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Prankster poses as Humans of New York to great effect

Brandon Stanton started his photo blog Humans of New York in 2010, and it has reached epic levels...
Newstalk
Newstalk

17.08 17 Sep 2014


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Prankster poses as Humans of N...

Prankster poses as Humans of New York to great effect

Newstalk
Newstalk

17.08 17 Sep 2014


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Brandon Stanton started his photo blog Humans of New York in 2010, and it has reached epic levels of popularity since both in the US and abroad. He even released a book last year and is currently travelling around developing countries (as commissioned by the United Nations) to photograph and tell the stories of the local people.

However, it's safe to say many New Yorkers recognise the HoNY name, so when a guy completely unaffiliated with the project (comedian Tyler Fischer) decided to approach people on the streets posing as Stanton, he was greeted with sheer joy and excitement.

He even suggested fabricating some people’s stories for dramatic effect - "I'd love to bump that story a little bit, what if we amped it up? ...we're trying to get a lot of likes" – which they appeared to agree to, without batting an eyelid.

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The real Stanton got wind of the prank but seemed to see the light side, "I got some laughs from it. I thought it was in a pretty good spirit. He didn't seem to violate anyone's trust in a deep way, and he did his homework on my voice and mannerisms. I'd only worry about someone imitating me for some sort of malicious intent. This definitely wasn't that."

Stanton even said he got in touch "with that journalism professor" that you'll see in the below video, and that they're "gonna grab coffee when I get back from my trip."


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