“Disrupting and alarming” YouTubers Ernest Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai are now facing a restraining order and a lawsuit after they filmed themselves disrupting classes at the University of Southern California (USC) in September.
USC is suing the pair for staging three classroom takeover incidents, causing fear to faculty, staff, and students.
About The Incident
A rising prankster, Kanevsky, who has more than 100k subscribers and an accumulated 8.3 million views on his Youtube channel, allegedly used his strong physique to intimidate the professor out of the classroom.
It’s reported that both Kanevsky and Bai stormed into a classroom during a holocaust lecture dressed as a Russian mafia member and Hugo Boss, which was known as a famous Nazi uniform maker.
A student reports that the incident started when a “really big guy walked in, and he started screaming about something.” Another student reported that “another man came in with a briefcase on [the] phone, screaming about where the money was.”
Bai proceeds to act as if he doesn’t have the money. Then, Kanevsky reached for his pocket, which made students think that he was reaching for a gun. Since the whole situation was a surprise to the students, especially since there was a gun threat, they didn’t even consider that the whole scene was just a prank.
In fact, the first student interviewed by KTLA 5 said, “It occurred to me that probably it wasn’t a prank, and my life was at risk.” Furthermore, he shared that one of his classmates sitting in the same row just got up and ran.
Ernest Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai often film themselves to make prank videos as content for their Youtube channel. However, despite the creators calling it a “prank,” USC says their viral joke has “caused terror and disruption for students and faculties.”
USC Sues Pranksters
Even if Kanevsky’s goal “was to make entertaining content and make people laugh,” USC students and staff members weren’t laughing at the situation. In fact, court documents say that students were trying to escape the scene as it “appeared to be a credible threat of imminent classroom violence.”
So, despite not knowing that the whole discussion was about the holocaust, USC sued for damages against the Youtubers, who were accused of posting these pranks to gain views.
In the meantime, a judge has issued a restraining order against the two, banning them from entering the campus or from posting any of the USC incidents.
