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Jail Sentence For Popular YouTube Pranksters (bbc.com)
Turns out crossing a line, even for a prank by a YouTube star, can go bonkers. An anonymous reader cites a BBC report: Four members of the controversial Trollstation YouTube channel have been jailed in connection with fake robberies and kidnappings. The group were involved in a fake robbery at London's National Portrait Gallery and a fake kidnapping at Tate Britain in July 2015. The channel, with 718,000 subscribers, has built a reputation for filming staged pranks around the city. A fifth member was imprisoned in March following a bomb hoax.The Crown Prosecution Service's Robert Short said: "The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way. We hope these convictions send a strong message that unlawful activities such as these will not be tolerated in London."
Also the Getting-Out-of-Sketches-Without-Using-a-Proper-Punch-Line Act, viz:
“Simply ending every bleeding sketch by just having a policeman come in.”
I'm really surprised that, "It's just a prank bro!" hasn't been documented on-video as famous last words.
I guess I look at pranks on strangers as something that has to be limited enough that the person pranked will themselves laugh about it. It's one thing to prank your friends that you have an understanding with, but it's an entirely different matter to do something that affects otherwise-uninvolved third parties.
This is a case of, "play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
One would think that YouTube fame would protect one from the consequences of faking a realistic-looking burglary at a major museum.
:|
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Fun for who?
Please, please do this in Texas!
Pranks cross the line when emergency services (police, EMS and fire primarily) need to get involved, even to disprove a situation as an actual event. Real lives and property may be at stake and if these services are distracted by bs like this there absolutely should be consequences.
So weird. Am I the only person here who thinks it's odd that people who staged crimes and uploaded the video evidence to YouTube wouldn't be prosecuted for something just because they said "Just a prank lol! Lighten up lol!"
Personally if somebody "pranked" me like that, I'd probably beat the shit out of them once I'd figured out I was in no real danger.
Because if so, how is it any different than actors playing a role of some criminals on a tv show? They don't go around arresting the bad guys of fictional dramas, why should they do so here?
If they did not make this clear, however, I can see it being a problem.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
There are pranks and then there are *pranks*...and when the latter crosses the line into destruction of property or causing real fear among an unsuspecting group of people (Burger King employees, crowds, shoppers, whatever) then it's time to drop the ban hammer and prosecute them.
A fake robbery and a fake kidnapping? They're fucking lucky someone didn't step in and shoot them. Over here in the US that kind of shit is likely to get you shot dead by someone who's not in on the "joke".
If I saw someone that I thought was actually being kidnapped, you can damn sure bet I'd try and stop it.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
They sneak props into location and host "practical jokes" where nobody other than they are aware of it. Then they film the very real reactions.
So, if you have a Youtube channel, you should be excused for actions that would be crimes for anyone else? I don't think so.
TFA is a bit thin on details. Usually movie/TV production companies need to obtain permits. Part of the reason is to be sure that local emergency services are aware so that when 911 calls some in, they are handled properly.
Because in the fictional drama everyone else on the set (in the room) is a paid extra and knows what is going to happen. There are also lots of other people on hand off camera doing the tasks that need to be done so that anyone not associated with the shoot knows that a TV/movie production is being done. Additionally the owners and/or people leasing the location have probably been paid for the use and definitely had to have given permission to use the area so the know what is going on. A scene is normally acted out many times unless special circumstances prevent it, such as a vehicle being crashed. Even then it's rehearsed in place before the final take.
None of those happened in this case and that's why charges were brought against them. There's a difference between:
1. Me going into a random theatre and yelling fire which causes panic and
2. Having a theatre filled with extras knowing that I'm going to yell fire, cameras capturing me coming in to yell fire, and the extras acting in a panic filled manner.
Scenario 1 will get me charged while scenario 2 won't because it's acting.
Yeah, how about it boys, let's see these young me get raped!
What kind of life experiences led you to cheer on rape?
It is OK. In a year or two they will be released from jail and informed that the jail sentence was all just a prank. Won't that be funny!!!
Just like the people who created Borat should have been jailed.
Harassment and abuse are never ok.
There are a lot of other videos like these also. I saw one where a woman went in public deliberately with her ass showing, then filmed guys reacting to it and she confronted them to embarrass them and accuse them of being perverts.
There are a lot of sick creeps out there. I think the movie Borat unleashed a lot of this.
