Máximo Thomsen Fainting

Submission 3,986

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About

Máximo Thomsen Fainting refers to a viral video of the Argentinian homicide suspect Máximo Thomsen fainting after hearing the verdict of life imprisonment for the homicide of Fernando Báez Sosa in January 2020. The fainting video went viral on social media as people shared parody videos about him fainting in response to being convicted of murder.

Origin

On January 18th, 2020, an 18-year-old Argentine law student, Fernando Báez Sosa, was beaten to death at the Le Brique nightclub in Buenos Aires by a group of eight rugby players.^[1] The incident attracted significant national media attention due to the violent nature of the crime and the extensive footage spread on social media.

On February 6th, 2023, the Tribunal Criminal N.° 1 de Dolores, Argentina, sentenced former rugby players Máximo Thomsen, Luciano Pertossi, Enzo Comelli, Matias Benicelli and Ciro Pertossi to life in prison for the murder of Sosa.^[2] After hearing the sentencing, Máximo Thomsen fainted. The video below, posted by the news program La Nacion,^[3] received 342,919 views and 1,700 likes in one day.

Spread

Online, people reacted to the fainted rugby player with memes, often accusing him of faking the scene. On February 6th, 2023, Twitter^[4] user @bolsitadedia_ tweeted a video of a woman pretending to faint during a local TV show, saying "Thomsen will never be her." The post received 452,700 views and 37,400 likes in one day (seen below).

Twitter^[5] user @MartinBeninca1 also made fun of Thomsen's fainting spell with an Avatar clip. The post garnered 260,400 views and 18,500 likes in one day (seen below).