The Diet Coke and Mentos Video Guys

Internet Celebrity

Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe are the two friends whose videos of erupting soda bottles were an Internet sensation in 2006. Their video titled Experiment #137 showed the two men, dressed in lab coats and goggles, dropping Mentos candies into 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke and calmly observing the resulting fountains of foam. The two men are both New Englanders: Voltz (the older balding one) is a trial attorney in Massachusetts, and Grobe (the younger bearded one) is a juggler and entertainer in Maine. After their first video became a hit online, Voltz and Grobe made other vidoes and also crossed over into television, appearing on Late Night With David Letterman and other shows around the world. Business Week reported in 2007 that sales of Mentos had shot up 15% after the videos became popular.

Extra credit: The chemical reactions filmed by Voltz and Grobe are a real-life phenomenon, not a trick. Their videos begin with the disclaimer, "Nothing but Diet Coke and Mentos!"