Who Is Jay Swingler? 'TGFBro' YouTuber Responds After Cementing Head In Microwave

Jay Swingler, the YouTube personality and social media prankster, gained worldwide notoriety this week after posting a video in which he purposefully lodges and "cements" his head into a microwave using the spackling paste, Polyfilla. Swingler laughed off the incident but conceded that the cement mix had solidified much faster than he'd anticipated.

Responding on Friday via his "TGFBro" YouTube account, the 22-year-old prankster with more than 3 million subscribers blasted the news media and for critics who lamented that their "tax dollars" paid for emergency services and firefighters to help free him from the viral video stunt. In addition to his TGFBro videos that have included him purposefully getting "stuck" in Jello, he sells "OBD" embroidered merchandise through his popular byjayswingler Instagram and @jayfromTGF Twitter accounts.

Swingler said that "zero point zero" tax dollars were soaked up by emergency services responding to his plea for help once it became clear his head was stuck in the microwave.

Firefighters in the U.K. criticized the social media prankster's behavior after they were called out to help free him from the “irresponsible” YouTube stunt that saw Swingler placing his head in a plastic bag in the microwave and then pouring seven bags of Polyfilla into the microwave oven, Sky News first reported. Firefighters from the West Midlands Fire Service can be seen helping Swingler remove himself from the microwave on the Dec. 7 YouTube video that currently has over 2 million views.

In a video "response" posted to his TGFBro YouTube channel on Friday, Swingler made light of the news coverage surrounding the now-viral video and the "abuse" he received for performing the stunt. Swingler explained part of how the stunt went awry, responding that "the heat from my head, going out into the Polyfilla, solidified a lot faster than I thought," he said in the YouTube video response posted Friday.

"If this was anybody else you'd probably go through a depression," he said, pointing out several Twitter replies and comments that were criticizing his video. Swingler blamed much of the criticism on sensational news stories that cause readers to be "triggered" by any stories involving emergency services.

Swingler and his frequent collaborator, Romell Henry, can be seen attempting to free Swingler before calling the ambulance crew. And when the paramedics couldn't help him, the West Midlands Fire Service was called. Sky News first reported that it took more than an hour for the crew of five firefighters to free Swingler from the microwave oven inside the garage of his home at Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, U.K.

Describing the incident, West Midlands Fire Service crew Watch Commander Shaun Dakin told local media outlet News Barrhead: "As funny as this sounds, this young man could quite easily have suffocated or have been seriously injured."