Liputan6.com, Jakarta A video of a professor in the United States canceling his class has gone viral on social media. The reason was that he and his students couldn’t focus after hearing the news that world-famous singer Taylor Swift is engaged to football player Travis Kelce. This funny moment quickly caught the attention of people online.
The professor in the video is Matthew Pittman, an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He teaches Advertising and Public Relations. In the clip, he announced in a dramatic way that class was canceled because the big news had distracted everyone. The video spread quickly and got many reactions and comments.
At first, many people thought the class cancellation was real. However, it was later revealed that it was just a staged “skit.” Professor Pittman created the moment as a fun and creative way to teach his students, using pop culture to explain important lessons in his subject.
Behind the Viral Class Cancellation Incident
Professor Matthew Pittman, a lecturer at the University of Tennessee's College of Communication and Information, Knoxville, is the person in the viral video. In the clip, Pittman tells his students that they can’t focus anymore after hearing the surprising news about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement. He jokingly says, “Taylor and Travis just got engaged. Because of this news, I can’t focus, you can’t focus. Class is canceled, go home. We need time to take this in.”
His statement, delivered in a mix of seriousness and humor, quickly spread online. Many people praised him for his creative teaching approach and for connecting with how students might truly feel about major celebrity news. The video became a trending topic, especially among Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce fans.
Taylor Swift's Educational Moment
However, the truth behind the class cancellation was later revealed. Professor Matthew Pittman explained that it wasn’t a real cancellation, but a planned act. His goal was to create a smart and relevant teaching moment for his Advertising and Public Relations students.
In a follow-up video, Pittman stated that the staged moment was intended to illustrate how social media responds to major cultural news. This way, students could see directly how information spreads, how celebrities influence people, and how the public responds—important lessons in advertising and public relations.
University Clarification
The “class cancellation” video, uploaded on Wednesday (August 27, 2025), received more than 215,000 likes on Professor Pittman’s Instagram and millions of views on other platforms. At first, many social media users thought the event was real. They filled the comments with praise, calling him “the best teacher” and “a dream professor.”
Later, the university cleared up the confusion. The Tombras School of AD & PR at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where Pittman teaches, explained that the video was part of his creative way of linking pop culture with class lessons.
The university confirmed that Associate Professor Matthew Pittman, who researches social influence, thinking patterns, and social media, used Taylor Swift’s engagement as a teaching example from an advertising and PR angle. He showed how this pop culture news could be connected to class, even through a playful skit. The incident also shows the power of social media in spreading information and how people can interpret the same event in different ways.