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JACOB SOBOROFF: What's up, guys?
Today is all about pranks and whether or not
they've gone too far.
LIZZIE: Ye--
MALE SPEAKER: Ohohoh!
You just got pranked.
JACOB SOBOROFF: That's not a prank.
LIZZIE: No, that was assault.
MALE SPEAKER: No, this is a salt.
LIZZIE: That is pepper.
MALE SPEAKER: Is it?
Oh, double prank!
JACOB SOBOROFF: Get out of here.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
There's a pretty major YouTube prankster in the news
right now.
LIZZIE: Mhm.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Sam Pepper went to the Third Street Promenade,
and he had a fake arm that looked
like his hand was in his pocket.
But then with his real hand, he would ask women questions
to distract them, and then reach over and grab their butts.
Sam Pepper's prank was immediately taken down,
but What's Trending posted this report on it.
LIZZIE: He received a huge backlash, immediately,
on Twitter, and from a bunch of different YouTubers
calling it *** abuse because, of course.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Hank Green posted
that he wouldn't be welcome at VidCon.
LIZZIE: He did post another video, basically saying that,
like, oh, of course *** abuse is not OK.
It's not what I was doing.
This was all scripted.
And these people were actors.
But I don't believe him.
JACOB SOBOROFF: It just doesn't make a lot of sense.
LIZZIE: I just think this clearly crosses the line.
CARLY: We've seen what YouTube pranks have evolved into,
but now we're going back to the old [BLEEP].
MILES: Hahaha.
What?
CARLY: This has 27 million views.
It was uploaded in 2006.
[SCREAM]
-Ahhhh!
MILES: Stop banging the monitor.
CARLY: So this video sparks thousands of imitations.
And one, a guy even punched his hand through the monitor.
[CHILD CRYING]
MILES: Hehehehe.
You're crying.
CARLY: Kids cry so ugly.
MILES: I think he's saying dad.
Like confused, like why would you do this?
Right here.
-(CRYING) Dahahad.
MILES: Dahahad.
The one man to protect you, right?
And then he puts it on YouTube.
CARLY: Yeah.
MILES: When I was a kid, my grandpa
used to scare the [BLEEP] out of me.
And I think it made me a jumpy person.
At least the scary maze prank was a little bit more brief
than this next prank.
This is the mafia *** prank.
This poor man in the leather jacket,
he thinks he's just getting a nice ride down the street.
He was waiting at a bus stop and talking to a guy.
And he's like, hey, my buddy will take you.
Let's just hop in his weird, nondescript Mercury.
-Or like Cartoon Network or something like that.
[MUFFLED BANGING AND SCREAMING]
-What is that?
-Stay right here.
MILES: Does this go too far?
He tried to get out.
But guess what, he couldn't because the child safety locks
were on the door.
CARLY: It's not even a prank.
MILES: You've got someone into your car under false pretenses,
then kept them from leaving.
Kidnapping.
Then you've terrorized them.
I'm sure that's some other thing.
Emotional al-Qaeda.
CARLY: My least favorite part is, weirdly enough,
the end, when the guy is like, prank.
Can you sign this consent form so I can use this footage?
And the kid's like, one, I'm still in the middle of nowhere.
-Feel better?
-OK, yeah.
-Yeah.
We've got to take you out to eat, like, buffet,
or whatever you want, dude.
All on me today.
MILES: You like Pinkberry?
Dude, come on.
You like Pinkberry?
Come on, buddy.
ALEX: So if scary pranks can go too far,
can positive pranks go too far?
EARNEST, SR: I think so.
I know that they're very popular.
But sometimes I love them.
Sometimes I just feel awkward watching them.
-Because if you want it bad enough,
and I want it bad enough to tip you more--
-OK.
- --if we just go like this--
-Oh my god.
- --your tip can actually turn into $100.
ALEX: The exploitation is what gets me.
This is a guy who paid $400, effectively.
And he got 3.4 million views and has ad revenue running on this.
