Sometimes I forget I Don’t Have Health Insurance

It may not seem easy to believe that jumping four stories into a pine tree and landing nuts first on to a chain link fence could be classified as fun, but to homegrown stunt legend, Khyler Vick, this is just the type of shenanigans that constitutes a good weekend and a golden contribution to the ether of viral video clips. 

You may recognize Khyler from his other viral videos, such as when he front-flipped into a trampoline made of barbed wire or his multiple appearances on Vice. In these appearances, he participated in events like the Gathering of the Juggalos and collaborating with Pennsylvania stunt crew POR where he got hit by a car. In this article, I had the opportunity to sit down with Khyler to discuss his newest viral stunt and react to some of the comments left on the video.

What are you doing?

I'm going to read some of the comments to this video. The video of me jumping into the pine tree and landing on my nuts. On a fence. Okay. Let's see. Let me find some funny ones.

It has how many views and how many followers?

Dude, in six days it has 7 million views and 4800 comments. So a lot of these are pretty positive. The first ones are from my friends. Greatest tree jump of all time also greatest unintentional nut shot of all time. Fucking, the fence saved your life. What the fuck? This is so sick! I love you, dude, but you need to chill.

Is it a blessing or a curse to be a public figure on the Internet? And why?

It's a curse, man. It's a curse. Oh, I wouldn't even call myself a public figure. That's crazy.

And how long have you been doing it?

I never really thought about, like, actually being a public figure. It's kind of crazy. I went from 30,000 to 80,000 followers in less than a week.

How did that happen?

Oh, you know, I just posted a crazy, cool video. Gnarliest video ever. Like, literally people are posting on their story; “This is the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life.” Like, “this is the gnarliest video ever. This is the craziest.”

Are you referring to the tree jump video?

Yeah. So this happened this week. The ol faithful tree jump. I posted the video this week. I filmed it two weeks ago, which I am still feeling the repercussions of landing on a chain link fence from 40 feet in the air. But yeah, to answer the question, how does it feel to be a public figure? Feels pretty fucking sick, dude. Everybody is following in my footsteps. You definitely should do what I do. (rolls eyes and laughs!)

How many social media accounts have you had banned or deleted?

I want to say I've had four accounts, three YouTube channels and one Tik Tok be completely terminated. I'm still working on YouTube because I like to put full length videos out there, but fuck tik tok, they can suck my dick.

So are you getting cool opportunities because of the internet?

I have been getting dope opportunities because of the internet ever since I started doing this since I was 16 years old. It comes and goes, you know, like when I was 16, I filmed with epic meal time, which is insane. They flew me out to L.A. I mean, I film TV shows. I've met some of my idols before because of what I do. Filmed some of the gnarliest, most fun stunts of my life because of what I do. You know, like, the opportunities wouldn't come if I was just sitting on my ass waiting for them to happen. So 99% of the shit I do, I have to do for free. But then cool opportunities come my way and then a small paycheck may or may not come to me, but I don't know the experiences and the people you meet are more than worth it. The friendships that I've made with like minded people from all over the world, people like me who love to do stupid stunts for fun or for a living. None of those opportunities would have been able to happen if I wasn't posting me nearly breaking my neck on the internet.

Tree jumping as an art?

Tree jumping as an art! Absolutely! Next question!

Talk about your most recent tree jump and then we will review the comments on the video.

Back to the art thing. What you think I do is an art? FUCK YOU! Because what is art, if not a form of entertainment and self-expression? And I'm expressing myself the only way I know how and I'm entertaining the masses while I do it. People are like, why, why, why? People want the why, but they don't want the how, you know, how am I able to do this? Willpower. (Laughs) People are like what's the goal here? Like, you see a parkour guy and, like, what's the goal is from him to jump from point A to point B and make it out alive. Whether he's doing a flip or whatever, whether it's a maker of fail. I feel like if you live, that's a win. Depending on how dangerous it is with like my line of work, people are asking what was the goal with jumping into these trees in particularly that tree jump? Of course, the goal was to fucking jump into the tree and hold on or be saved by the branches and get slowed down tremendously. Instead, I flew straight through the tree and landed on a fence nuts first, which in my opinion is the best way that could have ended. Nobody would give a fuck if I just landed in the tree safely and got down perfectly unharmed. Flying through that tree and just annihilating my body on this fence was fucking hilarious. There's so many layers to this idea too, because I'm jumping from a public space that was a crosswalk over a highway into somebody's yard, somebody's tree landing on somebody else's fence. Yeah, it's fucked up. It's not my shit to do, but it's art man. So let art speak for itself.

Did I even say anything right then. I was just. Rambling.

Do you get more hate or more love from posting shit like this?

