Trollstation

Trollstation (previously named TrollStationUK) is a YouTube channel consisting of, as well as collaborating with, numerous British pranksters who perform pranks and social experiments, more recently focusing on the latter. The pranks carried out by members of Trollstation are filmed covertly, often without the permission of those involved; however, they are revealed to be pranks soon after. Some of their pranks have led to the arrest of some members of the group.

The channel suddenly attracted particularly high publicity after a coordinated series of pitch invasions during a UEFA Europa League game between Tottenham Hotspur and Partizan Belgrade on Thursday 27 November 2014.^[1] As of October 2016, they have over 850,000 subscribers on YouTube.

In March 2016, Trollstation founder and cameraman 'Digi Dan' was jailed for 9 months after being convicted of staging a bomb hoax and mock robberies in London.

In May 2016, four other members of Trollstation were jailed for between 16 and 20 weeks after staging a 'terrifying' fake art heist which caused a stampede at the National Portrait Gallery. Five members of "Trollstation" - some with tights on their heads - burst into the central London art gallery playing a loud alarm and pretended to steal paintings, just a week after the Tunisian beach massacre. The gallery's visitors fled in apparent panic and one woman passed out, while others were trampled on in the rush before the group moved on to Tate Britain where they carried out a fake robbery and kidnapping, a court was told.

Members

• Gomes Garcia, (Helder Gomes) from Portugal
• Nathan Brown, from London (now "has taken a step out of Trollstation for the time being")^[2]
• Daniel Jarvis, from Gravesend
• Amina Maz, from London
• Ebenezer Mensah, aka Darkie, from London
• James Slattery, from Maidstone
• Lee Marshall, aka Disco Boy from Canterbury
• Jermaine Nation, from London
• Stines, from London
• Endrit Ferizoli, aka Light from London
• Danh Van Le, aka Digi Dan from London

Notable pranks

Pranks include a rap battle between two police officers,^[3] a child dropping a wallet in front of strangers to see if it is returned,^[4][5] and a blind man dropping his wallet.^[6] An extremely long selfie stick.^[7][8] Other pranks included 'abusing a transvestite',^[9] impersonating traffic wardens and giving tickets to police officers,^[10][11] invading the ring at a WWE SmackDown match,^[12][13] a woman approaching men in public asking for sex^[14] and pointing a toy gun at police officers.^[15] The video involving Daniel Jarvis handing out parking fines to police, confusing the officers involved, featured on Channel 4's Rude Tube.^[16]

GTA V Prank

In honour of the release of the video game Grand Theft Auto V, Trollstation uploaded a video of Gomes Garcia attempting to steal people's cars - a common theme in the Rockstar franchise. After a very divisive reaction to this prank, Trollstation uploaded a video apologising to viewers, and Garcia went to the police station to hand himself in. The police staff seemed disinterested, and Garcia left with no further consequences.^[17]

'Call of Duty Ghosts Prank'

Again, in honour of a video game's release, Trollstation uploaded a video of Garcia wandering around a council estate and firing blanks from a paintball gun with the intention of frightening the victim. The first person Garcia 'shot' was initially perplexed but laughed about it afterwards. However, other prank victims ran away before Garcia could reveal it was prank, prompting the victims and nearby residents to call the police. An armed squad was asked to investigate the situation, so Garcia waited two hours before resuming.

The video provoked the police to take retrospective action, ordered the take-down of the video and subsequent abandonment of the YouTube channel. TrollStationYT was then created.

Tube Night Club

A temporary 'nightclub' was set up on a London underground train, with a bouncer, music and promoter. Some members of the public appeared confused and laughed at the situation, whereas others looked disgusted.^{[18][19][20][21]} In another covertly filmed prank, Trollstation created a strip club on the tube.^[22]

'Make way for the Queen's Guard' Prank

Trollstation once again caused controversy when one member, Daniel Jarvis, dressed up to impersonate a member of the Queen's Guard. He and fellow prankster Nathan Thompson consequently conducted pranks in central London in front of many tourists. One particular incident saw Jarvis pretend to punch Thompson in front of tourists after he 'teased him', all occurring in direct view of the public. The video has accumulated over 4 million views, making it their second most viewed upload.

