YouTuber couple Josh Brueckner and Katie Betzing played a prank on their fans on March 21 about breaking up, but were met with backlash and mass downvotes. Now, they’ve explained why they did it.
Jatie Vlogs sent their near two million YouTube fans into a tizzy after ‘announcing’ they were breaking up, after proposing in November 2019 and recently moving in together.
The 10-minute video played on fan’s emotions, although it led to a barrage of downvotes — over 43,000 as of March 24 — from the wider community.
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After the mixed response to the video, the couple issued a statement, in the form of a behind the scenes video, saying that while they are apologetic over people being upset, they believed it was what their fans wanted.
“If you were upset, I’m sorry. A lot of you guys wanted this and we just wanted to do what you guys wanted,” said Betzing. “We hope you guys take this lightly because it wasn’t meant to be too serious.”
“With that being said…you probably hate us right now for pranking you,” added Brueckner. “We’re sure you guys have sent so much love our way right now, and we appreciate guys for being so supportive.”
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The couple have spent a lot of time indoors with the recent lockdowns happening across the world, seeing their fans’ reactions to pranks they’ve done in the past.
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With that in mind, the YouTubers wanted to give back to their community in a way they haven’t done before by playing a little joke on them.
“We just posted our empty house tour video, they’re all expecting the moving in video — let’s mess with them,” Betzing said. “Let’s move in together, and kind of ‘take a break.’”
“It’s fun to prank you guys. You watch us prank each other, our friends, our family — you watch us prank everybody, so it’s about time you guys got pranked,” added Brueckner.
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As for the critics who say the two videos — which have amassed over 4 million views combined and are on YouTube’s Trending list — were a ploy to rake in views, they’ve dismissed them entirely.
The couple maintains their focus was entirely on their fanbase and what they’ve been asking for, and there was no malice intended.
In fact, Betzing stated again it was what their fans had asked for. “You can, clear as day, see the comments that were like ‘prank us’ — [our fans] have been begging us.”
