chair girl toronto

Chair girl is Toronto's new favourite meme

Toronto chair girl Marcella Zoia is having one heck of a week. Whether it's an amazing week or a terrible week depends on who you ask.

The 19-year-old dental hygiene student and bottle service worker was charged with mischief—endangering life, mischief—damage to property over $5,000, and [being a] common nuisance on Wednesday after surrendering to police for her alleged role in a truly dangerous stunt performed on camera over the weekend.

Zoia has been released on a bail of $2,000 under the not-so-strict conditions of having to live with her mom and stay away from those who helped her film the now-infamous "Toronto chair toss video."

She'll be back in court on March 22 and faces the very real possibility of serving time in jail for her crimes, but honestly doesn't seem too fazed in light of all the attention she's been receiving.

Photos and videos of the young woman leaving a Toronto courtroom yesterday show her smiling, laughing, even joking with reporters about going to Starbucks (sorry, Starbucks).

If the entire city didn't hate her before, well... they certainly seem to hate her guts now—and for every person disgusted by Zoia's reckless actions there's another one finding plenty of humour in the character she's become.

And in her situation...

And in her appearance...

And in the myriad photos ripped from her now-deleted Instagram account that are being reposted by people pretending to be Zoia herself.

You live & learn

A post shared by Marcella Zoia Official (@marcella.zoia) on

Why the chair-tosser has so effectively captured the attention of an entire nation remains unclear (though that is, perhaps, the most interesting part of the entire story).

All we can say for certain is that thousands of people are obsessed with Zoia right now, and they're letting it be known loudly and clearly through their comments, clicks and creative works.

No 15 minutes of hate-fame would be complete without the full-on internet meme treatment, and Toronto is delivering for the chair girl in spades.

As expected, some are comparing Zoia to another young woman who went viral a few years back for doing something illegal (but way, way cooler) in the sky.

Some guy went so far as to visit the site of the chair-throwing incident near York and Harbour Streets in blizzard-like conditions, for the 'gram.

You know it's bad when you're getting dunked on by the Royal Canadian Navy...

And dogs...

Hey, it could always be worse... or, as some fear, better.

Lead photo by

Things by Dru


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