'Tis a sad day indeed when the dashing young minds behind a YouTube prank show can, rather effortlessly, dupe much of the world into uniformly expressing understandable tweeted outrage surrounding the release of surveillance footage purporting to show the brutal murder of hitchBOT on the streets of Philadelphia. I suppose even our armchair social activism is in vain, as all of it is probably part of a larger publicity stunt for someone's sh:)tty YouTubery.
Sadly, we only have ourselves to blame. When ABC 6 interviewed vloggers Jesse Wellen and Always Teste for their slightly melodramatic piece on hitchBOT's unfortunate demise, the portion of our brains reserved for "Hey, I (unfortunately) know those guys!" should have promptly kicked into overdrive as we initiated a Googling binge:
"Always Teste" is, of course, the millions-strong YouTube prank auteur Ed Bassmaster. As Wellen explains, both were suddenly and overwhelmingly inspired to insert themselves into the R.I.P. hitchBOT movement due in large part entirely to really, desperately wanting to make you laugh. Like, please laugh at them. Also, they claim to have the additional motivation of "raising awareness:"
"We were upset about the vandalism of Hitchbot and went in search to find any Surveillance footage of the area that may have existed, so we could find out who the killer was! We had no luck, and then the idea sparked for us to create fake surveillance footage of "Always Teste," Ed's character and PRANK THE NEWS!! We bought similar parts and rebuilt the arms of the robot to utilize in the surveillance video. We placed a camera at the scene where Hitchbot was last seen and where his remains were found.
I edited the video to look like a true 'surveillance video' and I sent it off to the news because they had all been asking me for interviews and information."
Neither Bassmaster or Wellen claim any responsibility for the actual murder of hitchBOT, just the footage, though an additional reveal claiming the staging of everything you have ever loved wouldn't be a profound surprise. Your relationships? Staged for a prank show. Your career? Definitely fake. That novel you've been writing on and off for ten years about your "unique childhood?"That's just The Unauthorized Biography of Always Teste because 1984, Minority Report, NSA, I Am Legend, et al.
