You know that awkward moment when it comes time to split the bill? Well, this server broke down the dynamics of what it’s like when it comes time to pay for a communal appetizer like fries or nachos. It’s even more uncomfortable than you might think.
The viral TikTok was done in response to this comment, “people split the bill on a single dish?!” left under another one of Albert Cho’s (@eatlitfood) videos.
In the original TikTok, Cho, who seemingly works as a server, shares a list of people who, according to him, have a “special place” waiting for them in hell.
Among the people are people who try to split dishes on the bill, go out of their way to side-eye you, and reply “seen it” when you share a TikTok with them.
His follow-up video, which got even more views than the original, is in response to a person who was surprised that when a group of people go out, they’ll attempt to split the bill on a single item.
“I’m actually quite surprised at how many people are unfamiliar with people splitting the bill on a single dish,” Cho said.
He explains that he sometimes works on the floor of a cafe, and it “f*cking happens so much more frequently than you think it would.”
Recently, a situation at work exemplified how this usually goes down. A group of friends sat down at a table and ordered a serving of fries for everyone to share before ordering their individual meals.
When it comes time to pay, everyone will go up to the register and pay for what they got. Inevitably, the bill doesn’t get fully closed out because of the lone set of fries no one paid for.
Upon hearing that they still owe, the group, which had already started to disperse, starts looking at each other. That’s when the back and forth begins with people getting technical about who had a quarter of the fries, who just took a few, and who didn’t eat any.
“After like 45 seconds of like f*cking painful awkwardness, always always, one person of the group reached their hand and just says, ‘I’ll pay for it.'”
Cho describes this scenario as the person being akin to volunteering as tribute for The Hunger Games.
It gets dead silent among the group of friends, and when the person paying puts their card down, Cho makes eye contact with them, attempting to communicate through his eyes that the person needs to find new and better friends.
But, he finds that a few weeks later they all end up going back and repeating the situation all over again.
The video has more than 200,000 views and over 270 comments as of Thursday morning.
@eatlitfood Replying to @Maddie Brennan ♬ original sound – Albert Cho
In the comments section, some people shared observations about how race or social class may influence the group’s behavior.
“Do you find this happens with Asians? I’ve literally never had this issue with Asians but always with white people,” a top comment read.
“This happens with my friends who have a mortgage or grew up privileged, they split to the cent,” a person wrote.
Other servers shared their own experiences.
“I’ve had 4 people split a single muffin,” a commenter wrote.
“I used to work in Hospo and 3 people tried to split a bowl of fries … BACK IN 2013,” another shared.
The Daily Dot reached out to Cho for comment via Instagram direct message.