Hand Scanner Video Fail — Split image of man scanning hand on TV login screen beside students mimicking the gesture on a whiteboard

Hand Scanner Video Fail

2024viral videoclassic

Published October 23, 2026

Hand Scanner Video Fail is a March 2024 viral clip showing Makassar Mayor Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto pressing his palm against a television as if it scanned his handprint, only for a video player's UI to flash onscreen and reveal the animation was pre-recorded. The clip from a Makassar city government TikTok hit over 4.1 million views in three days and sparked Indonesian edits placing the mayor's hand on Genshin Impact login screens and Blue Archive fan art.

indonesian memes fail memes photoshop memes political satire memes backfire memes

Overview

The joke rests on the gap between the staged biometric theatrics and the exposed video player controls that appear when the mayor taps the TV, revealing the ensuing animation was a timed clip rather than any touch-sensitive scanner1. Indonesian fans turned the single gesture into a copy-paste format, dropping the mayor's outstretched hand into screenshots of mobile games and anime art35.

Typical edits fall into two camps. Photoshop gags swap the TV behind his hand for a game's login screen or a character portrait, playing on the idea that the mayor is clumsily poking a UI he does not understand4. The second camp is hand-drawn: artists redraw the exact pose with fictional characters standing in for the Mayor or the handprint graphic67.

Origin & Background

Platform
TikTok (origin) / Reddit and Facebook (viral spread)
Date
2024

On March 1st, 2024, the Makassar city government TikTok account @infopemkotmakassar posted a promotional clip for a new building permit program called SIMBG1. In the video, Mohammad Ramdhan Pomanto, the Mayor of Makassar in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, walked up to a television displaying a handprint outline and pressed his palm against it, triggering what looked like an unlock animation. A video player UI briefly flashed onto the TV when his hand made contact, exposing that the scan was a pre-recorded clip rather than any touch-sensitive hardware3. The original TikTok hit more than 4.1 million views within three days1.

How It Spread

On March 2nd, 2024, Redditor bigbackclock7 reposted the video to r/maybemaybemaybe, where it collected over 9,800 upvotes in two days2. Indonesian gaming communities picked up the format within 24 hours.

On March 3rd, 2024, Facebook user Nan Nda posted an edit to the "Genshin Impact Indonesia Official" group showing the mayor's hand pressing a Genshin Impact login screen, drawing more than 1,200 reactions and 300 shares in a day3. The same day, user Saebrin uploaded a cruder edit to the "Arena of Valor University Indonesia Terbuka" group that placed the mayor's hand on an AoV character's chest, which hit over 8,500 reactions and 1,700 shares5.

Fan artists also redrew the pose by hand. Facebook user Surya shared an illustration based on the video that got more than 2,200 shares in two days6, and user Mas Yu posted a redraw featuring Aru from Blue Archive to the "Blue Archive Indonesia" group with 5,600 reactions and 2,100 shares in one day7.

Timeline

2024-03-01

The Makassar city government TikTok @infopemkotmakassar posts the original SIMBG launch video featuring the fake hand scan.

2024-03-02

Redditor bigbackclock7 reposts the clip to r/maybemaybemaybe, where it gets over 9,800 upvotes.

2024-03-03

Facebook edits placing the mayor's hand on Genshin Impact and Arena of Valor screens go viral in Indonesian gaming groups.

2024-03-04

Fan redraws featuring Aru from Blue Archive and other characters circulate on Facebook art communities.

Frequently Asked Questions