-
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
-
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
-
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
-
- ♪ Lie to me, lie with me ♪
-
♪ Get your [bleep] fix ♪
-
- (Mike) "Michael, I'm sorry, okay?"
-
- Oh, and she's fully going with it.
-
- ♪ You don't give a damn about... ♪
-
- He's really putting
this girl through something.
-
- ♪ The temperature's rising in here ♪
-
♪ Is this gonna happen ♪
-
- (lady) Bro, it's winter and it's freezing.
-
- Oh my god.
She got "duded" and "bro"--
-
And what was there? A "bra"?
-
- And dude-- yeah, and bra.
- Oh-- oh my god.
-
- ♪ So baby, come light me... ♪
-
- God, I don't even know
any of these songs.
-
I feel so old!
-
- ♪ It feels like the only times
you'll see me ♪
-
♪ Is when you turn your head to the side ♪
-
- Oh, this is mean.
-
- What if she texted it as slow
as the song was going,
-
so it was like one word at a time.
-
- (Cass) "Cass,
what are you trying to say?"
-
- (laughing) Every time, everyone's like,
"WTF is going on right now?!"
-
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
-
- (FBE) So this prank
has been around for a while,
-
but a lot of people attribute
the recent rise in people making it
-
to the first video we showed,
which was from a YouTuber named Mike Fox.
-
- Oh yeah?
-
- And then everyone jumped
on it and it went massive.
-
- (FBE) What is it about this that,
if you're a YouTuber and you see it,
-
you're like, "Oh, I gotta
make a video like this!"
-
- Well, it gets a lot of laughs.
-
- If you see someone doing something
so easy and it's doing so well,
-
you're like, "Ooh, well maybe
I should try that out myself."
-
- It feels like something easy to do,
that's a lot of fun also.
-
Not just for people watching,
-
but YouTubers always look for
something that is fun to do.
-
- It also gives you a good excuse
to start texting your ex again.
-
- Yeah.
-
- If you ever wanted to.
- I mean, he was in.
-
- (FBE) In recent years,
a new type of challenge or trend video
-
will spring up from someone
and then it seems like
-
a lot of different channels on YouTube
will then make a similar video.
-
Does it bother you when you see
people doing the same kind of thing,
-
or do you not really care,
considering the people
-
really seem to enjoy it.
- It's a light irking.
-
It's a very light irking
just because everyone has to do
-
the 100 Layers Challenge,
everyone has to do the Cinnamon Challenge.
-
- It's like a weird phase.
It didn't use to be like this.
-
- It kills me.
-
- But then there's still people
like Ryan Higa, who are killing it
-
and they do such original, cool stuff.
-
- I like seeing people's interpretations
of those sorts of trends, right?
-
You're able to see pranks like this,
or challenges like the Condom Challenge,
-
through different creators' eyes,
and so you're able to see
-
kind of their personality infused
-
into these otherwise kind
of YouTube wide trends.
-
It really makes YouTube
feel like a community,
-
but still different enough
that I'm able to appreciate
-
the videos separately.
-
- (FBE) This prank has been
accused of being fake.
-
What do you think?
- I don't think so.
-
I mean, it's not that harmless,
where I think that people
-
would have to fake it.
-
- I don't know.
-
There's a lot of fake stuff
on the internet.
-
The internet is known
for being full of hoaxes.
-
- Some people are so desperate
to have a viral video
-
or a break or whatever, that it's like,
"Hey, mom, can you text me this back
-
when I say this?"
-
- It's really easy.
-
I could say that I'm pranking
an ex-boyfriend
-
and I could be just texting him.
-
- Yeah, she could tag me
as psycho-ex in her phone.
-
- If he turns it around and suddenly
I'm surprised and it's like,
-
"Lyric Prank Gone Wrong,"
and I put that in the title,
-
everyone's gonna click on it.
It's gonna get tons of views.
-
It's just too convenient.
-
- (FBE) If this prank is done
for real on somebody,
-
is this going to far
with people's emotions,
-
or is it harmless?
- No, it's harmless.
-
It's all just a goof.
-
'Cause, you know,
it's somebody that you know.
-
- I grew up with a ton of siblings
and we pranked each other all the time
-
and if, I don't know,
if you can't take a joke
-
then I don't know-- maybe it wasn't
that solid of a relationship
-
to begin with.
-
- This one's harmless enough
that it's not a big deal.
-
It's not like-- they're song lyrics
at the end of the day.
-
There's a little bit of confusion,
but ultimately, I think--
-
- You're not throwing milk
in someone's aisle in their supermarket.
-
You know? It's nothing so crass--
- I like that that's the one you went to!
-
- The biggest challenge
on YouTube, in general,
-
is a lot of people using relationships,
and exploiting their relationships
-
with other people to get views.
-
Um, and I think, you know,
"Oh, we're gonna break up.
-
Oh, I'm gonna, you know,
prank this other person
-
and we're gonna have
this prank battle or whatever,"
-
I think that falls into
a weird line in a lot of cases.
-
Where I would have a hard time
forgiving someone
-
is if it's, "Hey, you did this to me,
and now you're posting it online
-
and you're expecting to get
millions of views off of our relationship."
-
Suddenly, you have
commoditized what we have
-
for shameless, you know, view-bating
and monetization on YouTube
-
and I think that's where
a lot of those sorts of things
-
start to fall into a weird,
grey territory for me.
-
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
-
♪ (orchestra plays) ♪