- YouTube pranksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners tricked celebrities into auditioning for "Borat 3," a non-existent movie, as a way to promote Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat" sequel.
- Celebrities who took part in the Zoom auditions included comedians Jimmy Carr and David Walliams, actor David Spade, and YouTuber Jason Nash.
- The YouTuber duo told Insider the celebrities knew they were auditioning for a movie that involved pranks on the public, which was "quite ironic."
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
YouTube tricksters Josh Pieters and Archie Manners managed to convince celebrities to audition for the non-existent movie "Borat 3" in their latest video prank. Pieters and Manners teamed up with Amazon to promote the release of Sacha Baron Cohen's much-awaited sequel to "Borat," "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm," on Prime.
Celebrities who took part in the Zoom auditions included comedians Jimmy Carr and David Walliams, actor David Spade, YouTuber Jason Nash, UK reality television celeb Stephen Bear, and politician Ann Widdecombe.
Manners told Insider the eclectic cast makes the video fun for everyone.
"If you're in your early 20s and love YouTube you'll enjoy it," he said. "And if you're my grandfather and you're an MP and politics fan, there's also something there."
The celebrities were auditioning for a role in a prank movie
Manners added that the audition process for movies is quite secretive, "so it's quite fun to unveil the curtain behind what happens."
The premise of "Borat 3" was to be a prank movie, so the celebrities auditioning all knew they would be taking part in performing tricks on the public.
"Which is, in terms of justification, quite important," said Manners. "In that they knew they were auditioning to have a job that was going to involve pranking people, rather ironically."
The duo had to write an entire script when several of the celebrities' agents requested it.
"I watched Borat a lot of times, Archie is a fantastic writer, so together we got ourselves into the spirit of 'Borat' and tried our best to write something as true to 'Borat' as possible," Pieters told Insider.
In one part of the video, for example, influencers are reading out lyrics from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's "WAP." Widdecombe also repeats Borat's characteristic "very nice" back to Pieters at least four times.
"It's sort of hilarious that nobody noticed that these scripts were clearly utterly bonkers," Manners said.
'David is getting the role of Mr. Ambassador'
Manners and Pieters said they messed about with the reality stars a bit more than the professional acting talent of Walliams, Spade, and Carr. Walliams, they said, gave a particularly brilliant audition. Pieters said it's definitely a peak career moment to have a comedian they respect so much act out scenes they created.
"We didn't just want it to be really silly and laughing at people doing bad auditions," he said. "But also you get to see and enjoy some world-class acting from David Walliams and imagine him in that role as the ambassador of Kazakhstan."
He added that "me and Archie have actually decided that David is getting the role of Mr. Ambassador."
The video was a much quicker turnaround than the YouTubers are used to. Usually, Manners said, they sit in their office for three weeks, staring at an empty whiteboard, "panicking about what on Earth we're going to do."
And with pranks such as getting Carole Baskin to do her first broadcast interview since "Tiger King," awarding Katie Hopkins with a fake prize, and tricking the world with a fake Ed Sheeran, each video is a tough act to follow.
"Amazon approached us asking if we could help make a video for 'Borat 2' on Sunday last week, and then we had to have it ready for the Friday of the next week," said Pieters, who had the idea to have celebrities audition for a movie over Zoom way back at the beginning of the pandemic. "It was really cool that they got involved and allowed us to create something fun."
Coronavirus masks helped keep the duo from laughing
Pieters and Manners always like to give the people on the receiving end of their pranks a fair chance, partly so they don't get in too much trouble, and also so they know it's all in good faith.
For this video, the casting company was registered to Pieters, and the scripts were not said to have been written by Baron Cohen.
"Even down to, if you look at the video, we look ridiculous," Manners said. "We're sitting there wearing face masks, on Zoom, the whole premise is just moronic. There's quite a lot of it that is so farcical, that even though Borat himself is ridiculous, you kind of can't believe that they're going along with this."
The fact COVID-19 is still prevalent across the world also worked in the YouTube duo's favor, as wearing masks during the video calls helped them conceal their expressions and keep their identities somewhat hidden.
"Trying not to laugh is really really hard," Manners said. "And of course I was absolutely chortling and chuckling and giggling away, but they couldn't see it."
He added that while their videos get a lot of attention at the time, in general he doesn't think people remember what they look like when a prank is done.
"Well, you don't have to spend your life being 6 ft 4 with red hair," Pieters added.
Watch the full video below.
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October 26, 2020 at 10:31PM
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Celebrities and a politician got tricked into fake 'Borat 3' auditions by YouTube pranksters - Insider - INSIDER
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