Keke Palmer’s SXSW panel took an unexpected turn on Friday when a stranger rushed the stage and dropped to one knee in front of her, ring box in hand, in front of a live audience.
Palmer was in the middle of hosting a live recording of her podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, alongside her I Love Boosters co-stars Demi Moore, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu and Eiza González when the man appeared at the stage, knelt down and grinned up at her with a ring box propped open.
Palmer’s jaw dropped. Her co-stars reacted with a mixture of shock and laughter.
She handled it with as much grace as the situation allowed.
“I can’t marry you. I don’t know you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, sir,” she told him, which got a laugh from the crowd.
Assuming it must be a set-up, she asked whether the whole thing had been planned in advance, but staffers and audience members near the front quickly made clear it wasn’t.
Someone called out that she needed security.
Her security guard came out from backstage, and a SXSW staffer stood up from the audience, both moving to escort the man away.
He didn’t budge easily.
Still on his knees, he insisted she wanted to say yes. Several audience members shouted back that she very much did not. He was eventually led out of the event space, with Palmer visibly concerned for him and apologetic towards her co-stars and the crowd.
Taylour Paige, ever quick on her feet, leaned into the moment.
“Sorry to this man,” she said with a laugh, a nod to the iconic meme that features Palmer herself.
Once the dust had settled, Palmer joked that she’d assumed Ashton Kutcher’s hidden camera show Punk’d must have been revived.
She then asked the room to take a collective breath, the audience obliged with a round of applause, and the podcast recording got back on track.
