A YouTuber just got in huge legal trouble for a prank that saw him offering a homeless man an Oreo cookie filled with toothpaste instead of cream. (And, no, it wasn’t one of the Paul bros.)
Kanghua Ren — or ReSet (above), as his subscribers know him — was slapped with a 15-month prison sentence on Friday and must pay 20,000 euros, or about $22,300, in compensation to his victim.
The popular internet prankster was found guilty of violating the moral integrity of the Barcelona homeless man. It’s unlikely that he’ll serve any jail time, though, as Spanish law normally suspends sentences under two years for first-time offenders in nonviolent crimes.
But ReSet also received a punishment worse than jail time — nay, worse than death — for a YouTuber on Friday: his YouTube and other social media channels were ordered to be shut down for five years!
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In early 2017, Ren, who was 19 at the time, was challenged by one of his 1.2 million followers to carry out the prank. He later filmed himself replacing the cream inside an Oreo cookie with toothpaste, then giving it to a homeless man outside a supermarket, along with a €20 bill.
The homeless man — who was identified as Gheorge L., a Romania-born man in his early 50s who had migrated to Barcelona — vomited after eating the cookie.
Ren sparked immediate outrage after posting the video, causing him to replace it with one where he visited the homeless man again and offered him another €20 bill. According to local police, Ren later offered the homeless man’s daughter €300 in return for not filing a lawsuit.
As he took the stand on Friday, the YouTuber defended himself by saying that the video was just a bad joke, which he later tried to rectify. He told the court:
“I do things to mount a show: People like what is morbid.”
Really, dude? You’re blaming this on… peer pressure from your audience?
Judge Rosa Aragonés, however, placed the blame on Ren, noting that the influencer earned more than €2,000 from advertising revenues generated by the video — which was part of a series of pranks he filmed in response to challenges he received from his followers.
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Aragonés concluded in her ruling that Ren’s prank was “not an isolated act,” adding that he displayed “cruel behaviors” toward “easy or vulnerable victims.”
In the initial video, which has since been removed from YT, Ren admitted that he “may have gone a bit far,” but added that there was “a positive side” to his prank:
“This will help clean his teeth — I don’t think he has cleaned them since he became poor.”
Smh.
Ren was born in China, but has lived in Barcelona since childhood. We hope he learns a thing or two during his court-mandated YouTube hiatus.
[Image via ReSet/YouTube]
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