Hmm. Do I get more hate or more love? I think I get personally more love sent to me directly, but with videos that go viral, that are in the millions of views, they get more hate. People don't understand. I think it's a mix of people being jealous that I'm getting attention for something as stupid as jumping into a pine tree. People also just not understanding. They think I'm just a fucking idiot, crack down on meth or I'm drunk or I'm just actually stupid. They like, you know what I mean? Like this guy or like people were saying things like, Good thing you can't reproduce, you know, like natural selection type of thing. I wouldn't say that's outright hate, but it's just a misunderstanding. And then there are the people that were like, I wish you would have died, bro. Too bad you didn't. I saw somebody that said, I wish you would have broken every single one of your bones in your body or something like that. So there are haters, but I think they're hating because they're doing it behind a screen. And it's probably funny to them. And that's fine. I don't choose to engage with people who are saying such negative things. But I do get a lot of love from strangers too, messaging me or commenting. There's like two ends of the spectrum of people being like, “Wow, this reminds me of CKY. That's awesome. Brings me back to the old days.” Or “You're just copying CKY! You're just a wannabe. This was already done 20 years ago.” So people can either  reminisce and be nostalgic over it or gatekeeping and be bitter about it. So I think the more popularity you gain, the more hate you gain. So staying underground is a blessing if you're trying to only get positivity.

All right, let's read the comments.

Okay, I'm going to read comments on this video.

‘Trees everywhere. Fear him.’

That's true. If they are near a ledge or a roof.

‘Duh Fuck? Gnarls Barkley, man.’ From Matt Pritchard.

Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah.

‘Damn, your ghost post this?’

It's like in the video, you just see me hit the fucking fence, roll over, and then it cuts. People don't know if I'm okay or if I even survived. So I thought that was good.

‘There's the fence we talked about.’

So many people prior to that video warned me that that fence is bad juju. Don't do it, dude. That fence does not make me feel good about this stunt you want to do.  So people were worried about the fence, and I wasn't worried.

You think you would have broken your leg or something if it wasn't there?

I think I could have had several broken bones if that fence wasn't there or if I would have landed on it a different way. The fence absorbed so much impact, bro. The way I was going was almost face first, I could have maybe landed on my feet and, like, got scraped up or I could have landed, broke my legs. I didn't know where I was. I had zero body awareness after I jumped because I just, like, flew straight through that tree and did a couple of tumbles. I didn't know which way was up, so I wouldn't have been able to brace myself for impact. I could have broken my hands or my wrists or my face even because I would have just splatted on the ground. I just got lucky that I landed the way I did on the fence. It almost looks like I did it on purpose because of how perfectly I just landed like that. But if I would have landed any other way, I could have broke ribs, could have broke my neck, could have broken bones in my face, could have had permanent brain damage, could have had internal bleeding. The fact I walked away with a back ache, swellbow and bruised balls is a miracle.

‘This is the craziest thing I've seen from you. The fence possibly saved your life.’

Then a lot of people had a debate. Most people do think that the fence saved me. But some people were like, there's no way that the fence helped. It was like, it's the last tree branch that's slowing you down. But it was a mix of both.

‘I can't believe you didn't hit the ground harder due to the weight of your balls.’

‘The fence is your biggest hater.’

I would disagree.

‘Your kid's going to be crazy looking. Got like three legs and a mustache as toddlers and shit.’

‘Bro this is next level.’

Chad Tepper. He left like three comments. He was stoked.

‘When her boyfriend comes home early.’

I got a lot of comments saying Rambo or First Blood, which was my goal with this stuff. I wore a Rambo t-shirt so it looked like I was all ripped with like a fucking gun sash and grenades and knives and shit. Because in the movie First Blood, he does this huge cliff jump into a pine tree  and eats mad shit.

Another another common comment is ‘What the fuck is Jeff Hardy doing?’ Or, ‘I thought this was Jeff Hardy’ or whatever. I don't know if you know, that's a famous wrestler with long hair who would jump from high shit.

‘Bro, that last branch came in clutch. The rest of that tree did fuck all the slow down.’

It's true. I hit a gap in the tree that I had scoped out earlier that I knew there were no branches there. I had to aim for the right side of the tree to actually hit branches that would catch me. But from the height that I was at and the angle, I couldn't really tell exactly where that gap was, and I just penciled right into the spot that I shouldn't have jumped into and literally missed like all the major branches. That would have saved me a lot of trouble. And then luckily there was one last branch of the at the ending to save me, which flipped me over onto my nuts from like eight feet up in the air straight to the fence.

‘Thank God that sharp metal fence was there to break his fall.’

Thank God.

‘I feel like he sped up once he hit the tree.’

And that was definitely not the plan.

‘Who knows the reasoning behind this?’

‘Well, someone has dented the fence now.’

‘Good thing his nuts broke his fall. This could have ended a lot worse.’

‘But why are you tagging parkour in this low IQ? Reckless, No brain display of human behavior.’

‘Bro thought he is Jackie Chan. Pretty tight.’

I didn't think that prior, but, you know, looking at it. Yeah. I'm not nearly as talented as Jackie Chan. So the fact that people are even comparing me in the slightest is quite a compliment.

