| Josh Pieters | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal information | ||||||||||
| Born | 17 September 1993 Knysna, South Africa | |||||||||
| Occupation | YouTuber | |||||||||
| YouTube information | ||||||||||
| Channel | ||||||||||
| Years active | 2015–present | |||||||||
| Genre(s) | Pranks, comedy | |||||||||
| Subscribers | 1.43 million[1] | |||||||||
| Total views | 141.69 million[1] | |||||||||
| Associated acts | ||||||||||
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Last updated: 19 June 2020 | ||||||||||
Joshua Pieters (born 17 September 1993)[2] is a South African YouTuber known for pranks on celebrities. Originally from Knysna, he is currently based in London.[3]
Career
In August 2019, Pieters pranked 40 social media influencers including Louise Thompson into believing they received a piece of Moon rock from the National Space Centre (NSC). Pieters later apologized to the NSC.[4] In September 2019, Pieters and his YouTube partner Archie Manners created a fake restaurant, The Italian Stallion, to sell microwave meals as authentic Italian cuisine via Deliveroo.[5] They followed this up in November 2019 with a prank at the KSI vs. Logan Paul II boxing match, where they managed to convince several YouTubers, influencers, and venue staff at the Staples Center that an Ed Sheeran lookalike was the actual Ed Sheeran.[6]
On 27 January 2020, English far-right political commentator Katie Hopkins was pranked by Pieters into accepting a fake award, titled the "Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy".[7] Pieters flew Hopkins to Prague where she accepted the award and gave a speech, while the initials of the fictitious award were prominently displayed in the background, forming the swear word "cunt". Pieters uploaded the prank to his YouTube channel on the same day that Hopkins was suspended from Twitter for breaking their anti-hate rules.[8]
As of February 2020, he had over 1 million subscribers on YouTube.[9] In May 2020, Pieters and Manners pranked Big Cat Rescue CEO, Carole Baskin, into believing she was giving an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.[10] This was followed by a prank in October 2020 in which they posed as peace researchers and successfully nominated Gemma Collins for the Nobel Peace Prize.[11]
On 31 July 2021, English Anti-Vaxxer Piers Corbyn was pranked by Pieters into accepting bribe money to stop spreading misinformation about Astra-Zeneca where he gave Corbyn "$10,000" in Monopoly cash.[12]
In February 2023, Pieters and Manners would launch a weather balloon with a camera towards the Chinese Embassy in London as a way to mock the Chinese spy balloon in North America.[13] In July of that year, the disrupted an event held by environmental activist group Just Stop Oil.[14] In December, Pieters and Manners pranked Conservative MP Suella Braverman into accepting Channel 4 comedy show The Last Leg's "Dick Of The Year Award", after viewers of the show voted for her to be that year's recipient.[15]
References
- 1 2 "About Josh & Archie". YouTube.
- ↑ "Josh Pieters Draws His Life!". 30 November 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2020 – via YouTube.
- ↑ "This is insane, says SA YouTuber as prank video hurtles past a million views". timeslive.co.za. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ↑ "Influencers duped by Moon rock gravel prank". BBC News. 9 August 2019. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ↑ McCluskey, Megan (9 September 2019). "A YouTuber Successfully Sold Homemade Microwave Meals From the Fake Restaurant 'The Italian Stallion'". Time. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ↑ "A YouTuber used an ed Sheeran lookalike to trick influencers and tabloids into believing that the real singer was at the KSI vs Logan Paul fight". Insider.com. 27 June 2018.
- ↑ "YouTuber Josh Pieters tricks Katie Hopkins into accepting fake 'C**T' award". NME Music News. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
- ↑ Stolworthy, Jacob (1 February 2020). "YouTube star who tricked Katie Hopkins into accepting fake award has 'no regrets'". The Independent. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ↑ "South African-born YouTuber Josh Pieters pulls off insane prank". East Coast Radio. 31 January 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ↑ France, Lisa Respers (4 May 2020). "Carole Baskin responds to YouTube pranksters tricking her". CNN. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- ↑ "YouTubers nominate Gemma Collins for Nobel Peace Prize". Insider. 31 October 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ↑ "We Exposed the UK's Leading Anti-Vaxxer". YouTube.
- ↑ "We Flew a Spy Balloon over Chinese Airspace". YouTube.
- ↑ Somerville, Ewan; Bolton, Will (24 July 2023). "Just Stop Oil get 'taste of their own medicine' as banquet is crashed by YouTube pranksters". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
- ↑ Mathers, Matt (16 December 2023). "Channel 4's The Last Leg pranks Suella Braverman into collecting 'D*** of the year' award". The Independent. Retrieved 28 December 2023.