(mouse clicks)
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- Okay, my mom just canceled
my brother's World of Warcraft account,
and he is freaking out. - Nice. Yes. Old-school YouTube.
- Classic. (in video: snickering)
- (Jenny) My favorite! - (Lucas) Oh, I've seen this!
(both laugh)
- I already hate this.
- We're in for a show.
(boy hyperventilating)
(boy screeching) - (snickers)
(boy screeching) - (laughs)
- Sounds like a Velociraptor.
- (laughs loudly)
- I call that the dolphin.
- Is this real?
- I know there was claims that it was fake.
It's definitely not fake.
- I was like this when I was a kid.
(boy grunting) - (laughs)
- And he's naked. How does he do it?
- What did he do in there?
(boy grumbles incoherently) - (guffaws)
- (chortles)
(boy yelling) - (laughs)
- (laughing) What is going on?
- (laughs)
- Do you think it's acted out? - I hope not.
- One last punch, and you're good.
- No, don't walk out. Aw, you forgot something.
Your wardrobe.
- How awkward for the rest of the family!
- He almost went Super Saiyan there.
- And thus a legend was born.
(brother snickering)
- You can't get more perfect than that.
That is the essence of viral.
- It's Stephen's 16th birthday.
And to surprise my brother... - I haven't seen this.
- Oh, this is my favorite.
- (Stephen) Yeah. - (brother) What do you think it is?
- (Stephen) Uh... a truck?
(mom chuckles) - (brother) Yes!
- Oh no, he's gonna lose it. - Oh god, the whole family's in
on the prank of taking advantage of the anger management guy.
- (mom) You like it? - (Stephen) No.
- (mom) Why? - At least he's honest.
- He doesn't love the truck.
- Please start screaming.
- (Stephen) Yeah, but I'll look like a [bleep] driving it.
- (mom) No, you won't.
- (Stephen) Oh my god.
- Oh [bleep]. Roid rage.
- (mom) Oh, I would put that away.
- (dad) I just paid $200 for that truck. - Did you say $200?
- It's not real. The dad would restrain him.
Oh my gosh, he's hitting the truck!
- This kid is messed up!
- (Stephen) Get away! - (dad) Stop it!
- (laughs loudly)
- Oh no. Stephen.
- (Stephen) Fine! - (snickers)
(in video: collective shouts)
- (mom) Shut it off. - (brother) No, no, no, no!
It's off! It's off! - Where'd his shirt go?
- There he goes.
He reaches final form before he commences his full attack.
- How does he get his shirt off that quick with no one noticing?
- I'm sorry. I'm so bored, I zoned out.
- (Stephen) ...unpopular bitch. (strikes car, brother snickering)
- (mom) Give me the camera. - This has to be staged.
- Love it. I love it.
- Cracks me up every time.
- I don't want kids now. - It's definitely acted out.
- That's always an experience.
♪ (dramatic chord) ♪
- (Finebros) Had you seen this before? - No.
- Yeah, I have.
- Yes, I've seen the whole series.
- Have I seen an annoying [bleep] kid
screaming about something before? Yeah.
- I saw the original, of course--
the quadrillion-views wafflepwn situation.
- It reminds me a little bit of Dax Flame.
Like, back in the day, there's this element of it's homemade.
But it's like, the personality is too real to not believe.
But then it kind of gets so extreme
that there's no way that it can be a real human.
- (Finebros) So glance at the screen. Why did he do this?
- I don't want to answer that. (bursts out laughing)
- Legends are being born.
- (snickering)
When you're upset, is that not what you do?
- We've all done it. Haven't you done it before?
All joking aside,
I think he's actually suffering from some sort of disability.
- (laughs uncontrollably) He's so good.
- He's gonna have kids someday, and they're gonna see that.
- That's an exciting thing for me.
I would never be angry while doing it.
Although maybe that intensifies the feeling.
- (Finebros) So this video went viral in 2009...
- Really?
- (Finebros) ...and is a great example
of an early viral YouTube video
that was debated as being real or fake.
- I'm sure it did, because people are [bleep] stupid!
It's fake.
- (Finebros) Why is that concept of real or fake
something that adds to a video's virality?
- I guess it just adds a little more controversy.
- They could keep commenting and fighting back and forth.
And YouTube, it's like, the more you comment,
the bigger video it goes.
- In the beginning of YouTube, everything was real.
Everything was not fake.
Then Lonely Girl came around ruined us all.
- Now you get to watch it,
but you also get to be a part of the debate.
It's why we love YouTube and why we're so engaged in everything.
- That's when all your friends go,
"Dude, do you think this is real, or do you think it's fake?
Here, just watch." And you multiply that a hundred billion times.
This will be in textbooks.
People will debate about this for decades.
- It's a debate. It's a discussion.
So you watch it the first time, you analyze it,
and then you want to get another opinion.
So you show it to another person to see what they think about it.
You freeze-frame, kinda like how you freeze-framed in--
screenshot that remote in the butt.
That was the lowest point of your job ever.
- (Finebros) So there were several more of these clips,
as you mentioned,
all with Stephen getting so upset about something
and his brother grabbing the camera to film him.
- At just the right moment.
