Women add their photo to Cracker Barrel mantel in viral video

There’s really no telling how or why a video will go viral. Sometimes it’s because of shock value and other times it’s because it pulls on the heartstrings. In this case, it’s probably because a wholesome prank made millions of viewers laugh.

For best friends Ashley Zessin Shelly and Darcy Gashweiller, they didn’t expect a silly prank video that they posted to TikTok to go mega-viral. Gashweiller (@gash.79) posted a TikTok video on June 11 (shown below) where Shelley can be seen nervously sneaking over to the mantel with a framed photo of the two of them. It also shows the friends posing by the picture frame and a close-up of the black-and-white photo, which is of the two women dressed as farmers. Really, it blends right in!

To date, the video has 4.4 million views and 26 thousand comments, most of them praising how great the prank is.

A follow-up video from Gashweiller was posted the next day showing that the picture frame was still on display. In the caption, she asked if she can get an employee discount.

It, too, has garnered thousands of views. It appears that the staff at this particular Georgia location had not noticed.

The restaurant chain is known for its cluttered Americana decor. More than 1,000 tools, photographs, signs or toys are on display in each of its 660 locations. Each item is an original although every Cracker Barrel has specific items included, such as an ox yoke and a horseshoe hanging over the entrance and a traffic light above the bathrooms. There are more than 90,000 pieces in the Cracker Barrel Décor Warehouse.

“We’re just two moms who were having some good fun,” Ashley Zessin Shelley told “Today.”

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