Like many others, Shane and Hannah Burcaw, aka “Squirmy and Grubs” on YouTube, jumped on the recent accompanied with a video of them being decidedly unathletic. The couple posted of Hannah Burcaw dipping her husband into a pool with the text: “Sorry to announce I did not qualify for the 2024 Olympic diving team.” “This kind of self-deprecating humor is right up our alley, so we joined the trend and posted a quick video of me ‘diving’ into a pool, except my dive is obviously just Hannah gently lowering me into the water,’” Shane Burcaw wrote on August 8 on the couple’s social media accounts.
“(It’s) mildly silly at best, kind of dumb at worst, but it fits the trend perfect.” Shane Burcaw has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic condition that leads to muscle weakness and wasting thanks to diminished motor neurons, which help control muscles, according to past . For most of his life, since he was 2 years old, Shane Burcaw has used a wheelchair.
When Shane Burcaw wrote his post updating his followers about the viral Olympic video, it had almost 20 million views — what sounds like “a major success.” Yet, when he read the comments on the post, he felt discouraged and saddened. “Let me share some of the brutally ignorant and aggressively hateful things people felt compelled to say on this lighthearted and fun video I created,” he wrote.
“The very top comment says, ‘It’s always important to wash your vegetables,’ referring to me as a vegetab.