There have been countless times a game has comedically glitched out and been uploaded to social media. Often, these clips will be edited to enhance the comedic value, characterized as a meme. In a recent Reddit post, a Grand Theft Auto Online player witnessed an NPC and their car jump in mid-air to avoid crashing into them.
GTA 5 was initially released in 2013 with both a single player mode and the GTA Online multiplayer mode that allows players to experience the hustle and bustle of Los Santos as professional heisters. Although this game has been out for eight years, Rockstar Games continuously markets it with constant updates for the online mode, and is even releasing GTA 5 for next-gen consoles. There is no surprise that many people are still playing.
Redditor Da_Grilla posted a video in the GTA Online subreddit, accompanied to Madonna's song "Like a Virgin," where they show the player being run into by NPC's cars in different clips before showing one clip of the NPC car jumping in the air. The post's caption reads, "NPC goes out of it's way to... not hit me?" In GTA 5, often NPC's will crash into the player for no discernible reason; however, the NPC car at the end of Da_Grilla's clip neither swerves nor stays in place, but rather the car jumps so the player's car can swerve underneath and avoid crashing.
Da_Grilla's other posts include similarly edited clips of various video games including Rainbow Six and PUBG for their YouTube channel, as well as gameplay with friends. Although Da_Grilla's other posts get some interaction, their GTA 5 gameplay video has a so far received 8,000 upvotes on Reddit, with users continuously adding to the view count.
Comments of the post applaud the "synchronization" behind the clip's use of Madonna's song with her high pitched "hey" timed to the car's jump, and others find this glitch "hilarious." Da_Grilla's editing attracts a more general audience with Madonna's music, the vast GTA Online community, and no-context meme viewing, which would explain the large amount of views. Da_Grilla has also received comments that mention their post is inspiring and "deserves way more upvotes."
Although Da_Grilla had a large reception to their GTA Online video, this is not the first time the game has been noted for its glitches. Eight years on, GTA players are still finding all sorts of glitches to share on social media platforms, and with new content consistently coming out, there are bound to be more on the way.
GTA Online is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions are in development.