“Funny Till It’s Not”: Humanoid Robot Fights Back After Man Pushes It, Sparking Concern

• A CCTV camera at a Russian electronics store captured the moment a humanoid robot appeared to kick a customer who shoved it
• The robot, named Syoma, was deployed by Volga Store in Saratov as a customer-facing tech consultant
• The footage quickly spread online, leaving viewers both amused and unsettled

A robot at an electronics store in Saratov, Russia, did something no one expected. When a customer shoved it, the machine shoved back.

CCTV footage shared by Al Arabiya English on TikTok on 2 September 2026 shows a man in a black T-shirt pushing the humanoid robot after it avoided his handshake. What followed surprised everyone watching. The machine stepped forward and delivered a kick. Store staff moved in quickly to restrain the unit before the situation could escalate further. No one was reported to have been seriously injured in the incident.

Meet Syoma, the robot consultant

Read also

Soshanguve learners strike after allegedly writing exams inside buses due to limited classrooms

The robot at the centre of the confrontation is called Syoma. Volga Store had been using it as a customer-facing consultant, a tech-forward move meant to modernise the in-store shopping experience. What the store likely did not anticipate was Syoma becoming an internet sensation for an entirely different reason.

The footage spread rapidly, drawing reactions that ranged from laughter to genuine unease.

Watch the moment Syoma kicked back:

Social media reacts to the clip

Viewers in the comments were not short of opinions:

@L wrote:

“This is the beginning of our death.”

@da_black_knight said:

“It’s funny till it’s not.”

@Bubba called it:

“Cyberbullying.”

@Eraser added:

“Bro even have the intro.”

More articles about humanoid

• A security guard filmed a humanoid robot walking upright across a Chery dealership driveway in South Africa on 6 August 2026.
• South African inventor Nzuandile Zulu built a humanoid robot capable of holding conversations in all 11 of South Africa's official languages.
• A humanoid robot stunned crowds after outperforming human marathon standards in a high-profile race, and raised big questions about how far robotics has really come and what that means going forward.
• A humanoid robot spotted moving around North-West University during an engineering career day left students and social media users amazed.

Source: Briefly News