Social Experiments

Along with pranks, Trollstation are also known for making viral social experiments. Such experiments usually involve their actors creating a scenario between each other in a public area to see how the general public will react to the situation. The social experiments are usually based on current day issues. These social experiments have been popular among social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Breastfeeding on the tube

Trollstation set out to observe how people reacted to seeing breastfeeding on a tube train. This was carried out by the 'victim' Amina Maz and the 'verbal abuser' James Slattery. Maz feigned to breastfeed an obscured baby, and Slattery acted as if he was extremely uncomfortable with these actions. Passengers opposite them on the carriage initially said nothing, smiling at the drama of the situation. There were sniggers from passengers when Slattery demanded that Maz move to a different carriage, with one man intervening, telling him he was "acting aggressively". When Slattery drew the others into the conversation about breastfeeding on the tube, about six people unanimously agreed that Maz had the right to breastfeed in public, and should not be harassed or victimised for doing so. The video became viral on multiple social media sites, including YouTube and Facebook. Most expressed disgust towards James Slattery, unaware he was acting in a social experiment.^[23]

Burkini ban social experiment

On August 27, 2016, Trollstation uploaded a video titled 'UK Burkini Ban Social Experiment'. ^[24] The video involved 2 of the Trollstation members, Amina Maz (pretending to be a Muslim woman, dressed in a burkini) and Endrit Ferizoli aka Light (pretending to be a Police Officer) on Southend on sea beach. In the experiment, Light walked up to Maz and asked her to remove her burkini. An argument starts between the two. As Light attempted to remove her burkini, outrage erupts among members of the observing public and leads to multiple people on the beach to confront Light about his behaviour. The video went viral and as of September 2016 has 1,017,023 views on YouTube.

The video gained national attention due to the ongoing debate in France over the banning of the 'burkini' on French beaches. The video was covered online by prominent English newspapers such as The Sun, ^[25] The Mirror ^[26] and The Telegraph ^[27] They were also featured on BBC News and Light and Maz were interviewed by Kay Burley on Sky News.^[28]

Non-UK pranks

The team dropped a wallet 45 times during a visit to Dubai, and it was returned every time.^{[29][30][31][32]} Another prank involved acting drunk in public places, an illegal act in the state.^[33][34][35]

Pitch invasion controversy

The White Hart Lane stadium pitch that was invaded during a match.

On November 27, 2014, during a UEFA Europa League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Partizan Belgrade, three men encroached the pitch consecutively as part of a publicity stunt, later uploaded to YouTube and named 'Pitch Invasion Prank'. The first man, Nathan Thompson, remained on the field for five minutes, even taking a photograph with Tottenham player Kyle Naughton. Thompson remained on the pitch unchallenged for approximately five minutes before stewards restrained him.^[36]

Play was resumed by the referee before a second man entered the field of play: Gomes Garcia. Garcia 'lasted' a considerably less amount of time, being captured by stewards more quickly, with Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado actually pulling off the prankster's shirt.^[37]

After a third man, Trollstation prankster Daniel Jarvis, entered the fray, the referee decided to suspend the game for ten minutes on safety grounds. All three men were wearing 'BassBudds' T-shirts, seemingly endorsing this earphone manufacturer.^[38]

Aftermath

UEFA opened disciplinary hearings against Tottenham as a result of the pitch invasions. The three men themselves were arrested and placed in custody directly after the incidents.

The earphone manufacturer 'BassBuds' issued a statement on their website and social-media platform Twitter "condemning" Trollstation's "irresponsible actions". Tottenham Hotspur have temporarily suspended their affiliation with the company.^[39]

On December 1, 2014, Thompson, Garcia and Jarvis were charged with pitch invasion and appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrate's Court on December 18, 2014.^[40]

The court later heard that the trio were handing out 'Bass Buds' products outside the stadium as part of a promotional stunt when they allegedly made a "spur-of-the-moment" decision to encroach the pitch. Tottenham Hotspur themselves were fined just under £12,000 for the incident and all three men were obligated to pay £155 each, as well as facing a ban on attending football games until 2018.^[41]

Art Gallery Heist and subsequent arrests

On July 5, 2015, Gomes Garcia, Daniel Jarvis and Ebenezer Mensah staged a prank which involved pretending to steal paintings from the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Gallery. They were adjudged to have caused panic and distress among the visiting public, and the court compared the prank to a 'terrorist incident'.^[42]

The actions of these five men was outrageous. To go into busy public places wearing masks shouting and screaming at a time of heightened awareness of the terrorism threat facing the UK is deplorable.

The group terrified those visiting the galleries. It is only by pure chance that no one was injured or suffered serious health issues as they fled in what the judge described as a "stampede". All five men now have a number of weeks in jail to consider just how unfunny their stunts actually were.

– Detective Constable Anthony Parker, Met Police

The incident has led all three men, as well as Dan Vahn Lee (DigiDan) and Endrit Ferizolli to serve jail terms ranging from 12–20 weeks.^[43] Jarvis, Ferizolli and Mensah were released in July 2016, Garcia was initially threatened with deportation to his native Portugal but was allowed to remain in the UK after an appeal to the home office.

References

External links

• Trollstation's channel on YouTube (current)
• Trollstation's channel on YouTube (old channel)
• Trollstation's subreddit on Reddit
• Trollstation at the Internet Movie Database