Obnoxious YouTube "Prankster" Is Getting Sued, Nice
If there’s one thing that YouTubers seem to thrive on, it’s finding a form of entertainment that they have a tenuous grasp on at best, and then proving they understand it even less than you thought. One of the worst misinterpreted genres on the internet, from YouTube to TikTok, are people who think they are “pranksters.” Now, I’m not the dean of some stodgy British boarding school. I appreciate a good prank. I frequently think of some of Trigger Happy TV’s better pranks, like crossing a crosswalk dressed as a snail. I went on opening night to see perhaps America’s finest prankster export, Jackass. The complete Da Ali G show sits on my bookshelf as I speak.
However, pretty much all of the “pranks” that you’ll find online now are basically just filmed harassment bordering on assault. The pitch for every influencer prank is basically “Hey, I’m going to be really weird in a Starbucks.” Pad out the runtime with a bunch of zooms on people’s faces looking concerned while they’re just trying to buy an overpriced parfait cup and you’ve got a video in the can.
The University of Southern California is now suing one of these snickering idiots after the performance of one of these masterful twists on reality. The prank in question is apparently part of a series where they barge into a lecture room and physically intimidate the professor into leaving the room, while claiming to be different people, including a member of the Russian Mafia. What was the main lecture in question on? Oh, just The Holocaust. This isn't the first time they've barged into an active lecture either, as evidenced by other videos on his channel. The titles of these videos often include, I'm sure to their lawyer's absolute delight, the triumphant phrase *ENTIRE CLASSROOM EVACUATED*.
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Weirdly, when the bodybuilder/comedian in question, Ernest (though his YouTube channel calls him Eric) Kanevsky, physically invaded a lecture on the Holocaust, the reaction was not laughter. Instead, the spectacle of a muscular, bald, tattooed man barging into a Holocaust lecture and starting to yell caused the students to immediately flee the classroom, because, you know, that’s not a vibe that generally means someone loves Judaism.
Of course, maybe this was just an ill-advised bit of quote unquote comedy. One dud prank out of a wide body of work that inspires joy and delight. Let’s check out some of Kanevsky’s other pranks:
- CREEP FILMING WOMEN AT THE BEACH PRANK
- DISTURBING PEOPLE’S SPACE PRANK
- TRANSGENDER BODYBUILDER GETS OFFENDED BY MASSAGE PRANK
- TRANSGENDER BODYBUILDER GETS OFFENDED AT RESTAURANT PRANK
- TRANSGENDER BODYBUILDER IN PUBLIC PRANK
In case you were wondering, though he certainly looks to be on some sort of testosterone regimen, he is not transgender. The “prank” in those is wearing a wig and a purse and asking men for their phone number, in a gay panic play that would come off lazy in a 90s teen comedy. Great. So not only is this dude completely insufferable, but I’d bet good money that within a month we’ll get to hear him doing the rounds on all sorts of right-wing YouTube channels, if not seated next to the perpetually incredulous pile of wet kinetic sand known as Tucker Carlson.
