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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?
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...
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
It's just a prank, bro. Chill.
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?
You don't prank do you?
What you want is something that will only fool 1 in 100, who will see him/her self as a dummy when they finish panicking.
When 99 people are laughing, or at least smiling, and the 'victim' is just mildly embarrassed for having pissed herself, you have a good prank.
Good pranks: Radio controlled alligator head at snow melt fed lake (mine). Running out the door of a museum with a replica masterpiece.
Not good prank: Fake kidnapping.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Fun for who?
*Whom
Was that fun for you?
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?
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 *