Chapter 4 - The brilliant prank which challenges vlogger content

The one thing to always keep in mind when watching vlogs, or reading anything on the internet, is credibility. It is essential to not believe everything you see right away, and with vlogs this is also the case. The editors of the vlogs can cut out any bit they want, making things look different than they want. Bonnie, from BonColor even once said that she doesn’t include events such as arguing with her boyfriend, as it is private and not for her viewers to see. Cheers to that Bonnie! But just keep in mind that some vloggers will never admit to these things giving the impression that their life is perfect. 

Dutch vloggers and YouTubers Saske de Schepper and Alwin Ritsier pulled a brilliant, in my opinion, prank on April first this year, on their channel Vet Gezellig. In short, they are a couple who live together who make mostly weekly vlogs showing their activities day to day, ranging from work, to parties, to chilled evenings at home. Besides making those videos they run the company Smoking Dog. 

The prank started with a video, called Time for the truth, posted on 27^th March, where they explained how their vlogs had been a lie, that they weren’t actually a couple but had been scouted to appear as a couple in their vlogs. They presented the video like a documentary, involving Saske’s sister (who is also a youtuber), a mutual 'friend' and their manager, all of them explaining how the situation actually was. 

Image: YouTube screenshot

They involved a girl called Itske, saying she had been Alwin’s girlfriend for a few months, which was the reason to reveal to their viewers how Alwin and Saske had never really been together (and how their proposal video had actually been fake). They explained that it was becoming too difficult to hide the relationship between Alwin and Itske in the vlogs, so Saske was going to continue running the channel on her own. 

Now, if you’re still with me, Saske removed all videos from their YouTube channel and changed the avatar, which had been an avatar of Alwin and Saske, to just an image of herself.

Then, on the 1^st of April, a new video called  What a Sh*t joke, was uploaded on YouTube. In this video Alwin and Saske appear on the screen reading some of the (horrible and mean) comments from underneath their 27^th March video ‘’If it is an April fools joke, it’s insane. If it’s real, it’s insane too.’’ and ‘’Unsubbed, unfollowed and hopefully the rest of your followers too’’.

 Image: YouTube Screenshot

In this video they explain that the video had been a prank, but with a very good reason. They explain that they want to show that YouTubers only show a small part of their lives and that the viewer doesn’t know them as they think they do and that it’s easy to give the wrong image. Also, they gathered all prejudices viewers have about vloggers, such as the inclusion of advertisement and that vloggers are owned by companies. 

Then later they posted an Extra video showing how they incorporated hints, such as Alwin and Itske holding hands, into their regular Weekly vlogs. 

My opinion: Brilliant! I had commented on the 27^th March video saying “I was waiting for a clue watching this video, and had trouble not to ready the comments… I’m very confused now guys.”, as I thought they would reveal it was a prank. Anyway, I think it is brilliant how they put so much effort into creating these videos, making it seem that what they are saying in the 27^th March video is actually true. Also, they did not care about the subscribers they lost (they lost a few thousand) but rather made a sacrifice to teach everyone a lesson.

I think that more YouTubers should try to show these things to their viewers, perhaps not in such an extreme way as has been done here, but some YouTubers have very young audiences which can get influenced even more easily than older ones as they have more to learn in life. I say a big well done to VetGezellig for using social media as an educational tool, and creating such an amazing and worthy prank. 

Lesson for this chapter:
This has been described already in the article itself, but just to repeat it again: don't believe everything you see in vlogs or on the internet in general. It is so easy to manipulate the truth and to construct it to make the viewer believe whatever the reator wants them to believe. As long as you didn't witness an event as it can be seen in a vlog, it is not necessarily true. Obviously it most likely would be true, but just stay critical.  

Also check out the Twitter page of this project: @IamVlogged