But from Atwood’s point of view, why not stage it? That way, he is guaranteed millions of views, and his fans will believe it is real because they trust him as a master prankster. Personally, it has always smelled fake to me, and I’m not the only one who is suspicious. Roman Atwood scored millions of views overnight when his attempt to pull a fast one on his girlfriend “backfired”. Take the year’s most popular prank video, for example. Of course, I’m almost certain that everyone in that coffee shop is either an actor or an extra, which brings up the fundamental question for prank videos going forward: Will the need to up the ante break down the viewer’s suspension of disbelief? With a whimsical, analog setup and seemingly startled reactions, the ad feels authentic rather than fake and stilted while still featuring a splashy production capable of selling the product. ‘Prank marketing’ was all over YouTube in 2013, with the Carrie telekinesis prank serving as the best example. It’s not shot with a very good camera, and it is at its core nothing more than a few friends joking around, but it also required an extensive setup in order to ensure that viewers saw a prank they had never seen before.īrands have caught on to this dichotomy, too. One of the best examples is Tom Mabe’s recent coma prank. An A+ prank is spontaneous and thrives on raw emotion while also being elaborate enough to feel like a well-executed production. Prank videos, then, combine the best of both worlds. Creators are now asked to meet a certain standard of video quality, lest their work be branded as cheap and low-rent. As technology has advanced, so have expectations. YouTube, in its early days, was built on authenticity, where unexpected, shocking results were more important than high-quality camerawork. The key element that has allowed prank videos to thrive on YouTube is their combination of authenticity and slick production. Roman Atwood went from 553,000 subscribers to 2.75 million, VitalyzdTV went from 298,000 to 4.6 million, and Jackass goofball Steve-O has 1.85 million subscribers despite only launching his channel on September 24th. Prank videos absolutely exploded on YouTube in 2013, with some of the site’s biggest jokers rising up its ranks. If you wanted to have a popular YouTube channel in 2013, and you couldn’t be bothered to learn how to play Minecraft, your best bet was to pull some pranks.
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