Prank Academy Episodes 5-7 Review

Amanda McHugh ‘18/ Emertainment Monthly Executive Publisher

Jesse and Jeana from PrankVSPrank and BFvsGF have been hard at work teaching fellow YouTubers how to be professional pranksters in their YouTube Red Original, Prank Academy. With the help and funding from YouTube, Jesse and Jeana have been able to pull off bigger, better, and more epic pranks like never before. New episodes are released every Wednesday on their channel, PrankVSPrank.

Speed Dating Prank features Colleen Evans, better known as Miranda Sings. Miranda is a comedic persona Colleen made up to mock people who think they are are good at singing, but has now turned Miranda into a funny, over the top, naive character. In her episode Jesse and Jeana set up a real speed dating set where actual men and women come for speed dating. Miranda sits in the center of the room, acting as ridiculous as possible to make the men at the speed dating feel awkward and uncomfortable. She has to do whatever Jesse and Jeana tell her too, which includes putting her shoes on the table, making freshly squeezed orange juice, and telling a man that she loves him after he just sat down! Moreover, Colleen says this was the first time she had ever played Miranda around people who didn’t know who Miranda was, and didn’t know that she was just a character. By the end of the video the men she tricked were shocked by her behavior, and definitely were not asking her on another date.

While the video itself was humorous, the morality behind it is still a little foggy. These men came to the event thinking it was a real speed dating event, and were probably looking to meet a potential date. While other women were at the event they could’ve met, having an over the top, overbearing women in the center of the room probably wasn’t what they were expecting. The end of the video doesn’t say whether or not if they told the men that they were being pranked or not, so one can only hope that they told them it was all a joke! This prank receives a 2 out of 5 on the epic-ness meter, but a 5 on the success meter. The prank was hilarious and what Miranda did was funny, but it wasn’t anything too special or over the top. Miranda made the whole prank epic, but it was still at the cost of innocent men’s hopes for meeting someone new. Though all the men Miranda encountered seemed to believe that she was real, and not just some silly act. Colleen has some guts playing Miranda like that in real life!

Grandpa Breakdance Prank features not only Dominic Sandoval, more commonly known as D-Trix, but also all the members of Quest Crew, a hip hop dance team that has made it on America’s Best Dance Crew (twice!) and Hit the Floor. Dominic spends seven hours in makeup to make him look like an elderly man. He goes out on the streets of New York City pretending to be a fragile man with a cane, but when people help him up after he falls he breaks out into insane breakdance moves only an experienced dancer like him could pull off. His last prank is with Quest Crew. Quest Crew draws a crowd around them dancing for everyone. Jeana acts as his nurse and wheels him up in a wheelchair. At the end of everyone else’s dance, he rolls out to the center, stands up wobbling a bit, and breaks out into hip hop moves, containing flips, handstands, and more!

This prank definitely was pulled off well because of Dominic’s skills. The viewer can tell he is having fun the whole time every time he dances and the person helping him starts hysterically laughing. This prank was perfect to highlight Dominic’s charismatic personality, and also his dance moves. Involving his dance crew made the prank even better and more realistic because they fooled even more people on a higher scale. Unlike the Miranda prank though, it’s obvious that Dominic was just harmlessly pranking them, and he wasn’t hurting anyone’s personal feelings. This prank receives a 3 out of 5 on the epic-ness meter, and a 5 on the success meter. He definitely fooled everyone in his dance moves, and the streets of New York were definitely shocked at a seemingly old man breakdancing before their eyes. Even if you don’t like pranks, checking out Dominic and Quest Crew is worth it just to see them dance!

Crazy Restaurant Fight Prank has Lilly Singh, or iisuperwomanii, fool a group of people into thinking they’re witnessing a violent fist fight. Lilly worked with the stunt coordinators to know where to hit them and how in order not to actually hurt the stunt men. The people think they’re in the restaurant to film a commercial for the restaurant, but they’re in for a insane surprise! One of the stunt men gives the other one a hard time about putting away his phone, and they stand up and argue. After they throw the first punch, Lilly picks up her chair (made to break apart when hit against something!) and hits it on the guy’s back! She then takes a plate (also made to break) and smashes it over his head! The people in the restaurant are all bug eyed and trying to stop the fight from happening. After Lilly “knocks” the man out with the plate, she leaves the restaurant, hops on a horse dressed as a unicorn, and rides away like a true superhero.

This prank was hilarious because of the reactions from the people at the restaurant. One man, presumable a security guard from his security guard hat he had on, stood up in the beginning of the fight and went to walk over to stop the fight initially. When the fight finally took off he tried pulling one of the guys off the other, but another stunt man told him to back away and leave it be. Another man pulled Lilly back after she hit the guy with a chair and had his jaw dropped almost the entire prank. This prank receives a 3 out of 5 for epic-ness, and a 5 on the success meter. It would receive a 4, though the “exit by unicorn” bit at the end drops it down a notch. The prank would’ve been just as successful and hilarious without that added childish part at the end. Moreover, Lilly wasn’t the main part of the prank but was just an aspect of it. The prank really started with the stunt guys, and she was just an add on to them. While these large scale pranks are team efforts, Lilly didn’t have to do as much as other participants in Prank Academy to earn her Pass. Also unlike the Miranda prank, Jesse and Jeans enter the restaurant at the end and tell everyone that it was just a prank, and no one was really hurt and thanks them for participating.

Overall the last three pranks were hilarious, but weren’t as epic as the first few. Though with more episodes to come, who knows what the Prank Academy has up their sleeve for us the next few weeks!