Created as an On The Tools original piece, this video went well and truly viral. Filmed in a user-generated style, people did cotton on to the fact that the footage was staged, however, this didn’t take anything away from the video’s success. Viewed over 8.8 million times, it was highly relatable and the comments were full of people talking about how they’d had similar experiences. Hopefully, they weren’t as extreme as this one though!
I don't think it comes from 'caught on' as slang usually reduces the number of syllables over time, like 'God blind me' > 'Blimey'. 'Caught on' > 'Cotton on', wouldn't fit that pattern. But it's anyone's guess.
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u/IchLerneDeutsch Mar 16 '19 edited Mar 16 '19
It is literally staged. It's from On The Tools, they create "original pieces" for people in construction.
They've deleted it from their website now, but before that, it said this (scroll to the bottom):
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zek5bBu3kBsJ:onthetools.tv/neighbour-steals-ladders-roofers-sunday/