I'm Ronnie Pickering

About

I'm Ronnie Pickering is a video remix series featuring a clip from a viral video in which a man boldly proclaims himself as "Ronnie Pickering" during a heated road rage incident in Warwickshire, England.

Origin

On September 27th, 2015, YouTuber HHS uploaded a video titled "Ronnie Picking Road Rage C*nt," in which a man driving a red car aggressively engages with a motorcyclist on a road. During the incident, the driver repeatedly asks the cyclist "Do you know who I am?" before loudly proclaiming "I'm Ronnie Pickering!" 7. Within 48 hours, the video gained over 1.5 million views and 2,300 comments. The original video was subsequently removed, but several mirrors have since been uploaded to the site.

Spread

That day, Redditor rob_76 submitted the video to the /r/unitedkingdom^[1] subreddit. Shortly afterward, Redditor krytyl reposted the clip to /r/videos,^[3] where it gathered upwards of 5,400 votes (92% upvoted) and 1,600 comments in the first two days. On September 28th, YouTuber Simon Balch uploaded a mashup of the Pickering clip with the music video for Christina Perri's 2010 pop song "Jar of Hearts" (shown below, left). The same day, YouTuber Mark Clews uploaded a video featuring the 1978 hard rock song "Who Are You" by The Who combined with clips from the Ronnie Pickering video (shown below, right).

On September 29th, The Daily Mail^[2] published an interview with Pickering, in which he apologized for his behavior but claimed the motorcyclist was a "muppet" who was "baiting" him.

"I'd like to apologize for my outburst. I am not an aggressive guy. He was baiting me so I thought I would give him a few of my thoughts."

In addition, the article revealed that Pickering was a former amateur boxer, who was known as "One Punch Ronnie" according to a friend.

Pub Fight

On April 25th, 2018, the Daily Mail^[4] reported that a video of Pickering in a fight with Rob Clayton at the Wawne Ferry Pub in Hull, England. In the video (shown below), Clayton punches Pickering in the face, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. Pickering maintains that Clayton surprised him with the punch to the temple, and after falling, got up and went back into the pub.

That day, YouTuber Père Noèl posted the video. Within one week, the clip received more than 11,000 views.

The following day, Clayton told the Daily Mail that he apologizes for the fight.^[5] "I am a family man. I'm a genuine lad," he said. "I work hard, full-time, to provide for my family. I've always worked. I know I should have walked away that night, been the bigger man. If I see Ronnie, I will offer to shake his hand[…]It wasn't for fame."

That day, the Daily Mail uploaded video of the punch. Within one week, the video (shown below) received 8,000 views.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References