The latest viral prank by Oobah Butler
UPDATE: November 23, 2020
Oobah Butler’s Reunion project had over 10 million views within a week of its launch.
Oobah Butler is probably the best prankster working today. In the past, he messed with the mechanisms of modern hype to create TripAdvisor’s top-rated London restaurant out of an impromptu backyard eatery and, in response to the resulting media frenzy, hired a team of body doubles to handle his appearances on international radio and TV news. Lately, he’s been making short documentaries for Vice about his new service, which allows clients to have an impersonator do things for them they’d rather not have to do.
After helping a guy avoid skydiving with his wife by swapping him for a fake version of himself, Butler turned to a man in Maryland who wanted to impress his old classmates at a high school reunion by showing up as a hotter, more successful guy than he really is.
Butler’s skills were contracted by a dentistry student named Stephen Fasteau, who wanted to show up the people who bullied him in high school by attending his reunion as a male model in a successful rock band. Butler dutifully recruits a model, gives him a crash course in Fasteau’s school life, poorly shaves his head, and sends him to the reunion with a mission to win over the people in attendance.
It doesn’t go as well as Butler’s past pranks. Though a decent number of old classmates are fooled by the fake Fasteau, others start to get suspicious and quiz him on information about the past he has no way of knowing. Desperate to keep the con going, the model takes off his shirt and plays a hilarious guitar solo for the baffled reunion crowd.
By the time the video ends, it ends up providing a surprisingly wholesome lesson. The real Fasteau is clearly way more affable than he thinks he is and, once they’ve figured out that the double isn’t him, his old classmates mostly just seemed bummed not to have a chance to catch up with him. Fasteau ends up heading inside and calling off the ruse. We don’t learn what happens to the model next, but can assume he vanishes into the shadows, hair mangled by a bad head shave and hopeful that his services will be required again as a body double in the future.
This article originally featured in AV Club