You’ve probably heard of Cameo, the online service that lets you pay celebrities to create video messages for friends and family.
Hire rap star Waka Flocka to wish your cousin a happy birthday or NFL icon Brett Favre to give your son some encouragement before football tryouts. Hell, you can even get Hollywood legend Gary Busey to scream at the camera and bestow his wisdom upon you.
But one Cameo customer named Cheyenne has flipped the script, using the website to carry out one of life’s more uncomfortable tasks: the breakup. And who better to do it than 90s music phenom and bleach-tipped titan Mark McGrath?
A video posted to Twitter on Sunday shows the “Every Morning” star gracefully letting a dude named Brayden know that the whole long-distance thing isn’t working out and that Cheyenne just wants to be friends.
Oof.
https://twitter.com/slasherdaysaint/status/1198622798027067394?s=20
McGrath starts by stating that the message “is a little difficult for me to say cuz it’s the first one of these I’ve done.”
Despite the precarious situation, McGrath gives Brayden, supposedly a big fan of Sugar Ray, a man-to-man that I’m sure he won’t forget anytime soon.
“She wants you to know that you mean a lot to her, you mean the world to her,” the singer says. “But she’s having difficulty staying in this long-distance relationship.”
The songwriter goes on to recount the difficulties he had with his wife at the height of his success, stemmed from being apart so often.
“She still cares about you a lot, you never know what the future may hold, and she still wants to be friends with you because obviously she cares about you very, very much,” McGrath said.
But the Sugar Ray frontman didn’t just have words for Brayden. McGrath also went on to give Cheyenne a light heckle for dumping Brayden while he’s working on his thesis.
“She wants you to know good luck on your thesis coming up,” McGrath added. “Probably not the best timing Cheyenne when he’s doing his thesis but I understand.”
McGrath’s video proceeded to go viral on Twitter, partly due to the fascination over Brayden’s mysterious thesis.
“Probably not the best time while he’s working on his thesis! Cheyenne!” Hahahaha thank you for this
— Stephanie Crawford (@scrawfish) November 24, 2019
Other Twitter users began crafting scenarios of their own in which McGrath could be used to deliver bad news.
“For 10 bucks and a bag of Pizza Rolls Mark will tell your grandma she’s moving into the nursing home,” Twitter user Launce Mustoe wrote.
For 10 bucks and a bag of Pizza Rolls Mark will tell your grandma she’s moving into the nursing home.
— Launce Mustoe (@launce3mustoe) November 25, 2019
Of course, Sugary Ray’s lyrics, often centered around love and other things that still existed in the 90s, were also peppered throughout the Twitter thread. And if you don’t get the references, open up your streaming music app of choice right now and become familiar.
I guess their relationship has… gone out the window
— BD (@BrandonDavisBD) November 25, 2019
When it’s over… is it really over?
— blick boynton (@Jedonfire) November 25, 2019
(to the tune of Fly) IIIIIIIIIIII just wanna die
— marshall lo (@firmlyclimactic) November 25, 2019
McGrath closed out the video by hoping that he, Brayden, and Cheyenne could meet up backstage one day to laugh about the whole thing. Personally, I think Brayden has been through enough at this point. Thankfully, the singer also made sure to bring up that thesis just one more time.
“Do, do, do, do your best on that thesis, man. I know it’s tough in the holiday seasons and relationships and all that stuff but you got big things ahead of you, bro!” McGrath said. “If you’re working on a thesis, you got a good life in front of you.”
The only question remaining is how exactly Brayden reacted to the news, but no one seems to know. My guess is that Brayden is still processing the fact that his childhood musical hero just informed him that he’s been let go. But Cheyenne has every right to move on with her life and if she needs Sugar Ray to do it, so be it.
Hang in there, Brayden.
Update 8:07am CT, Nov. 26: Alas, like everything online, this viral stunt appears to be … a stunt.
Anthony Scaramucci also broke up with Brayden on behalf of Cheyenne.
Bradyns girlfriend got back together with him and then broke up with him again using anthony scaramucci pic.twitter.com/utnhUytF1o
— hunter malik shabazz (@SeanAppalled) November 16, 2019
McGrath himself said he did it because he thought it was pretty obviously a joke.
You’re very sweet Sarah, but I just decided to roll with what I thought was a pretty obvious joke!
— Mark McGrath (@mark_mcgrath) November 25, 2019
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