Teen Trapped In Giant ‘Barney’ Head Needs Assistance From Local Firefighters After Prank Goes Wrong

A teen girl in Trussville, Alabama, needed the assistance of local firefighters to help her escape the giant Barney head she had become trapped in, after an attempt to prank her friends at a church sleepover went horribly, and hilariously, wrong.

When 15-year-old Darby Risner attended a slumber party at her church on Sunday night, it was just supposed to be a regular sleepover, however, upon finding the giant head of what used to be a full Barney the Dinosaur costume, the would-be prankster couldn’t help herself. It wasn’t the first time she’d donned the Barney head — back in seventh grade, the teen had worn the whole costume to a school dress-up day — but she hadn’t thought about it since then. Until, of course, she spied the head in the church’s basement, and decided to use it to scare her friends.

The teen put the Barney head on, and waited for her friends to come downstairs, hoping to scare them. Unfortunately for Darby, when the group of girls found her wearing the purple Barney head, they weren’t exactly as scared as the teen had hoped they would be, reports the Washington Post.

“I didn’t scare them at all. They just laughed.”

After a good giggle session, the girls all sat down on a couch to relax, Darby still sporting the giant purple head. As the group of teen girls talked and hung out, the head, unbeknownst to Darby, had begun to shuffle its way further down her body. She later said that while sitting on the couch, she peered through the eye holes on the Barney head to look at her phone, and it was the small movements she made while looking at her phone that caused the head to slide down. In the span of 15 minutes, the head slid down her slight, 95-pound frame, first over her shoulders, then down her arms, and eventually coming to rest at her elbows.

When the teen had decided the joke had run its course, and she was getting too hot inside the Barney head, she tried to take it off. It was then that Darby had realized the joke was on her — she was stuck. Panic set in, and the teen implored her friends to get the head off. The tugging began, with some of the girls grabbing her feet, while others yanked on the head, and, as is par for the course with teens, at least one documented the struggle on social media sites Snapchat and Twitter.

When the girls failed at releasing Darby from the clutches of the smiling Barney head, one of them went to get their mother. After the mother’s fruitless attempts to yank the head off also failed, they slathered Darby’s arms with Vaseline, which also didn’t work. As a last resort, the mother called the local fire department, who said they could come and rescue the teen from the giant head, but it would have to be an official call — firetrucks, sirens, lights, the whole shebang. Darby opted instead to get a ride to the fire department, so the girls and the mom piled into a minivan and set off to see the professionals — Barney rode shotgun.

According to Today, when Barney and friends entered the Trussville fire department, the firefighters on duty burst into a fit of giggles, said Lt. Vince Bruno.

“When they walked in, you couldn’t help but start laughing. We tried to be professional, and she was a little distraught, but we had to giggle about it.”

After 45 minutes inside the sweltering Barney head, the firefighters managed to snip several little cuts into the base of it, and free the sweating, sore, but grateful teen. Both her arms, and her ego, bruised, Darby was thankful to finally be rid of the Barney head. The teen has also become a bit of an internet sensation after her ordeal. Memes have been made about her, local and international TV stations have been calling, and a Twitter campaign to get Darby on Ellen has been created.

#DarbyForEllen @TheEllenShow pic.twitter.com/KXmwJH49Ip

— Matt Mitchell (@ALostrich) June 21, 2016

The teen prankster is enjoying her sudden fame, but has almost certainly learned a lesson, and the Barney head has been returned to the church basement, where it belongs.

[Photo by AP Photo/Donna McWilliam]