Dr. Whom? FTFY
This kind of sh*t is not a prank and is NOT fun.
they would be dead or any other state with concealed or open carry gun laws
Things these guys do aren't pranks. They seem to get a rise out of scaring people while filming. I bet in most of their videos they don't even stop after the prank is finished and tell the people that they are "pranking" that it is indeed a "prank". Look at the just for laughs pranks, they are more inline with what a prank should be. Pull a joke or a fast one on someone and when your done tell the person and have a good laugh with them about it. Not saying that the Just for laughs pranks all go well and likely not everyone they prank thinks it's as funny as they do. But at least they don't pretend to kidnap or pretend to commit armed robbery, which would generally scare or induce a response from people that is negative.
-Pizentios
It's obviously not genuine distress if you try to get someone fired and it's not genuine distress if you try to slander someone, so this curious mind here would like to know just when the distress caused by some troll is "genuine" enough to get some law enforcement agencies off their asses.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Fun fact, the cast of The Wire once arrested a real criminal. He did a smash and grab and while fleeing wandered into where they were filming but surrendered when he saw all the fake cops. So they put him in prop handcuffs and called the real cops.
It's just a prank, bro. Chill.
The group is currently crowdfunding to go on tour.
Don't worry, they will be coming to your area soon. The only thing dumber than pissing off emergency services in your own city is to go do it in another country.
I suppose they thought that pulling stupid pranks like this was fairly safe in the UK. Things might have ended even worse in parts of the US.
Why? Because there are usually huge signs saying "RECORDING IN PROGRESS", or everyone around the area is an extra paid to be there.
There have been very few times where film recording has caused any serious issues of panic and confusion, one recently where a vehicle was blown up for a film in London, one a while back where Mythbusters accidentally blew out windows in houses and other such things.
But in both cases, these were all accidental.
These half-wit prankster kiddies are doing this ON PURPOSE to cause alarm
Same reason Derren Brown never got arrested for his fake robbery show he did a while back, he got permission and extras were in place.
Nobody that was around would have been capable of being alarmed because it was blatantly a filmed scene if you step behind the camera in to the live setting where it is being recorded.
The areas outside will have signs up notifying them if they have a live audience deal going. (which is rare because it is complicated dealing with live audiences, as you can see regularly on the live news interviews)
If you have "popular YouTube prankster" at the top of your CV, the world is probably better off with you in jail.
You are welcome on my lawn.
We had a World History teacher in 11th grade who I think had psychological problems. I don't know what her problem is other than saying she was wound about 5 turns too tight and one of those people who pretty much has "victim" tattooed on their forehead -- even I saw it, and I was an obey-the-rules type.
Anyway, her personality basically invited the bad kids to torment her, and they did, mercilessly. The fucking assistant principal, who looked like Rosie Grier and was really intimidating, was in our classroom about twice a week, which sucked, because he was an asshole to everyone, including people like me who never got in trouble.
Finally somebody disobeyed her and she got mad and this kid walked out of the classroom. Put their shirt on a dummy and threw it out of the classroom window one floor up. Lots of yelling out the window and then the dummy thrown out the window.
Of course she and everyone in class saw it fall past the window. She looked out and then left the classroom. Permanently. The story was she had a nervous breakdown and got some kind of indefinite medical leave.
My kingdom for a mod point.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Threatening someone with the apparent intent to harm them is assault - and a felony in most states, I think - even if the assailant doesn't intend to cause harm. All that must be proven is that the victim believed harm was a potential outcome. Put the fuckers in jail, I don't have time for shit like this.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
It is OK. In a year or two they will be released from jail and informed that the jail sentence was all just a prank. Won't that be funny!!!
Then once they're asleep, have a masked team break into their home, shove them in a van, take them to the airport, fly them to Syria with no papers, and leave them there. Just a joke!
Fake robberies? Fake kidnappings?
Are these people brain damaged?
They should be happy they're only going to jail, and weren't actually gunned down.
Bloody idiots.
On topic, it was just a matter of time before someone got into real trouble for this sort of thing...
If you want to prank people (particularly people you don't know), you have to really design it so that they have a good experience.
That is kind of my point... if it was somehow made clear in advance that it was a dramatization and not a recording of an actual illegal event, then they wouldn't have gotten in any trouble... or else, as I said, the cops would go around arresting actors after they had portrayed a character doing something illegal.
Hell, all they would have had to put is a running subtitle text along the bottom, shown maybe once or twice during the first 15 to 30 seconds of the film "Dramatization only, not a recording of an actual crime in progress" and they would have been entirely in the clear.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
"Shouting fire in a crowded theater" is one of the most misunderstood legal precedents in modern social media.
