When they infiltrated three morning news programs by passing themselves off as an improbable strongman duo, Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett were not the first people to prank TV News.
Left-leaning activists The Yes Men famously infiltrated BBC, and right-wing provocateur James O’Keefe unsuccessfully attempted to plant a false story in the Washington Post. More frequently, tricksters have no overt political agenda, happy to simply interrupt serious or anodyne programing with the absurd or profane. Whatever the perpetrators’ intention, the result of these stunts is a demonstration of the fallibility of newsgathering operations. As such, out of embarrassment or pragmatism, the targeted media companies generally avoid legal retaliation against the pranksters. That all changed with Prueher and Pickett.
Gray Television owns and/or operates over 100 local television stations across the country. The conglomerate had previously been fooled by two other bogus characters created by Prueher and Pickett and decided to sue the comedy team after the phony strongmen, dubbed Chop and Steele, conquered their airwaves. One of the charges was copyright infringement, over clips of the broadcast Prueher and Pickett used in a montage, which they believe is protected by “fair use” laws. The more serious charges were “fraud” and “conspiracy to commit fraud.”
The legal battle was shaping up to be precedent-setting, but almost a year after the charges were filed, as VICE News was reporting the story, there was a sudden twist. The two sides came to an unexpected settlement. Without a judge to make a final ruling each party declared itself the de facto winner of the litigation.
Watch the story below to see the arguments both sides present for their victory, in what Prueher described as “A really stupid first amendment battle.”
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50 comments
These dudes are very Tim and Eric'ish
Best way to get into shape:
https://youtu.be/juYCOv52_2g?si=elILRZWDsQxqZTNz
CHEF KEITH GURKEY!!!!!
Bro, it's just a prank. Good for the TV station.
Grey media should have just hired them as regular show on their TV….what a missed opportunity….
Skinnier guy sounds very much like David Cross at times.
That thumbnail looking like Colleen B.
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
PWNT
I mean, its Wisconsin. One of the dumbest states in the USA.
Hidden gem in the Vice libary
Omg have a sense of humor people lol
These guys are amazing, absolute geniuses
They're getting sued for revealing how lazy and stupid news has become. The other stuff is bullshit and everyone knows.
These guys are hero’s 🥂🤣🤣
Vice sux
VICE TOO THE FUCKIN RESCUE. BEST CHANNEL IS THE LAST 30 yrs
Reminds me of something Tim and Eric would do
I really thought this was just the onion, but then its vice which made me laugh harder
Isn't this clear evidence that we shouldn't trust the media to spread any factual information? 🤔
Quite a gorgeous demonstration of how the current world works. Great victory!
That's right!!!!!! Much love
This is the first time ever i've found an interesting and funny Vice articlle. Congratulations guys
These guys are rockstars.
this is genius
Lol
Don’t stop found what you do! You guys are amazing!!!!!!!!!!😀!!!!!!!
These guys are now officially my favorite people on the planet.
I just had a nice little come apart when I realized that their friend Mark, is Mark Proksch, who plays Nate in The Office, among his many things.
Well we know people on the news don't have brains.
BRUH these dudes are legendary
It's just a prank bro!
The ones that need sued are the lying news media that propagandize the people. They do no research into what is true. They just do what their handlers tell them. Like all politicians.
0:27 Love Kevin Bacon on the morning news!
Helping others and spreading joy
The realm of Vice I’d like to stay in
A news organization to stupid to vet the people they are interviewing…. lol.
Their decision after getting humiliatingly pranked was to sue, which is even more humiliating, and they only stopped the lawsuit after they heard about VICE. News companies are supposed to help their viewers see the world in an accurate way. If they're running without the right goals or are getting funded by the wrong people they'll end up painting a picture that isn't accurate. Beyond poor research, fake news is often just planned manipulation.
"They basically had to admit on a legal document that they were incompetent journalists "
Flexxxxx
Here after John Oliver's episode 9n this
Those guys are great!
Tom Segura would love these
John Oliver just pranked more than one of these shows. Lol
News are so dumb they fell for people playng dumb
I'm already a Big fan of these guys!
02:33 Mark = Leonardo DiCaprio
Only in America.
'i feel like we're robbing bank' that was such a stupid thing to say when your being sued, I get the feeling that this footage will end up in court😭🤣
Edit: I should of watched till the end🤣
These guys are geniuses 😂😂😂
We're they being paid to appear on the news shows as a real strongman duo? If so, why would you pay for that? These are fluff pieces that morning shows do all the time, slots that are meant to entertain and break from real news. If anything, it shows Grey Television as chumps that have no integrity, before or after. The publicity alone from water-cooler talk should have been good enough for the company, but they got greedy. I hope it cost the company tons of money, and they still didn't learn probably.
This is great, the news is fooled by two jokesters. And they fell for it hook line and sinker.
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