YouTube star Sam Pepper is on the hot seat after playing a prank in which his victim is led to believe his best friend is kidnapped and killed right in front of him.
In video of the prank, Colby Brock, one half of the Vine duo Colby and Sam, is fixing his car in the middle of the street with partner Sam Golbach when a masked man covers Golbach’s head with a bag, tapes together his hands and feet, and stuffs him in the trunk of the car.
The next cut shows both Brock and Golbach tied to chairs on a Los Angeles rooftop, the masked man menacing Golbach with a gun. The hooded figure then “shoots” Brock in the head, sending Golbach into a hysterical panic.
Although Brock gets up and reveals it was a prank, many have commented on the YouTube video with outrage and disgust. Many users have taken to Twitter to blast the video, which has been viewed almost 700,000 times in its first 24 hours.
Pepper has two million followers on YouTube, and one million followers on Twitter. Colby and Sam have posted a statement, reassuring fans that Goldbach holds no animosity towards Pepper and has not been traumatized by the prank.
See the video above, and read the comments.
Some people are getting the wrong idea and speaking on my behalf…
-Sam pic.twitter.com/05rGAlHVUg— Sam and Colby (@SamandColby) November 30, 2015
@sampepper @SamandColby YOU ARE SICK
— grayson franco ✮✮✮ (@graysonfranco) November 29, 2015
.@sampepper Disgusted + outraged by this video and it's concept. It's twisted anyway but in light of recent world events it's Just.So.Wrong.
— Carrie Hope Fletcher (@CarrieHFletcher) November 30, 2015
@sampepper when will you grow the fuck up and realise there's a line and you've crossed it
— megan (@soIarspace) November 29, 2015
@sampepper this isn't funny at all delete it
— katie (@katiejane_21) November 29, 2015
@sampepper people experience this every single day and you think it's something to laugh about and mock wtf
— amika (@amikagott) November 29, 2015
https://twitter.com/avonfvcks/status/671061697281581057
https://twitter.com/pantherlawley/status/671052598095384577
https://twitter.com/jasmineperkin/status/671061680298807296
https://twitter.com/HOTLINECORBYN/status/671066923455614976
@RavenFina its not a joke at all, something like that, fake or not, can be excrutiatingly traumatizing and that kid is going to have the
— amy (@gjrlcrsh) November 30, 2015
https://twitter.com/uniquejacks/status/671052778039590912