This is not "an exception to free speech", because it is not an expression of one's opinion. Shouting fire... is a call to action, much the same as negotiating services with a drug dealer or prostitute. This is exemplified in the difference between dressing up as a policeman or military service member (i.e. Halloween) and using that uniform to fraudulently force others to do something -- produce documentation, provide a service, or anything else.
"Stolen Valor" was overturned a few years ago for this reason; this is why it was re-written to specify that only defrauding others would constitute a criminal act, but wearing the uniform falsely was not a crime in itself.
Lastly, this article mentions the UK, and not the US. The nuances in respective laws can make all the difference in the world.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
It wouldn't make any difference if they were lying... but it would have made a difference if the videos were really just pranks, as apparently they said they were. An investigation may have still occurred if there was reason to suspect that something that they said was just a prank was something more than that, but if they had made the fact that it just a dramatization clear up front, then as long as they really weren't doing anything wrong, there'd be no problem.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
When I watch "pranks" like this one, inevitably those videos are filmed in a place like Australia or the UK. If someone tried that in the US they would get shot within the first few takes, and the person with the gun would probably not get charged.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Fun for who?
*Whom
Was that fun for you?
When I watch "pranks" like this one, inevitably those videos are filmed in a place like Australia or the UK. If someone tried that in the US they would get shot within the first few takes, and the person with the gun would probably not get charged.
And as a bleeding-heart gun-grabbing liberal, I would sigh and weep... for all the innocents who suffered before the prankhole got what was coming to him.
I really have a hard time comprehending people openly attacking free speech, which this is. A prank flimed and uploaded to the Internet can not make everyone happy. It should not do so, that is quite contrary to any rational thought. If people being offended is a measure of legality, I want every member of Fox News, NBC News, ABC News, MSNBC News, and CNN jailed immediately. In addition, I want every politician arrested, and every comedian alive would have to be jailed too. I love me some Lewis Black, but dang it if he is not offensive to many.
Borrowing from Ben Shapiro, Being offended is not a measure of anything. "I don't care about your feelings, I care about facts."
Adding manure frosting to the crap cake, the anti speech posts are all being modded up.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Shouting fire when it's false and you know it could be considered a form of fraud, or instigation of chaos. Speech really isn't the issue. E.g., I can't claim "free speech" lets me falsely advertise a product.
How does this get modded up? Seriously. If you can't tell the difference between a work of fiction (like an offensive movie, book, or comedy routine) and a real situation (a prank where the person being pranked doesn't know that the hell is going on) then you're part of the bloody problem here.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
""The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, ..."
And I thought pranks were exactly supposed to do that, (cause mild distress) otherwise it would just have been a joke.
This f-ing nonsense should stop.. The only reason they are doing it, is because of the income they get from the youtube channel..
This is not fun, and they should have thought about it, as people when they flee could have harmed objects in the museum, just to name one example.. Pranking on youtube should come to a halt, as it just isn't really funny (just think if it happens to you), also they sometimes prank the wrong person who actually kills them in 'defence' or out of pure blind revenge..
Care to share some specifics? Which Lord / Lady would you like arrested, and for what crime?
If anything the House of Lords acts as a valuable 'brake' on some of the ludicrous legislation that comes out of the House of Commons. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, have a diversity of skills and education (unlike most career politicians, who invariably studied law at a prestigious university), and show, for the most part admirable restraint when it comes to knee-jerk media fed populist reactions.
To, tangentially, digress, I'd heartily recommend the book "Mind Change - How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains" by Baroness Susan Greenfield, just one member of that House which you apparently so despise. How do your contributions to society rate, in comparison?
Perfect. You nailed it.
Dude, read what these people actually did. This would be just as illegal in the USA and the supreme court confirmed as much more than a century ago. This is classic "shout fire in a crowded theaterhouse" stuff that has never been considered legitimate speech anywhere.
Your rights end where mine begins, and your right to free speech does not include inciting a panicked riot that could get my toddler trampled to death, nor has it ever included that and nor will or should it.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
Like a maniac shooting
flaming arrows of death
is one who deceives their neighbor
and says, “I was only joking!”
In the UK we used to have a chap called Jeremy Beadle on TV playing pranks on people. At the end he'd turn up as a traffic warden, policeman, or whatever and take off his fake beard and the mark would find it hilarious.
You've reminded me of Not The Nine O'Clock News' wonderful spoof of it, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Apparently British prisons, contrary to what you might expect, don't go in much for the whole shower rape thing like they do in America.