Josh and Archie/YouTube
Tucker Carlson was the subject of a prank over Kate Middleton's infamous edited photo.
The former Fox News anchor was tricked by British YouTubers Josh & Archie into giving an interview with a fake whistleblower about Kensington Palace, who was willing to discredit the doctored photo.
Archie Manners pretended to be the Prince and Princess of Wales's former digital content creator, who claimed he was fired for altering a Mother's Day photo so badly that it upset the public.
Tucker Carlson's Twitter stream (now X) accepted his story after Manners and co-conspirator Josh Peters forged employment documents at Kensington Palace.
The YouTuber's fake engagement letter to the whistleblower included a clause stating that minors have the right to have a limb amputated if their probation fails.
Carlson's team did not discover the implausible fake document and Manners was sent to a studio in London with a hotline for Carlson to conduct the interview.
In the YouTuber's video, Carlson is seen introducing his guest with the following statement: “We've done our best to verify that your identity is who you say you are. You're not fake.” [Alexei] Navalny or making a joke.”
Manners said of his character: “I was fired for negligence because the editing I had done was found…the editing job was almost too big for me to handle.”
He claimed that Middleton's uncle took the photo during the holiday season and had to delete the Christmas tree from the background. “It's an amazing story,” Carlson is shown saying.
The broadcaster seemed happy with the interview, telling Manners: “That was great.” His staff later told Manners they would broadcast the exchange “early next week.”
Manners told Deadline that he and Peters decided to blow their cover because they didn't want to offer misleading information to Carlson's 12.6MX followers.
“We did not want to create more rumours, which were not true, and spread them to many, many people,” he said. “We didn't want to be too cringe-worthy in our video.”
Manners said he “stroked” Carlson's ego with the “bullsh**” claim that he was giving the former Fox man exclusive because “the UK mainstream media wouldn't touch him.”
Deadline has contacted Tucker Carlson's network for comment.
Josh & Archie are popular pranksters on YouTube, with nearly 1.5 million subscribers. Previous pranks include tricking Carole Baskin into an interview and giving free-speaker Katie Hopkins a fake award.
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