After coming under fire for a prank where he pretended to buy a meal for a homeless man, YouTuber ‘whatsuptre’ is doubling down on his video.
Pranks on YouTube become newsworthy either for being hilarious or shocking. In the case of whatsuptre, his viral video sparked massive backlash from viewers.
On April 24, Tre posted a video where he went inside a Wendy’s, presumably to buy a meal for a homeless man outside. However, when he returned with the food, the YouTuber began eating in front of the man, in a stunt that seemed to cruel to be real.
After public backlash came down on Tre, he has now spoken up and maintains that he has done nothing wrong.
YouTuber admits the prank was staged
Tre took to Instagram to clear the air after the negativity surrounding this viral video, where he refused to apologize while also admitting that the whole stunt was fake.
“For people who did not read my description on my last video, the burger Wendy’s video with the homeless guy was fake,” he began before explaining that the man, whose name is Israel, agreed to be in the video. In fact, Tre said that he did buy Israel some food when the skit was done, so at least the homeless man did get a meal for his troubles.
Tre went on to admit that everything Israel said in the video was scripted. As a result, Tre maintained that he would not apologize for the fake video just because some viewers were offended.
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Responding to those who understood that the video was scripted, but were still offended that it was a joke in poor taste, Tre had this to say: “I don’t care it’s like watching a tv show, you don’t like the role, you don’t like the script? Then don’t watch it!”
Despite his explanation, it seems that Tre is still getting some heat in the comments from those who are still not fans of the stunt.
“It’s not about it being fake. It was a terrible ideal and I think the public is mad because “fake or not” it’s the fact he actually found some type of humor in doing something like that,” one commenter said on Twitter.
Others simply bashed Tre for the skit not being funny. “Cancel homie. That “prank” was [trash emoji]. I didn’t laugh once.”
Whatever your feelings on Tre are for his prank video, the important thing is that the homeless man in question wasn’t taken advantage of and got a meal out of it. While it’s not the most altruistic use of an influencer’s platform, Tre shouldn’t get hate for doing harm when it was just a prank (bro).