Splitting the bill for a friend’s birthday dinner is par for the course, right? You might feel differently if that bill came to a whopping £3,500 ($4,600).
Faced with taking a share of this enormous bill, one man got himself into hot water at the table and on social media when he refused to contribute.
Vic Gotti, a content creator, posted an explanation on YouTube after the meal’s aftermath became a TikTok sensation.
In the viral TikTok clip, party members are seen arguing amongst themselves over whether splitting the bill is the fairest option.
While some want to treat the birthday girl to a free meal out, others don’t feel obliged to pay the average.
None seemed quite so incensed as the birthday girl herself: "Like it's my f**king birthday, why the f**k should I have to pay for something on my birthday?"
Gotti was one of those in the pay-for-your-own-meal corner, and could be seen yelling: "Y'all doing way too much.
"We didn't order all that. I'm not paying for this, baby girl."
Some took that as an admission of lacking the funds to split everything evenly. "What's the point in getting food if you can't pay for it?!” said another man in the video.
Gotti felt obliged to explain his stance in his subsequent YouTube video.
"I see that stuff is expensive, this is my first time in this restaurant,” he said.
"It's not even that I'm cheap, I just don't know what I want to order.
"I go ahead and I get the calamari and the Sprite."
He then turned to his friends to ask what they had ordered, with one saying he’d gone for duck tacos, calamari and a drink.
Others were tucking into lamb chop steaks and ordering champagne while Gotti stuck to his squid rings and Sprite.
It’s fair to say he was posting pretty meagre numbers compared to his pals.
He said: "Y'all wondering how it got up to $4,600."
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His version of events was contested by another partygoer, however, with one saying he was “drinking like he was out of the ocean”, and another suggesting he had downed the majority of a bottle.
In fairness, if the bottle in question was his Sprite then he was probably too busy belching to eat his fair share.
Gotti continued: "They kept ordering stuff.
"Ordering multiple desserts.
"We were having bottles of water, they were having bottles of wine!
"When the bill came, I said I'd pay for what I ordered and they proceeded to call me broke."
It doesn’t seem as though his video quelled his friends’ distemper, unfortunately, but he had plenty agreeing with him in the comments.
“If I get $100 worth of food I'm not kicking in $650,” said one person who saw it Gotti’s way.
“Coco is delusional if she thinks her friend should've been okay with paying $650 when he didn't order food that was worth that amount,” said another who sided against the birthday girl.
“Calling him broke because he set a boundary is wild. The boyfriend is a clown and did too much talking for me.”
Another added: “Honestly, I feel like this goes a lot deeper than dinner. To me, it comes down to showing respect to a long-standing childhood friendship. He tried to set a boundary and she walked all over it.”
Where do you stand on this one? Should Gotti have coughed up?
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Arman ZhenikeyevTopics: Social Media, US Food, Restaurants and bars, TikTok, YouTube
Rachael Davis