The art of the prank is long and venerable. It dates back to the days of the Roman empire, when the March equinox would be accompanied by outlandish disguises, and was carried, like a flame, through medieval France (where particularly gullible victims were branded with a paper fish, a poisson d’avril) to Georgian Britain, which sequestered a whole day, 1 April, for the purpose. Now, after a 21st century spent terrorising stuffed-shirted boomers, the prank has become political, elaborate, and entered not just the world of YouTube and TikTok, where it is ubiquitous, but Channel 4. That’s where you’ll find The Great Amazon Heist, the latest primetime practical joke.
The Dennis the Menace figure at the heart of The Great Amazon Heist is self-described “professional chancer” Oobah Butler. Butler gained a following after embarking on a series of homespun but sensational pranks – such as turning his garden shed into TripAdvisor’s top-rated restaurant – that bordered on performance art. Now he’s taking on retail giant Amazon in a tripartite “heist”. The first prank is to turn bottles of Amazon delivery drivers’ urine (yes) into a bestselling energy drink, a feat which is followed by ruses involving having children order knives, and filling in a bunch of potholes. If that all sounds on the fringes of daftness, then that’s about the right assessment of the tone.
