In January 2026, a video circulated online purportedly showing a man wearing a viking helmet and costume using a bathtub on wheels to flee U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis.
A network of social media pages named either Strange AI or @RealStrangeAI first posted the clip on Jan. 15, roughly one week after an ICE agent fatally shot 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Renee Good on Jan. 7.
The manager of the accounts shared the alleged footage on Facebook (archived), Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, with the Facebook post alone receiving millions of views. The video featured overlaid text reading, "ICE chases protestor in Minnesota," and graphics similar to a breaking news TV segment. The chyron at the bottom read: "Police Chase: Bathtub Viking. 15 ICE agents in pursuit. Protester at large."
In the following days, numerous other social media users also shared the clip. Political news website Mediaite (archived) reported that Neera Tanden, who was a domestic policy adviser during former President Joe Biden's administration, reposted (archived) the footage before later deleting her post.
In short, the Strange AI (or @RealStrangeAI) network noted across its account handles and display names that its content was generated using artificial intelligence (AI) software. Additionally, a manager of the network said via email that they used OpenAI's Sora 2 AI tool to create the inauthentic video. Therefore, the clip was fake.
Meanwhile, Tanden said via email: "I thought an AI video that looked a lot like an authentic video that was taken of ICE personnel tackling someone in an animal costume. I later saw that it was fake and deleted it." Her statement referenced an authentic clip (archived), that also circulated following Good's shooting, showing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) police detaining a man dancing in a fox costume.
Chasing down the facts
The Strange AI user labeled the footage as AI-generated on both TikTok and YouTube. The text caption for the latter twice featured the word "parody," providing an additional hint that the clip was not authentic (emphasis in bold ours):
ICE agents sprinting after a protestor riding a BATHTUB on wheels is something you can't prepare for.
The live news angle, the snow, and the sheer absurdity makes this feel like a parody sketch.
Is this a protest… or a winter sport?
Follow for more unreal "breaking news" moments and internet chaos.
#Viral #Funny #Comedy #Meme #BreakingNews #NewsParody #Minnesota #Protest #PoliceChase #Chaos #FunnyVideo #Trending #Shorts #Reels #FYP #InternetCulture #Unreal #CaughtOnCamera
Across the network's social media accounts, the manager of the pages repeatedly noted, through bios and account names, that their content was AI-generated or digitally created. For example, the Facebook Intro read, in part: "My content is all AI generated and edited by me." The accounts also featured many other AI-generated scenarios, such as ICE agents chasing a furry and chasing an old lady.
There were numerous signs the bathtub video was AI-generated. For example, the viking man's bathtub showed no signs of being able to accelerate, brake or steer. Similarly, the so-called ICE agents were not wearing standard uniforms and the chyron graphic read "POVART" — not a real TV network — and the time "4:06 PHM" (instead of 4:06 p.m.), with the "M" displaying illegibly. Further, batons magically appeared in the hands of some agents at the end of the clip, despite not being visible at the start.
For further reading, we previously reported on ICE agents detaining special education classroom assistant Christina Rank following a confrontation with the agents in her employer's parking lot in a Minneapolis suburb.