Hopkins, who on Friday had her Twitter account suspended for hate speech, flew to Prague to collect a fake award this week from an organization made up by Pieters and Archie Manners called the Capetown Collective for the Freedom of Speech.
Pieters and Manners awarded Hopkins the Campaign to Unify the Nation trophy. If you abbreviate it, it spells out the “C-word.”
They told Insider what it was like to stay in character the whole evening. Hopkins preceded to make a series of racist and hurtful statements in her speech, which only further proved she was the correct person to prank. “She has freedom of speech but so have I,” Pieters said.
Insider has contacted Hopkins’ management for comment.
YouTuber Josh Pieters convinced the controversial opinion-spouter to fly over to Prague this week to pick up a fake award from the Capetown Collective for the Freedom of Speech. He just released the video that shows how her lifetime achievement award – the Campaign to Unify the Nation trophy – spells out the “C-word” very clearly behind her.
Archie MannersSwipe to see what we really think... @joshua_pieters and I made Katie Hopkins fly to Prague to pick up a completely fake award. Full video on his channel.
It was tough to stay in character
Hopkins, who has rubbed shoulders with the likes of Milo Yiannopoulos, Nigel Farage, and Tommy Robinson, enjoyed a three-course dinner with Pieters, his sidekick magician Archie Manners, and a group of thoroughly briefed actors at the five-star Four Seasons hotel in Prague.
Pieters gave a speech to keep up the convincing charade, which included a nod to his real occupation as a YouTuber. He made a lot of bold statements that Hopkins clapped along with, including that “without being able to mock other people, without being able to attack people, we are not free,” “the battle against the woke brigade is being won,” and “snowflakes are melting.”
He told Insider the speech was about twice as long as what was shown in the video, but when cut together it seemed a lot more ridiculous that Hopkins fell for it.
Pieters told Insider everyone was told they had to stay in character the whole dinner, which made things a little easier. But it was still challenging not to laugh or show disgust at various points of the evening, and he had to keeping stepping out of the room.
“I had to go to the bathroom a few times because I couldn’t keep it together,” he said. “It was a very surreal, in a bad way, night. I felt like we were teleported into an alternative reality where we were all billionaires sitting around a table, drinking wine, and being racist.”
‘Epileptics are all weirdos, they’re up there with the Asians’
At one point in the evening, Pieters was concerned they might have been a little too mean to Hopkins. That was until she made her speech and said “a number of appalling things,” according to Manners.
To list a few: “If you call ‘Mohammed’ in a school playground in the UK, 2000 f—ing kids come running, and you don’t want any of them,” “Epileptics are all weirdos, they’re up there with the Asians,” and “East London is s—-y at the best of times, 82% Muslim, what can I say? People are raping their own mother.”
After the speeches, they filled Hopkins’ trophy up with red wine and chanted at her to drink it in one go – which she did.
Pieters is gaining a reputation as one of the most original and daring creators on YouTube right now. He and Manners have made a handful of inventive videos in the last few months which are essentially social experiments that test the limits of what they can get away with. That being said, they always try to give their marks a chance.
“I think we always try to, not only from a creative point of view, but also from a slightly moral point of view, not completely dupe someone by breaking the law or doing something really wrong,” Pieters told Insider. “We always try to give people a bit of a chance.”
With Hopkins, for example, the Capetown Collective for the Freedom of Speech’s founder was listed as the leader of the Klu Klux Klan.
The power of ‘freedom of speech’
As for why they picked on Hopkins over anyone else, Pieters said it was because he’s always been incensed at what she says in the media. But it was when she claimed young migrant children drowning in the sea was a “political stunt” that got him the most.
“So she has freedom of speech and so have I,” he said. “We just let her dig her own grave.”
