The Doug Stanhope Arrest Wasn’t Real — But It Wasn’t A Hoax Either

Doug Stanhope fans were understandably alarmed when men who appeared to be members of a SWAT team showed up during his Instagram livestream last night, forcing him to the floor and leading him off to, well, no one knew what happened to Stanhope.

Reddit boards were filled with arguments about the arrest’s validity. Some fans were certain the video was too real to be a prank. Others argued that some of the men’s guns didn’t appear to be loaded, a sure sign that what we were seeing was a dupe. 

So who was right? 

Turns out, no one — at least, not exactly. TMZ is reporting that the incident was neither real nor a comedy goof. Instead, a spokesperson for the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Stanhope had given permission to local authorities to use his Arizona home for a training mission for the county SWAT team. 

Stanhope asked to join in the final training exercise as a role-player, explained Cochise County reps, and the SWAT team was happy to oblige. No arrest, no trouble for Stanhope. The sheriff’s department told TMZ that Stanhope planned to release a statement soon to set the record straight, though TMZ has yet to connect with the comedian directly.

While the theory that Stanhope was pulling off an elaborate Jackass-style stunt was off — this was a real training exercise, not a theatrical prank — the comedian knew what was going on and let his livestream audience believe otherwise. Consider yourself punk’d, Stanhope fans — he was just jerking our chain, albeit for the cause of helping local law enforcement. 

The only problem for the comic? 

If he ever gets arrested for real, he shouldn’t expect fans to come running with bail money. Fool us once…