In case you haven’t seen this video pop up yet in your social media feeds, check out Comedian Buddy Bolton sneaking up on unsuspecting pedestrians who have stopped to take a selfie. Instead of photobombing though, he had a different plan: cutting their selfie stick in half with gardening shears.
When researching what went down, I quickly saw just how polarizing this video has its viewers, and for good reason. If what the video shows actually happened, then Bolton is committing a crime by damaging someone’s personal property. It’s hardly a prank, as some have called it, but more like just being an asshole. Apart from destroying the selfie stick, each victims camera-phone takes a significant fall, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that left some folks with broken screen.
On the other hand, selfie sticks are ridiculous, and Bolton just might represent some kind of sleeveless dark knight. Not the hero we wanted, but the hero we needed.
I’m kidding of course. While I had hoped that this was just an example of actors staged on a public street to make a fake viral "prank" video, Bolton indicated that my hopes were only somewhat correct.
According to this article on DNAinfo, Bolton said that the video was mostly unstaged.
...the targets who appeared in their one-minute clip signed releases and received $10 replacement sticks after the fact.
'We thought it was good-hearted ... it wasn’t our intention to be really mean,' the comedian said in response to online comments calling the video malicious in its intent. 'Unfortunately a couple of people were upset.'
But I'm not sure if I believe that, since you can see in the full screen video that some of the victims only had empty cases on their sticks, with no actual phone or camera... So was it completely put on?
What do you think? Weigh in with your comments below!
Staged, sir :)
Cheap selfiestick and phone cover. Just hit 0:40.
STAGED. When the guy starts chasing him at 0:29, he slows down for a split second, before speeding back up, because he was running faster than the guy who chopped it.
I don't know what selfie sticks costs, but smartphones crashing onto concrete from a height could destroy them. I doubt that they are offering to replace smartphones.
What does it matter if it's staged or not? Couldn't be any less humorous. What about a prank video of going around smashing people's windshields? Or even playing the knockout game remember how funny that one was?
Somebody definitely must run fast or we will see another clips "how to get a punch in the face for free" =)