So therefore he has made much more money
than he gave out, just to exploit someone
who is-- I think it's actually a status thing, of saying,
like, you lowly pizza driver, I have this money.
You need it.
-That's awesome.
-It is pretty awesome.
-I teared up.
-Oh, no.
Don't.
I'm sure you can use it.
-Yeah, definitely.
EARNEST, SR: I was thinking of it
as, for the five minutes that they
have to spend on the sidewalk, they're getting $100.
So you got a night's worth of tips in one delivery.
ALEX: There are 62,000 likes and only 726 dislikes.
I might be in the wrong here.
I'm not wrong.
But people might think I'm wrong.
EARNEST, SR: You're a little wrong.
ALEX: I don't think I'm wrong.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Since a lot of what we've seen today
deals with the invasion of personal space,
let's look at a far less offensive prank, if you even
want to call it that.
This was inspired by a reddit post about a commuter sleeping
on the shoulder of somebody else on a New York City subway.
LIZZIE: Mmmmm.
Noooooo.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Kind of like this.
At first, people weren't having it.
Then, I guess, people started to come around.
It was made by the marketing director
of a nonprofit group called Charidy, with a d.
They basically help nonprofits around the world
get donations and do things with them.
That's what I would have done.
I would have just probably popped up.
LIZZIE: I really don't like this.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Why?
LIZZIE: This is framing it as though the people who are,
like, good people, are the ones that
allowed the invasion of personal space
of some strange bearded man on the subway,
leaning on my shoulder.
Get off of me.
JACOB SOBOROFF: I mean, I don't think
it's obviously on the same scale as the Sam Pepper video.
LIZZIE: No.
Of course not.
JACOB SOBOROFF: But do you think it's on that spectrum?
LIZZIE: He's not sexually assaulting people
with his head.
I think it does live on the same spectrum, to be honest.
JACOB SOBOROFF: I actually think that this
shows that people are, for the most part, caring and generous.
LIZZIE: It doesn't make me a better person,
I don't think, to be like, go ahead, sleep on me.
So obviously, earlier we talked about how Sam Pepper's video,
he came out saying that it was to raise awareness
for *** abuse.
But I feel like there's a better way to do that.
And this video does it and gives a really good idea
of what it's like to be the recipient
of unwanted attention.
This is from Fousey.
Basically, he noticed that guys stare at women's butts
when they're wearing yoga pants, because yoga pants are
a magical thing.
But it doesn't mean you get to stare at them like that.
And he decided to see what would happen when he put on a pair.
This video is his biggest success.
It's got, like, 24 million views.
-Ali, tell me when he looks, OK?
Yo.
Did you just stare at my butt?
-No, man.
-You just stared at my butt.
-Why would I want to be looking at your butt?
-I felt your eyes glaring at my butt.
LIZZIE: This one's my favorite.
-Aw, man.
Why the [BLEEP] do you got on leggings, doo?
-Why you staring at my butt, doo?
-Because I thought you was a chick, doo.
-I'm sorry, I though you were a girl, so I was looking.
-I thought you were a girl, man.
LIZZIE: Isn't this awesome?
JACOB SOBOROFF: This is pretty genius.
LIZZIE: It is.
And I think it got shared for all the right reasons.
And I think it's fantastic.
And I like that he bleeps things out with Miley Cyrus's face.
-Why [BLEEP] you walking away?
-Cause I want you to spank it.
-[BLEEP].
LIZZIE: His experiments like this get a ton of traffic.
He's actually been discussed in college classes
for social experiments like this, which I think is great.
JACOB SOBOROFF: Thank you guys so much for watching.
If you got any questionable prank videos
that you think we missed, drop us a link in the comments.
LIZZIE: Yeah, and we also want to know
what you think about these, Where
they great, terrible, horrific, awesome?
Let us know.
JACOB SOBOROFF: We'll see you guys on Monday.
But now to play us out with one of the weirdest birthday prank
videos you have ever seen-- play us out--
LIZZIE AND JACOB: Katy Perry.
[MUSIC- KATY PERRY, "BIRTHDAY"]