Justin Bieber Sideways Burrito Photo Was A Prank
This week the internet went crazy after a photo of Justin Bieber eating a giant burrito went viral. The photo was posted by a reddit user, who claims that he captured the hilariously controversial still while hanging out in West Hollywood Park. Celebrities are photographed eating all of the time — but what made this image special was the fact that Bieber’s burrito-eating technique was questionable. The Canadian singer could be seen holding the burrito sideways while preparing to take a bite.
The photo was picked up by a number of media houses, including MSN News. The Blast even managed to track down the original source of the photo, a man by the name of Conor. Conor proceeded to say that he took the photo of Bieber, and that it was completely real. It wasn’t.
It turns out that a group of popular YouTubers, Yes Theory, came up with this elaborate plan in order to trick everyone into believing that Justin Bieber didn’t know how to eat a burrito. The group made a 12-minute video explaining how the idea had come about. Apparently, pulling off a prank that had nothing to do with their actual channel was something which they’ve always wanted to attempt. When they came across the Instagram account of another Canadian — a man who looked a lot like Bieber — the idea clicked into place.
The YouTubers flew in their look-alike ringer from Canada, and dressed him up to match Justin Bieber’s style. This included buying him a short blonde wig to mimic the singers current hairstyle. They then decided to have faux-Bieber walk around doing different things, like helping an old lady across the street — and of course, eating the sideways Mexican treat.
Scooter Braun, Bieber’s manager, confronted the group on FaceTime. There, he explained how he had figured out that the photo was totally fake. He then posted the entire exchange on Instagram.
“First of all, I know what he looks like,” he said. “Number 2, I found it very amusing because I had so many people hitting me [up] saying, why is your boy eating a burrito like this? I decided to put it up on my Instagram for one minute with a caption pretending that I thought it was him. Within thirty seconds of posting it and taking it down, your manager hits [me] up.”
Looks like the group’s manager prematurely spilled the beans — which threatened to ruin the prank — but Braun agreed to keep the secret under wraps until it was eventually exposed, because it was just too funny to do otherwise.
