Tucker Carlson, a notable media figure predominantly known for his stint with Fox News, was recently the recipient of a carefully crafted practical joke involving the notorious edited photograph of Kate Middleton. The puckish masterminds behind the stunt were none other than the infamous British content creators, Josh and Archie, known for their jocular content on YouTube.
In a rather clever manipulation, the pranksters managed to convince Mr. Carlson into conversing with what he believed to be a whistleblower from Kensington Palace. Archie Manners, one half of the duo, assumed the role of an aggrieved former employee of the Prince and Princess of Wales, a fictitious digital content creator allegedly dismissed for inadequately modifying the contentious Mother’s Day photograph and thereby arousing public suspicion.
The ruse was accepted at face value by the Tucker Carlson Network, a digital media platform now streaming on Twitter (recently renamed X), following the duo’s skilful fabrication of employment documentation purported to be provided by the palace. A rather outlandish element of their forged documentation was a clause implying that a limb’s amputation was within the palace’s rights if the employee’s probationary period was deemed a failure.
This ostensibly dubious document failed to stir scepticism among Carlson’s team. Consequently, Manners was ushered into a London studio armed with a hotline to the unsuspecting media figure for the interview which was subsequently recorded.
During the recording, Mr. Carlson, seemingly convinced by the ruse, introduces his guest by stating, “We’ve done our best to verify that your identity is what you say it is. You’re not a fake [Alexei] Navalny or a prankster.” Once the interview commenced, Manners, fully immersed in his fabricated persona, made claims about the photograph’s origins and his subsequent termination for the botched editing job that aroused public suspicion.
Following the perceived successful interview, Mr. Carlson expressed satisfaction with the exchange, communicating to Manners that the telecast of their conversation was set to take off ‘early next week’.
Determined to end the masquerade, the YouTubers decided to reveal their charade. Their revelation wasn’t driven solely by the desire for dramatic revelation, but out of concern about perpetuating misinformation among Mr. Carlson’s 12.6M followers on the digital platform X. “We didn’t want to cause any more rumors, that are not true, to go out to lots and lots of people,” noted Manners.
Mr. Carlson’s reaction to the subterfuge remains unreported as no comments were available from the Tucker Carlson Network at the time of writing. Josh and Archie, celebrated for accruing nearly 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube through their whimsical pranks, have added yet another notable prank to their collection. Their previous escapades include duping Carole Baskin into an interview and amusingly bestowing a fabricated award on the controversial commentator Katie Hopkins.