‘I know that leg got scratched. Then they commented again. Oh never mind the legs. He lost his balls.’

Yeah. Dude, I hit balls first. My legs are fine. Like the fact that I hit nothing else. I didn't touch the ground. I didn't hit anything first except my balls and a metal fence. Gold. Perfect.

‘Everyone called that fence when you scoped it out. Not a fuck given’

I didn't think the fence was an issue.

‘I watched this like 40 times and each time I'm like, What the fuck?’

‘Alcohol has to be involved in this situation somehow.’

And I replied, Three years sober. I never had a drink prior to do stunts anyway.

Is that a big misconception?

Oh yeah. A common misconception is that I have to be loaded to do these stunts. That I have  to be super drunk or high on meth or crack to be able to. But I'd like to see somebody who's really drunk or high on meth or crack do something like that and come out alive or as okay as I did. Like, it definitely skews your ability to make proper judgments. Yeah, I'm fucking jumping four stories high into a pine tree. There's no real good judgment there to begin with. But maybe I'm just lucky. But I don't need that extra push. I don't need that extra encouragement that drugs and alcohol give most people. I find that to be sort of like cheating as if somebody were taking steroids and hitting home runs or like a UFC fighter taking steroids. It's not fair. So if you have to get wasted to be able to do something crazy, very you did something crazy, but you needed that little extra push. Yeah. I don't like that.

It gives the stunt an excuse.

It does. It does. Because in my head, you wouldn't have done the stunt if you weren't drunk. Like I have people coming up to me, Dude, I want to film with you, man. I want to get hit by a car. I want to do this and that. And they're always drunk when they're coming up to me. And I'm like, Let's have this conversation when you're sober and let's do it when you're sober. And then let's see how enthusiastic you are about wanting to do that. There's no way. It's liquid courage for a reason.

‘My unemployed friend on Tuesday afternoon.’

And wouldn't you know it, it was on a Tuesday afternoon when I filmed that?

‘I mean, the fuck was he trying to do? Genuinely confused.’

I think that's 90% of the people in the comments were probably so fucking confused what was going on and why. I saw comments that were like, I thought he was going to be jumping into a pool. Next thing I know, it's just a pine tree and he lands on a fence.

‘Somebody ain’t having no more kids.’

You feel like this is your most legendary stunt so far?

Absolutely. I think this is the most legendary stunt that I've ever done and could quite possibly be the most legendary stunt I will ever do, which is crazy. I mean, after over a span of 12 years, it's about time I got a legendary stunt like this one. But I'm still pretty young. There's a huge possibility for it to be crazier.

With this tree jump video I knew almost right away after we filmed it like this is a golden clip. This video has to fucking go viral, which you almost are never certain on what video's going to do wel.

Have you always been the type of person to put your shit out into the world immediately afterwards?Or do you hold clips for a while?

Dude I had to hold this clip for a week. Like am I one to hold on to footage? Sometimes. I waited a whole week to post the tree jump video, which was killing me. I wanted to post it right away, but I kind of wanted to make sure I presented it well, and I don't know, let myself breathe for a minute.

Do you have thought behind your posts?

Absolutely. I have thought behind what I post and everything. There is strategy involved with how I post and when I post. I'm not going to post something at fucking three in the morning. I never go into a post knowing or hoping that it's going to go viral. Of course I hope it goes well. I hope people like it and are entertained by what I have to show them. It's free content. So the fact that anybody's complaining is absurd. You don't have to watch it. You really don't. It's free entertainment. Y'all are pissed. So whatever. But when I first started filming, I didn't even know what to do with the footage. When I was a kid, I was just collecting all this footage until I realized, Oh, you make movies. And I put all this footage into home grown DVD’s.

‘I can get you health insurance.’

The caption in the video was, Sometimes I forget I don't have health insurance and I really don't have health insurance. And sometimes I do forget about it because I'm doing really frightening things that could end in stitches or surgery and broken bones.

‘Do it again.’

No!

‘This is so dumb.’

You're right.

‘You have fence seeking nuts, apparently.’

Yeah. My nuts really sniffed out that fence.

‘5050 straight to the sack.’

Dude I don't even  know how to respond to these comments. I'm so desensitized to the dumb shit people say to me. Some of them actually make me laugh out loud. I'll be by myself reading these and like I get a little chuckle. Some of these get my heart racing and get me heated like that was so mean. I just want to like, reply back, go to their comments, or go to their profile and see what I can dig up on them. And just like fire back. But I don't.

‘Now that's a nut shot.’

‘Is this person still alive?’

‘Who cares?’ Somebody commented underneath.

I want to reply to some of these people but I like the mystery behind it all.

‘Try again. I have faith in your supernatural abilities.’

That's just all luck, bro.

‘You clearly didn't grab a branch on the way down homie.’

Dude, I tried. I really tried. It was not easy.

‘Internal organs have left the chat.’

Somehow my internal organs are still intact. I got lucky, although some of my external organs didn't make it. My balls.