Fique Ayub and his friends were arrested for causing a disturbance in a movie theater.
Fique Ayub and two others were arrested for screaming "gun" in a packed movie theater for content and uploaded the proof to YouTube.
Oh No! The Consequences Of My Actions!
Fique Ayub is a 23-year-old Canadian YouTuber known for his outlandish pranks like cooking curry during a college lecture, riding a horse through a drive-thru, switching bathroom signs, or pretending to be a Foot Locker employee. He often puts on a fake Indian accent during these pranks. Currently, he has 1.28 million subscribers on YouTube.
For his newest video, the prankster and two of his friends went into a Landmark Cinemas in Ajax, a suburb of Toronto, and entered different cinema auditoriums to cause mischief. In one movie, Ayub saw to people kissing on screen and yelled "ahhh kissing! Haram!" During multiple trips in and out of auditoriums he keeps screaming different phrases and holds a bright flashlight to himself, disturbing moviegoers.
At one point, Ayub's friend shouts “he has a gun!” at the top of his lungs. After fleeing the scene and meeting a fan, the pair returned only for Ayub himself yelling "He’s not kidding, he has a gun!" – only, he was kidding...
You can watch the video, which now sits at over 670,000 views, here.
After leaving the theater, the ultra funny pranksters see police approaching, who, according to their own statements, responded to an armed person call. When the officers were directed to Ayub and his friends, the YouTuber started talking to them in a fake Indian accent, declaring he was filming a documentary.
A gun, a gun, no, no, no, we are just doing a little documentary, I'm doing a vlog, having vlogging channel. I’m going in saying literally we’re doing a movie, we’re going to movie. I didn’t say gun. 'Cause I see everybody coming … I’m getting little scareding.
He claims he never actually shouted the word "gun", but that his "supporters" inside the theater yelled it to troll him. One of the officers recognized Ayub from pulling stunts, causing disturbances in the area and so they asked for the IDs of the Influencer, his friend and the cameraman.
The Durham Regional Police released a press statement, in which they describe the incident.
Customers were forced to leave a movie theatre after several males yelled that someone was in possession of a firearm. Officers arrived on scene and were directed toward three males who had left the theatre. Further investigation revealed that the males were creating social media content and had intentionally created a false disturbance to generate a reaction they could film.
Fique Wamiq Ayub, 23-year-old Jaiden Joseph-Anthony Mosquera, and an unnamed 17-year-old are now facing charges of causing a disturbance and mischief.
Yes, the appeal (I guess) and goal of prank content is the provocation and reaction of bystanders and victims, and harmless pranks can be funny. But this incident is just one example of an movement away from harmless, funny pranks to actual exploitative actions, harassment or dangerous public nuisances for content. Influencers feel the need to always top their last video and get more views than everyone else, so their behavior escalates. YouTube's algorithm rewards risky and shocking content, creating a financial incentive for creators to produce dangerous stunts. But many find these stunts to be ethically questionable and too extreme, up to actually being harmful. When even police gets involved and the "pranksters" get arrested, then it definitely went too far.
