YouTubers are the new Shakespeares.
In this series, I, Liam Williams, a man who has,
on over three separate occasions,
described the internet unironically as a sort of
modern Wild West in terms of its regulation,
will be meeting them.
Come on. Ooh!
Each week, I'll be taking a different challenge
as I try to become more like them and hopefully win a £10,000 prize.
Then rotate...
Yeah!
HE SCREAMS
I arrived at the YouTubers management agency, Beam, to receive
my final challenge from James Wirm.
KNOCK AT DOOR
All right.
THEY SCREAM
Argh! Get off me, get off me!
HE SCREAMS
BRAKES SQUEAL
Morning.
Your challenge this week is the thorny issue of...
Drumroll please, clowns.
Ah!
..humour.
You need to make a prank video.
And we'll upload it on to uniROFL.com
and then the people will decide - is it prank or is it wank?
If they say prank, you win yourself 10K.
If they vote wank,
you can crawl back into your hole, empty-handed.
Capisce?
Capisce.
Right, I have a Visions meeting at 10:15,
so it feels like it's back in the van and off we pop.
Good luck, Liam.
I was feeling low.
Last week my soul mate, Nozomi, had abandoned me.
I'm going back to Japan.
What?
And I learnt that James Wirm was preventing Millipede from breaking
up with Charlie.
To make things worse, I had to go and see self-titled alpha vlogger
Johnny Jackson, who had given me a hard time
during my fitness challenge.
Wah!
Prank!
Johnny Jackson.
Argh, spot me!
I hadn't enjoyed my gym session with the Lad Pad,
but life for Johnny wasn't all about being unnecessarily strong,
it was also about doing pranks.
Excuse me, love. Excuse me, love.
Do you want to see my balls?
Mmm, no.
My balls. My tennis balls!
Johnny Jackson.
We saw your sign that you had up on the door there with a
word crossed out. What was the crossed-out word?
Gays. It used to say "gays".
Right, why's it crossed out?
And Crooksy. You remember Crooksy.
Crooksy?
Right.
Boop.
Johnny Jackson.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait!
Why do you love pranking so much?
I don't.
What?
Yeah, you do.
Ah!
Got you. Prank.
That was a prank?
You pranked me already?
Well, that's the end of the interview.
Was that...?
Two out of ten.
Eliminated. That was terrible, man.
Go on, sorry. Ask your question.
What makes a good prank?
Yeah, that's a good question, man. Erm...
Thank you.
There's a lot of people on YouTube who say they're pranksters when they
really ain't.
I ain't going to name any names,
but Mickey P keeps copying my pranks.
All right, love? Do you want to see my balls?
You've been pranked by Mickey P.
Watch this. Watch this, watch this.
Hello, mate.
Mickey P prank!
Wah! You've been pranked by Mickey P.
HE LAUGHS
Mickey P's just pranked you.
You know what he does? He keeps calling me out on social media.
What does that mean?
I'm calling you out, Johnny Jackson.
But what does it mean?
you know, he keeps calling me out,
and I'm going to tell you one thing,
if he calls me out one more time, I'm going to call him out.
The interview came to an abrupt halt when Johnny received an intriguing
WhatsApp message.
HE CHUCKLES
Oh, gosh. Hey, Crooksy, even you've got to admit, yeah,
that's pretty hot. Look at that.
PHONE VIBRATES
All right, she wants to meet right now.
And where does she want to meet?
This is where she dropped the pin.
Pretty weird place to meet, no?
Oh, shut up, shut up, gamma boy.
Right, here it is.
Yeah.
I feel at peace. That moment before you get the V,
do you know what I mean?
You think that the V's coming?
Whoa.
Whoa! Get here, come here.
Oh, my goodness.
Agh! Oh! Oh-h.
Egg on your face, Johnny?
Mickey P!
mate.
What, you're calling me out?
I've got just got a picture message of your face,
and you know what it said?
You've been called out! He's just been called out.
Yo, you're calling me out? You can tell your followers to suck my cock.
Did you touch me? He just touched me. Wah!
HE CHEERS
Is that what calling out is?
Where's this girl, then?
I don't think she's coming.
I think Mickey P pranked you.
Well, I pranked him now, innit?
Let's go.
I've got egg in my mouth, it's not cooked!
If pranking meant punching someone in the face,
I was doomed to fail my challenge.
I hoped, though, that meeting up with Charlie
would provide the general inspiration I needed.
Cool camera.
Oh. Erm, I'm Liam.
Drexl - sketches, characters, general funny, subscribey now.
Charlie was going to introduce me to one of his regular collaborators,
a YouTube sketch comedian called Drexl.
Drexl here! Subscribey now.
Has anyone seen my glasses?
You can actually use a pizza crust to unlock your iPhone...
which is handy, cos my hands are pizza.
HE SCREAMS
Hello, police? Yeah,
I've just got home and all my flatmates have been murdered.
It's the second time this week.
How's it going here?
we're supposed to be doing a sketch about a funny fly.
And whilst we have a fly, it's not a particularly funny one.
Why are you not being a funny fly, Charlie?
Look, can we just get on with it?
