YouTube video of a man falling into the Saco River is trending, commenters confused

You will usually find the same types of videos on YouTube’s trending page. For example, today you see The Ellen Show, music videos, and some political explainers. Last night, there was a video that didn’t seem to fit in.

The video, “Saco River Epic Bridge Jumping Fail” uploaded by Mark Hicklin, is around four years old. It shows a man jumping off of a bridge and getting caught on a support beam, making him fall a little harder than he expected.

Between the comments about the video being filmed vertically, commenters asked why the video was trending? After all, it was uploaded in August 2013 and has around 255,000 views.

YouTube’s help forum says:

“Trending considers view count — especially the rate of growth in views — and where views are coming from, but many other signals also contribute to determining what’s trending.”

Many commenters asserted that Reddit is responsible for the video trending four years after its upload. But, a quick search of Reddit doesn’t reveal a thread where the video appears.

Specifics on the algorithm for “Trending” on YouTube are not available, according to the forum:

“We treat all channels equally and do not favor any specific creators. We do not accept payment for placement on Trending. We don’t talk about the exact details of the algorithm to prevent abuse of our systems.”

Whatever the cause may be, enjoy the simplicity of a man falling into a river that is partly in Maine.