- (Finebros) But did you know that even now,
all these years later, they are still putting out videos?
- No. He's still making stuff?
- No way.
- I didn't know they were still at it.
- Yeah. Well, maybe once a month.
- Really?
Did they have a big audience?
- (Finebros) I have one of the recent ones to show you.
- Oh no, I can't do this.
- Please. Can I?
- Okay, Stephen's going to Tennessee
to stay with my Uncle Philip at his ranch for a couple months.
- He got his braces off! Thank god!
- (Stephen) There is absolutely no way you can make me go there!
- (mom) What is that? Job number what? Seven?
Come on. - (Stephen) I hate Uncle Philip!
- (chortles) Me too, man. [Bleep] Uncle Philip.
- This is so uncomfortable. I can't watch this.
- I don't care if it's staged anymore. This is great.
- (Stephen) No! - (mom) Go!
No! - (brother, giggling) Oh my god.
- (laughs)
- Either this kid really has some issues
that need to be taken care of or this is fake.
- I want to make fun, and I can't! I can't make fun!
- (Stephen) Knock it off! - Did he punch him?
- (brother) Where'd he go?
- Yeah, you're maybe 100 feet in that snow.
- He just tossed the painting.
- It's like a family thing that they do, you know?
It's like, "Let's go record the new YouTube video.
Stephen, freak out."
- I would let him run free.
- That's severely disappointing.
Nothing got shoved up any orifices.
- (Finebros) So what do you think
that you're seeing them now older?
And even though this was a thing years ago,
he's still screaming, he's still freaking out,
and still being caught on camera.
- It's interesting. I didn't know.
- I think his brother needs to stop recording him.
- If it's real, it's a little sad.
If it's fake, it's a little sad.
- Maybe they figured out they can make money on YouTube.
He's like, "Yo, Stephen, freak out for me."
- Five or six of these videos I get.
But six years' worth of these videos?
I don't know. I just don't see the audience.
- If this is supporting the whole family, then good for them.
But I don't know. I don't believe it.
- Maybe the first video was real.
And then they saw the reaction that they got from it,
and like, "Oh my gosh, people view this."
And it went viral. They just keep staging them.
- I feel like it's not as funny now.
- I feel like it's when I tried to do Fred after two years.
It's a bit overboard now. Like, stop. (both laugh)
- (Finebros) So do you think this is real or fake?
- This is fake.
- I think fake.
- It's definitely fake.
- I think this is fake.
- Fake.
- Probably fake, 'cause I heard
they got offered a show or something.
- I think they've done so many of these.
I think they're fake.
- It's fake! It's fake!
- No, it's real.
I sincerely believe there's something actually going on with him.
He's definitely got some sort of mental disorder.
- Fake. - Fake, for sure.
- I do think it's funny though. - (laughs)
- (Finebros) So for a long time,
we couldn't even figure out if it was real or fake officially.
But a couple years ago, he appeared on Tosh.0,
where he admitted that it was fake the whole time.
- Really? I've never seen that episode.
- There you go.
- Then my instincts were right.
- (Finebros) So does that change your opinion of it?
- No. It's still real.
- (Finebros) Why would he go on to Tosh though?
- Because it's embarrassing for the family.
I don't think he wants to have that reputation.
It's a way out.
- (Finebros) But even so, they continue to make videos.
And they have a fan base. They have over 1 million subscribers.
- Oh my god, that's more than us.
- (Finebros) And every video gets a million views or more.
- Am I supposed to be surprised
that stuff on YouTube gets popular that's [bleep] stupid?
- What am I doing wrong? (grumbles)
I'm putting so much effort into my videos.
- (Finebros) Why does this work so well?
- 'Cause you still want to see, "Oh god, what's he gonna do now?"
- The internet is just full of people that don't think.
That's the nicest way I can put it.
- Despite people knowing that it's fake,
they still see it as entertainment.
- It's all Stephen. That's his name, right? Squirrel Boy?
He's got a very strong, likable factor.
You can relate in an almost weird way,
'cause you might remember the temper tantrums
you had when you were six, and mine were kinda like that
minus the remote in the butt part.
- As my mom says-- she's always like--
"There's a broken one in every family."
So I think people see that and are like,
"Oh, that's like my mom," or "Oh, that's like my sister.
Ha, I wish I could get back at her like that and upload a video."
- You know why? 'Cause it's new kids that are watching this,
so they think it's real.
Kids, it's not real. None of this is real. I'm not even real.
- It's like a reality show,
because they're kind of like the Kardashians.
- Yeah, we just get to keep checking in on their life,
and now he's trying to get a job.
- And see if he gets any better.
- I mean, I want to see them make the video.
Imagine them all at dinner discussing the next video.
- (laughing) Like a table read.
- (sulkily) If you don't subscribe to all of us down here,
I'm gonna run away! I'm gonna run away!
Gonna run away and never come back!
- Do svidaniya!
- Thanks for watching YouTubers React.
- (Rafi) One more time. - (Benny) Yeah, not very good.
- Thanks for watching YouTubers React.
Make sure you click Subscribe button down below.
- (Benny) No, you're saying too much now. - (Rafi) More energy.
- What?! (yelling with rage)
♪ (end music) ♪