard Inn in Chicago. One of the earliest screen recordings and responses to the video was posted by TikToker^[2] @malmanlaw on March 12th, who showed that it was posted 16 hours beforehand and had roughly 6,400 likes. @malmanlaw's video (in which he gave Reel legal advice) received over 251,000 plays and 4,900 likes in three days (shown below).

Hubbard Inn's Response

On March 14th, 2024, the Hubbard Inn posted a video to TikTok^[3] that attempted to debunk Reel's claims. The video compared Reel's story to surveillance footage from the night of the incident. The footage seemingly revealed that Reel was lying and exaggerating, showing the bouncer escorting two women out of the business without a physical altercation, including no one being pushed down a set of stairs. In one day, the Hubbard Inn's TikTok received over 870,400 plays and 74,300 likes (shown below).

After the Hubbard Inn's response video, Reel made her account private.^[1]

Online Reactions

The video shared by the Hubbard Inn was reposted by X^[4] user @DanteTheDon on March 14th, 2024, who asked, "wtf is wrong with this world?" His post received over 1,300 likes in a day (shown below). @DanteTheDon also quoted his own post later in the day on X,^[5] attaching the Hubbard Inn's video, gaining over 5,000 likes in the same timeframe.

The video was also reposted by X^[6] user @ImMeme0 on March 14th, who speculated, "If Hubbard Inn lost any business because of her they might just sue her instead," receiving over 11,000 likes in a day (shown below, left).

The post received viral replies, like one shared by X^[7] user @LabrishTeaor on March 14th, 2024, who wondered, "Why did she tell such a lie that would be easily provable by video footage?" gaining over 1,400 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Users on TikTok also levied reactions to the developing drama, such as TikToker^[8] @oyasumisushi on March 15th, whose video on the topic received over 57,700 plays and 3,000 likes in three hours (shown below).