Stephen Mulhern made an AI video of himself with characters from classic Christmas movies and was mocked all the way to the North Pole and back

When ITV presenter Stephen Mulhern decided to indulge in some AI trickery with this video, he no doubt thought it would just be a bit of fun.

In it, Mulhern poses for selfies with a range of characters from Christmas movie classics like It’s A Wonderful Life, Elf, The Holiday and Love Actually.

I’ve been sneaking into a few of my favourite Christmas films! Which one of these is your favourite? pic.twitter.com/EIqYnkKIvo

— Stephen Mulhern (@StephenMulhern) December 17, 2025

However, the response was quick and brutal, with many people pouring scorn on Mulhern’s efforts, as well as using the video as an opportunity to question the value, if any, that AI brings to creative expression. Most egregiously, he doesn’t even put himself in the right Die Hard movie.

Here’s a selection of the best responses.

1.

Even in the AI fantasy, the actors don’t want to take a selfie with you? pic.twitter.com/XGzvPy1ivS

— Dan Wilbur (@DanWilbur) December 18, 2025

2.

I think this particular trend lays out the fundamental shitiness of AI media more than most other stuff, the inherent narcissism of assuming that everyone else is going to be excited as you are about watching a video where you are pretending to have met a bunch of famous people https://t.co/17uh0ICZZ9

— Rory Blank (@BoneJail) December 18, 2025

3.

You haven't done any of that you've just degraded yourself with AI Slop. Lame.

— Shane R (@ShaneKReynolds) December 17, 2025

4.

Like a toddler showing you what they’ve done in their potty. https://t.co/3FeemxsqH5

— Gilles (@OldGilles) December 17, 2025

5.

You should sneak into Hostel

— Justin Whang (@JustinWhang) December 18, 2025

6.

This is one of the reasons why I hate AI. Stephen Mulhern is casually using it to amuse his followers who think that this is “clever”. It’s literally artificial intelligence which means it’s not clever. The more AI is used, the less intelligent and creative we become. https://t.co/eGbpuBqdzr

— Katie (@katieisafilmfan) December 17, 2025

7.

It's bad enough @ITV put him in absolutely everything that's on actual telly but he's now putting himself in things he was never in to begin with. https://t.co/SAJYz2TJqV

— Derek Pakora (@DeathlyAcorn) December 17, 2025

8.

remember elf yourself, things used to be whimsical and fun and not raise the price of RAM and water. I don’t know if it’s just a generational thing but nobody our age or below thinks this kind of thing is cool https://t.co/bWbD0ybZtu

— dylan king (@dylaaanking) December 17, 2025

9.

Did you check in with Bruce and Jimmy’s family before posting this shite? https://t.co/qn7JS3Cew0

— Chris Tilly (@TillyTweets) December 18, 2025

10.

When I was around 6 I discovered Microsoft Paint and it felt very powerful to be able to generate all these images that I’d never be able to make on paper but I didn’t really have any great ideas about what to make so I would just type my own name in different fonts https://t.co/HqczCAMv9r

— Colin Fraser (@colin_fraser) December 18, 2025

11.

Accelerating the rate of climate change and building an imminently devastating economic bubble so British C-list celebrities can pretend to be ignored by the cast of The Holiday https://t.co/9npPg2VvHN

— Alex Fernandes (@oneferny) December 18, 2025

12.

You've literally just put yourself out of work. Well done.

— David Barnett (off writing a book) (@davidmbarnett) December 18, 2025

13.

A Good Day To Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. https://t.co/MRXp1VihX0 pic.twitter.com/iv5hRbMQg6

— Nathan Lang (@nathanllang) December 18, 2025

14.

Probably the one where they destroy all of the AI data centres and protect the jobs of actors, journalists, presenters and voiceovers. https://t.co/gMpC2tBgxR

— Kevin Hatchard ⚽️ (@kevinhatchard) December 18, 2025

15.

Cringe pic.twitter.com/Twzpt11gns

— Everything Everywhere TÁR at Once (@sh1ny_t0gepi) December 19, 2025

16.

AI is a good thing because, look, the finest minds of our generation are adopting it! https://t.co/a15HSeXayP

— Ralph Jones (@OhHiRalphJones) December 18, 2025

17.

Took us 20 years closer to the Heat Death of the Planet to produce this absolute slop. https://t.co/chsfqmfqmt

— Moder on the Dancefloor (@Jackalbion96) December 17, 2025

18.

On god cringe loser behavior. We need to shame people who do this cause you really could have been to those sets. You did this sitting on ur computer. We used to shame people who photoshopped themselves with celebs https://t.co/NeQc0zIfKe

— Fatiness Everdeen from district ATE (@UsedUpCumRag) December 18, 2025

19.

So I’ve seen like twenty of these videos of AI influencers and they are all grown men excited about faking selfies with movie stars. Save it for Mom guys, I’m sure she’ll love it (probably not Dad tho) https://t.co/G7MMjDrgpE

— Mike H (@mike_hurst__) December 19, 2025

20.

A funny wee video like this might seem harmless. Apart from it being absolutely pointless because it’s not real, this tech is horrendous for the environment, it’s putting people out of jobs and it’s driving up prices of computer hardware. Absolute shite! https://t.co/HgZyY1t0lh

— Scott (@ScottDaley26) December 17, 2025

21.

I love Stephen Mulhern and have never gotten the hate behind him as a presenter. He does seem like a cool guy and I really enjoyed his show at Butlin’s tbh. One thing I do agree with though is that this AI slop actually sucks https://t.co/yiGdqvCWSB

— Aoife! (@AisforAwesome15) December 18, 2025

Source: Twitter/X/StephenMulhern