“He rolled in silent… then absolutely launched himself.”
In what might be the most unhinged moment in scientific history, legendary physicist Stephen Hawking has allegedly been spotted sending a full backflip at a local skatepark — in his wheelchair.
Yes, the man behind A Brief History of Time just wrote a brief history of air after absolutely sending it off a halfpipe.
The clip (which has already racked up millions of views across TikTok, Instagram, and probably your nan’s WhatsApp group) shows a wheelchair — yes, THE wheelchair — gaining speed before launching into a near-perfect flip, while a group of stunned skater kids scream in disbelief.
“I thought it was a prank or deepfake,” said one teen who filmed the whole thing. “But then he actually flew. Like, got air. For real.”
“I believe I have transcended gravity.”
In the viral clip, Hawking appears to type something into his voice synthesiser moments before takeoff. The message?
“Let’s see what gravity’s really made of.”
He then speeds up the ramp, hits the launch point, and spins into a clean backflip that has left both scientists and skaters equally baffled.
The moment he hits the peak of the jump, it looks like time just… pauses.
“I swear he hovered. Like mid-air. Man looked like he was in the Matrix,” another witness said.
Sadly, the landing didn’t quite stick.
Full send, questionable landing
As expected when you flip 180kg of wheelchair, brain, and pure cosmic energy into the sky, the landing was rough.
Eyewitnesses report the wheelchair “exploded like a Transformer hitting a pothole,” and parts of it are “still rolling down the hill somewhere.”
But even after faceplanting into the laws of motion, Hawking wasn’t fazed.
“That was… exhilarating,” his voice box allegedly said as the crowd ran over.
No injuries reported, by the way — just one broken chair and 40 broken minds.
The internet is losing it
Within minutes, #HawkFlip and #GravityWho were trending on X and TikTok.
Even Neil deGrasse Tyson chimed in:
“We’ve spent centuries trying to understand the universe. Stephen just said ‘watch this’ and flew into it.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe to buy Hawking a “Skate 4 Physicists” wheelchair has already raised £27,000, and Red Bull is rumoured to be in talks.
“Pain is temporary. Viral is forever.”
One thing is for sure — Hawking’s legacy just got a plot twist no one saw coming.
He gave us black holes, quantum theories, and now… one of the most iconic moments in skatepark history.
“Physics is just a suggestion,” read one caption under the viral video.
“And Stephen Hawking just declined it.”
