You never want to be the guy getting kicked out of the strip club, but even more than that, you definitely never want to be the guy going viral for getting kicked out of the strip club. That’s exactly what happened to two friends in Melbourne recently, and now the whole world is laughing at this comedy of errors.
On Friday, January 30, two Australian men were ejected from Melbourne’s Bar 20. It was what happened outside, though, that garnered the attention of over 20 million viewers.
The viral video, originally shared by 7NEWS Melbourne, shows a man in a blue button-down shirt and khakis talking to somebody offscreen. Suddenly, a flying chair pummels the man in the back of the head, knocking him off his feet and face down into the pavement. The man he was speaking with, dressed in all black with an earpiece, walks into frame pointing and laughing at the two men who caused the altercation.
Violence has spilt onto King Street after two men were removed from a gentlemen’s club in Melbourne.
One of the men threw a chair which appeared to be aimed at security, hitting his friend instead. Get the full story on 7NEWS at 6pm. @paul_dowsley pic.twitter.com/7hZ3L0xuHq
— 7NEWS Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) January 31, 2026
The video, taken from CCTV footage outside the club, continues from the beginning as the man in blue is seen being forcibly removed by the bouncer. His friend, dressed similarly but without any hair, picks up the nearby stanchion in an attempt to hit the doorman who removed him. Intimidated by the bouncer approaching, the man goes to the neighboring Korean restaurant where he is seen grabbing a chair from the patio as another employee tries to stop him. From around the corner you see him throw the chair, which misses the bouncer and hits his friend square in the back of the head.
NEW: Man gets smacked in the head by a chair that was allegedly thrown by his friend outside a club in Melbourne, Australia.
The incident took place after the men were kicked out of the club.
One of the men went next door and grabbed a wooden chair during an argument with… pic.twitter.com/2U1wuIUbQ0
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 1, 2026
Now, Bar 20 co-owner Michael Trimble is revealing what actually went down inside the bar before the man went down outside. In an interview with the local outlet news.com.au, Trimble shares that it all started because of a bottle of beer.
Trimble says that the two men seemed to be trouble from the start, when they originally entered the bar around 9:20 p.m. on Friday night. One of them, presumably the bald man who threw the chair, said something :inappropriate” to the bartender who began to serve them. According to the co-owner, the bartender hesitated, considering whether to serve the two apparently drunk men to begin with. “He screamed, ‘just open the f—ing beer,” Trimble told news.com.au. They were asked to leave immediately.
“The whole incident went for about eight minutes,” Trimble said, “it was a crazy long time for an ejection. Most people are out the door 30 seconds after being asked to leave. But this whole thing just went on for ages. They just refused to leave.”
Frustration on both sides of the argument came to a head outside, when the two men chose not to walk away. Trimble shared that the man hit by the chair actually came back to the entrance to Bar 20 in an attempt to apologize for his and his friend’s actions. “He actually changed his tune and was apologetic,” said Trimble.
But it was too little too late. During that exact moment, the apologetic man was smacked in the back of the head by the flying chair, causing an outburst of laughter from the doorman.“I’ve seen plenty of instances of people making clowns of themselves in my 12 years in this industry,” said Trimble, “but nothing with the potential to go viral like that.”
Bar 20 got two things out of the whole ordeal: a whole lot of worldwide attention and the flying chair in question, which was gifted to the bar and now sits proudly outside where the incident occurred. “It is a piece of memorabilia now,” said Trimble, “we have dressed it up in a Bar 20 shirt and put it on display.” Employees have certainly been having fun with the newfound fame, posting memes and jokes about the affair throughout the weekend.
