WATCH SA YouTube star pranks UK protest group

South African video creator and YouTube star Josh Pieters, and his British mate Archie Manners, have just pranked one of the most unpopular groups in the UK, Just Stop Oil.

The protest group, which was founded early last year, is on a mission to stop oil BUT while their disruptive tactics may create headlines, they’re also proving so unpopular that there’s a concern they’re putting people OFF caring about the environment, rather than achieving their goal.

Josh, who’s originally from Knysna but now based in London, says Just Stop Oil uses “unorthodox tactics to further their cause, has been accused of being anti-semitic multiple times, cost the UK tax payer millions of pounds in policing; and really, really pissed off the public.”

He says nobody’s denying that climate change “is the greatest problem we face” but with 64% of the public disapproving on Just Stop- Oil “their tactics are putting people off instead”. (Their tactics include vandalising works of art, disrupting sports events and stopping traffic, including motorists trying to reach hospitals.)

With that in mind, Josh and Archie – who are famous for pranking celebrities – planted a mole (one of their producers) in Just Stop Oil, and gathered members of their own ‘group’ named Just Stop P*ssing Everyone Off.

Yesterday 29-year-old Josh posted: “We’ve spent the last few days undercover with Just Stop Oil. Today they held a party to ‘celebrate’ their achievements, and we were there, giving them a taste of their own medicine.”

Their ‘medicine’ included setting off personal safety alarms suspended in balloons that were difficult to reach.

Josh says: “I think it’s fair if we disrupt Just Stop Oil (JSO) in the same way they disrupt us.”

However, the climate activists have tried to turn the prank into a positive, saying that the alarms were a “perfect metaphor for the urgency of the climate crisis ✊”

Some YouTube viewers have now called on Josh and Archie to do to a big oil company what they just did to JSO.

The video ends with their recommendation for the future: “Climate change requires a solution. It is the greatest crisis facing our generation, but standing in the road infuriating ordinary people and hosting parties isn’t working. Surely if we are to tackle this gigantic problem effectively, we need to unite as a planet, bring people from across the globe together and ensure that we can come up with the solutions together to secure Earth’s future for us all.”

Josh and Archie, who have 1.44-million subscribers on YouTube, posted the following video on their page last night:

WATCH Josh & Archie: We stopped Just Stop Oil

Props to @j_s_p_p_o for their impeccable action design. We invited them to eat with us, but the alarms they let off at our banquet instead were the perfect metaphor for the urgency of the climate crisis ✊ pic.twitter.com/ohr3RSfezh

— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) July 23, 2023