Sure. So, what's the sketch about?
The premise is what would it be like if you have a fly as a housemate?
Nice.
I'm just eating some shit, you?
Eugh!
I've got a hot date with a...
er...fruit fly later.
Me think I love her.
I'm sorry, mate, I can't do this.
What's up, Charlie?
I don't know what his problem is.
And why's he have to be Spanish for that one line?
I can't work like this, OK, Charlie?
You all right, mate?
Millie wants to break up with me.
Yeah, I know.
What do you mean you know?
I mean...what?
Millie...?
Slow down, Millie wants to break up with you?
Yeah, and... Right, you know James Wirm?
Yeah.
Like, we've got this contract thing.
A contract? Yeah, and...
I've been there, man.
I've been in this exact...
Well, not this exact situation, cos this is a very ludicrously
specific situation that you're in.
But I've been in this general kind of situation and...
Yeah.
I don't think I want to do this fly sketch.
You don't have to do the fly sketch.
Yeah, but it's too late, there's no-one else to do it, is there?
Hey, man, what you doing?
Just eating a shit.
What's in the box?
Oh, just a new kitchen appliance.
HE SIGHS
All done.
It just looks like some electrical wires.
Yeah, cos I haven't switched it on yet, have I?
BUZZING
Drexl here, subscribey now.
I didn't learn anything from Drexl,
but I hoped it would be more useful to meet Millipede's friend,
LauraLauras, one of America's biggest prank vloggers.
This is Liam.
He is doing vlogging challenges as part of a scheme to, like,
help people with anxiety and depression.
That's not what I'm doing. Where have you got that from?
Oh, I just sort of assumed.
What a specific thing to assume.
This is LauraLauras.
She is a YouTube comedian from America.
From America?
I love Netflix and...
Cool.
We were supposed to be doing a funny collab together
but I just wasn't feeling vloggy.
No, babe, it's fine, we'll do a collab next time I'm over.
Get this, James Wirm's been calling up all the time,
he wants to sign Laura while she's over here.
It actually really sad.
I know. It's just, like, dude, I don't do agents, OK?
It's like, if you want to buy me dinner,
just send me $400 like a normal person.
After Laura had left, Millie told me that James Wirm had refused to end
her contract, meaning that she'd be trapped in a relationship
with Charlie for the next seven years.
So, there's nothing you can do, eh?
I guess I'll just pretend to go out with Charlie
for the next seven years.
Seven years isn't that long, so...
How about your romantic sitch?
Yeah, it's not good, either, really.
Nozomi is mad at me for missing the flight
and she won't even talk to me now.
You should go to Japan and tell her how you feel.
I can't.
I can't afford another plane ticket...
unless I pass my final challenge and win the ten grand but...
I just can't see that happening. I've got to do a prank video.
I hate prank videos...
unless the person really deserves it.
Hmm.
So, I'm about to go for a drink with James Wirm.
But what he doesn't know is that I'm wearing a camera.
Cheers.
Mmm.
I've admired you from afar.
All those views underneath your videos, 50% me.
Yes, I would like a sherry.
No.
I would not say a single word about any of my clients.
Polly Sprong is
Johnny Jackson is
Millipede is
Charlie
Mmm.
The promised land.
Double bed!
Oh, my God.
Hello.
I'm very sexually attracted to clowns.
I can be a clown.
Put this on. And take the rest off.
POP MUSIC PLAYS
Yeah. Yeah, you're a little clown boy.
In-credible!
Yeah, do what you want with it, I don't want it.
POP MUSIC PLAYS
Looks like a classic.
Like an all-timer.
Feeling it today, eh?
Come on, wake up.
Wow!
Let's... We could do with a laugh. Let's have a look at uniROFL.com
and see if there's any new content out there.
It's me, it's my video!
I guess that means I've passed my final challenge.
You know, it'd be a shame
if any more of this footage were to turn up on the internet.
Polly Sprong is
Johnnie Jackson
I told James that, if he annulled Millipede's contract, the secrets he
disclosed about his clients would not be aired.
You've got my bank details, yeah?
I'm going to fly this afternoon, so...when you get a moment.
Cheers.
My vlogging journey was over and a new one was about to begin.
I left Beam for the final time,
realising that there's more to vlogging than I'd initially thought.
For a whole lonely generation,
a vlogger is less a celebrity phenomenon and more a friend
or a sibling,
someone who's always there for you.
Do I now want to be a professional vlogger myself?
No.
But will I at least now subscribe to a few vloggers and enjoy their
work from time to time?
Again, no, I've got better things to do.
But nevertheless, these vloggers, they're all right by me.
You're free. The chains are broken.
Liam...you did it.
It was a collab.
What a cool collab. This is goodbye, I suppose. This is goodbye.
And to you, guys, it'll be weird not having you around
poking into every corner of my life.
All right, well, goodbye.
I'll see you on YouTube.
Bye. The airport, please.
# I'm coming home My bags are packed
# I'm coming home No, there's no turning back
# I'm coming home Cos it's been too long
# I'm coming home Back where I belong
# I'm coming home
# I'm coming home. #