Classroom disruptors put on a cringe clinic

By Nicholas Naylor

When successful pranksters like Jake and Logan Paul gained wealth and notoriety in the YouTube world of “pranktainment”, they spawned an army of minions trying to replicate their style. But instead of amassing fame and fortune, these copy-cats simply harass people, get minimal views, and earn almost nothing. 

On March 7 Melcolm Dass  interrupted a B Building Langara classroom poorly impersonating a Langara Instructor while his accomplice  filmed him handing out pieces of paper with an account for OnlyFans  – a site used primarily for adult content –  and chugging water from a  bottle of vodka. 

The students and faculty were not impressed. They were upset and most refused to comment about the incident to the Voice. 

This is not surprising. When a stranger in a large dark coat – which Dass was wearing –  barges into a classroom mid-instruction, the school-shooter news coverage south of the border inadvertently comes to mind.

Students were fortunate that the provocateurs were just cringey, clout-seeking man-children who apparently took no issue in ruining the day for an entire classroom of tuition paying students.

Their video later posted on YouTube by Dass had all the viral-video-seeking characteristics seen on many if the successful youtubers accounts, including the constant barrage of text and jarring photos flying on the screen at least every three seconds with exaggerated  voiceovers and – of course – someone provoking or harassing the public, in this case Langara faculty and students.

The comments below the YouTube video are critical and more than a few times mention the word “cringe.” 

The video has been up for two weeks and so far a thousand views. 

But the Langara pranker’s payout for scaring and upsetting a classroom of people is likely a disappointing $18. This amount is based on the average U.S. 18 cents per view that YouTube creators earn according to Influencer Marketing Hub, a social media marketing review site. 

The fake instructor prank is not original, scrolling past the Langara video on YouTube there are dozens of other creators with almost identical  prank videos all  pretending  to be instructors at universities or colleges. 

Similarly these videos don’t have many views which means little money earned to merit the trouble caused or time put into making them. 

Becoming YouTube famous is no longer a realistic endeavour according to a German university study.

The study found that even if a youtuber reaches the top 3.5 per cent of the highest viewed YouTube channels, the advertising revenue generated would only amount to US$12,000 to US$16,000 a year.

The Paul brothers – Jake and Logan –  earned US$58  million in 2022 according to Forbes Magazine but most of that money was earned outside of YouTube and was largely a result of their public reach and reputation in podcasting, boxing promotion, merchandise, cryptocurrency and fashion among other endeavours. 

If aspiring prank-content creators imagine their wealth coming solely from ad-based YouTube payout they may be disappointed. 

While some pranksters may try to emulate their success, they often settle on anything  provocative or stimulating, creating video junk food.

Surely there are more wholesome ways to go about becoming YouTube famous. Two things are clear and people should know them before making prank content on YouTube: the chances of making it big on YouTube are slim to none; It is likely that you will harass innocent members of the public for little financial gain if you do.