--- description: Birthdays are tough for all of us title: Watch This Little Boy Struggle Mightily to Blow Out His Birthday Candle image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch This Little Boy Struggle Mightily to Blow Out His Birthday Candle by [Rachel Handler](/author/rachel-handler/) ## Rachel Handler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 22, 2015 5:17 PM CUT by [Rachel Handler](/author/rachel-handler/) ## Rachel Handler Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 22, 2015 5:17 PM CUT Birthdays can be profoundly stressful. Each year, we’ve all got to contend with planning a party, picking an outfit, coming to terms with being one step closer to death and blowing out our birthday candles with grace and confidence. Young Marty was able to master the first three tasks, selecting his parent’s kitchen table as his party locale, sporting a classic crew-neck tee with an orange-and-blue color palette and maintaining a state of zen as he confronted his own mortality. But when presented with his birthday cupcake, Marty found himself unable to blow out the candle. Though Marty pressed on in the face of adversity, making several attempts at extinguishing the flame using only his lungs, he almost lit himself on fire in the process, ultimately requiring assistance from his parents. At least he’s learning early that birthdays are usually a bit of a letdown. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4044559/little-boy-birthday-candle-struggle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4044559/little-boy-birthday-candle-struggle/"},"headline":"Watch This Little Boy Struggle Mightily to Blow Out His Birthday Candle","datePublished":"2015-09-22T17:17:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:25:04.033Z","description":"Birthdays are tough for all of us","url":"https://time.com/4044559/little-boy-birthday-candle-struggle/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Handler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-handler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4044559/little-boy-birthday-candle-struggle/","name":"Watch This Little Boy Struggle Mightily to Blow Out His Birthday Candle"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"5 Elements of A Viral Video","description":"5 Elements of A Viral Video","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vgQtqA8c/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-22T13:42:30.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vgQtqA8c.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4044559/little-boy-birthday-candle-struggle/","duration":"PT1M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4044559/little-boy-birthday-candle-struggle/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```