WHEN Mairi Muir accidentally fell 14 feet through an open cellar hatch, she thankfully emerged with little more than a bruised ego.
Unbeknown to the barmaid, from Midlothian, Scotland, it would make her a viral video star and lead to her rubbing shoulders with showbiz A-listers in Hollywood.
His fortunes changed when a colleague secretly submitted CCTV footage of Mairi's 1997 blunder to hit ITV blooper show You've Been Framed.
The programme, which was axed this week after 33 years, changed mum-of-two Mairi’s life forever and much to her surprise she’s still recognised today.
She told The Sun: “It’s mad but I’m quite proud that it’s still being talked about nearly 26 years on, people recognise me for it all of the time even now.
“The video just keeps coming back, I’ve been told I’m on TikTok now. I’ll be 70 and my kids will be like, ‘That’s my mum falling down the stairs again’."
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'Secretly sent to You've Been Framed'
The funny fall occurred when Mairi was working a shift at the Unicorn Bar, in Dalkeith.
While pulling a pint for a regular, she was "distracted" watching the funeral coverage of Princess Diana on TV.
Mairi was “so engrossed” with the emotional procession that she didn’t hear her cousin warn that she was going to open the cellar hatch nearby.
“I was too busy watching the television and pouring a pint. I took a step back and down I went,” Mairi told us.
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“It was quite a deep drop, it was around 14 feet, with wooden stairs too, which I bounced off before hitting the concrete floor at the bottom."
Mairi was winded but laughed it off, thinking it was just a bad moment that would soon be forgotten.
Badly bruised and covered in scratches, she hobbled into the pub the next day to find it “completely empty” – but soon heard giggling from the cellar.
Mairi's unfortunate fall had been caught on CCTV and her colleagues were “laughing hysterically” at the video.
“I’ve always been able to laugh about it and because I wasn’t hurt too badly it became a standard joke for a long, long time,” she said.
I remember thinking, 'I'm sitting here in an £8 Matalan dress with all of these stars and I'm feeling great'
“If I’d broken bones maybe I wouldn’t be happy watching the fall but it was hilarious and everyone else found it funny too.”
One year later, Mairi was contacted by the team at You’ve Been Framed because her colleague had secretly submitted the footage.
She agreed they could use the video and was invited to ITV’s studios, in Manchester, to be in the audience.
Despite the video being at Mairi's expense, she claimed to never receive the £250 offered by the show for funny clips.
Instead, it was paid to the colleague who submitted the video – and he put the money behind the bar for them all to get drinks.
Mairi's blunder was played multiple times on You’ve Been Framed and was regularly voted the number one clip for years – but unbeknown to her its popularity was about to soar.
All-expenses paid Hollywood trip
In the decade that followed the 1997 blooper, streaming video platforms like YouTube launched and the clip went viral online.
In 2007, Mairi received a “call from Hollywood” asking her to appear on the hit US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
The next morning, she and her mum were flown out to Los Angeles where they were put in the luxurious Roosevelt Hotel, famed for hosting the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin.
Mairi recalls: “We went out there with nothing other than the money in our bags and they paid for absolutely everything, they couldn’t have made us feel any more welcome.
“We stayed in the Roosevelt Hotel, everything was paid for – from the minibar to anything we ate right down to a pack of chewing gum I bought in a shop.”
On the day of filming, Mairi rubbed shoulders with actors appearing on the show, including Rupert Everett and some of the cast of the 2006 film Smokin' Aces.
“I was living in a daze at that point, I was being treated like royalty,” she recalls.
"I was meeting all of these big stars and they were looking at me like I was a star too. It was surreal experiencing that level of fame."
“I had my own dressing room with a name plaque on the door, which I took home with me, and inside there were big sofas and all of these croissants.
“I had my hair and make-up done, drank half a bottle of vodka for Dutch courage and went on the show feeling a million dollars.
“This sounds so silly but I remember thinking, 'I'm sitting here in an £8 Matalan dress with all of these stars and I'm feeling great.'"
On the show, Jimmy Kimmel’s team parodied Mairi’s video with a fake skit that imagined what could have happened when she disappeared down the hatch.
In the slapstick scene filmed from the cellar, a chef prepares a grandiose wedding cake and carries it up the stairs only for ‘Mairi’ to fall onto it.
She collapses into the cake in the clip, knocking over the man and several shelves in the process.
Mairi added: “Amusingly, some people believe that video is what actually happened and I have to explain that it was a parody scene.
“I’m like, ‘No, that’s not me. I wouldn’t be so stupid to fall onto a cake’ but people think it’s real.”
'Never made a penny'
Despite appearing on You’ve Been Framed countless times and racking up thousands of views on YouTube, Mairi hasn’t earned a penny from the footage.
“With the copyright situation, I don’t know what happened but somebody is quids in somewhere,” she told us.
While it didn’t make her rich, Mairi is still recognised for the clip nearly 26 years on and has become somewhat of a local legend because of it.
“Not a day goes past that someone doesn’t mention it to me in the street. It even happens when I’m picking my son up from primary school,” she says.
“People still talk about it now. I hear them telling their kids, ‘That’s the lady who fell down the cellar’ and showing them the video too.
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“It’s got lots of views on YouTube and just last week my older brother told me I’ve reached TikTok now too. It’s hilarious that this video keeps going viral again and again.
“It's crazy but it brings back a lot of nice memories, I like to say it’s my wee claim to fame, even if it was just me falling down the stairs.”
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