• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Meet the YouTube Pranksters Who Stopped ‘Just Stop Oil’

by Richard Eldred
28 July 2023 7:00 PM

Meet mischief-makers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners, who recently pulled off a brilliantly executed prank at a Just Stop Oil banquet. With orange helium balloons and panic alarms, they mockingly disrupted the event, sparking widespread attention and ridicule for the controversial protest movement. They were also responsible for the ‘Just Stop Pissing Everyone Off’ protest last week, which successfully stopped the eco-militants disrupting traffic. Is this the way to stop Just Stop Oil? The Telegraph has more.

All it took was a fleet of orange helium balloons and a few panic alarms tactically placed at a Just Stop Oil banquet to disrupt it. In a matter of minutes, the group that has blighted our summer had been given a taste of its own medicine. Or as one commenter underneath the video of the stunt online put it: “Great idea, I did this at Eton in 1997.” 

In many ways, it was a textbook muck-up day prank, just the kind of childish scene that plays out on the last day before the summer holidays in schools up and down the country. But with the simplest of moves, Josh Pieters, 29, and Archie Manners, 30, had done what no one else had successfully managed to – they’d made a mockery of Just Stop Oil. 

On Tuesday, in an artfully dilapidated church decorated with swathes of orange fabric and trailing plants (making the whole affair look like something between a summer soirée hosted by Fanta and a Christian influencer’s wedding), guests sat down to a (vegan) banquet. A harpist played as people sat at long tables. Then four paid actors burst in, setting off panic alarms attached to helium balloons which promptly floated up to the eaves. 

“I’m slightly nervous we’ve given them an idea,” says Manners of his prank, which has been viewed nearly 450,000 times in two days, and was designed to mimic the sorts of antics that JSO has made their bread and butter. 

In recent months, JSO has been an irritation at every public event, from the snooker to the Proms. Now, if you turn on any sort of sports match or concert (or, indeed, find yourself attending the wedding of a former member of the Cabinet), you find you are in a constant state of alert for that spray of orange. Their determination to continue blocking roads and disrupting perfectly inoffensive games of cricket has already turned many off their cause, but the public’s growing impatience hasn’t yet been enough to see them off. Perhaps it’s because until now the feeling towards Just Stop Oil had been, broadly, one of anger. And what is a more powerful tool than rancour? Ridicule. 

“[The event] was a party, there are no two ways of putting it,” says Manners, who with Pieters is a YouTube comedian and professional prankster. And it was the snooker stunt that was the final straw in his eyes. “It was hardly attended by big oil execs.” That and reports like this week’s, that the group’s protests have cost the Metropolitan Police £7.7 million since April. 

Thanks to Manners and Pieters, a counter-movement has been building in recent weeks. For £13.99 you can order a T-shirt in signature JSO orange with the words: “Just Stop Pissing Everyone Off” emblazoned across it. “I want to donate to this cause,” says one commenter, “keep it going, guys.” 

Josh and Archie's Just Stop Oil stunt

“The people that they’re targeting are not responsible for their cause,” says Manners. “A single mother trying to get to work to feed her kids during a cost of living crisis, who might be on a zero hours contract, who might be late for work and therefore earn less money. That achieves precisely nothing when it comes to solving the climate crisis.” 

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Camilla Tominey, writing in the Telegraph, points out that the Just Stop Oil protestors are all middle- or upper-middle class and the targets of their ire are working class. Is this just rampant snobbery?

Tags: Climate Change ActivistsClimate HysteriaJust Stop OilJust Stop Pissing Everyone Off

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Why Are We ‘Governed’ So Thoroughly, and So Poorly?

Next Post

News Round-Up

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

20 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Sadly, just to let everyone know, these two young chaps do actually believe there is a “climate crisis,” which somewhat undermines their efforts. Still, at least they gave JSO some payback so well done for that.

106
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Off topic! Sue me now! Randy Miesner dies!
“Take it to the limit” Eagles” highest human note every recorded! Rip Mr Eagle! 77 years old, part of my informative years!

18
-2
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Dinger64

Ooh you rebel you! 😉 I saw that in passing earlier actually. Was there any mention of cause of death? No apologies for this being my default mindset these days, especially for the younger folk…

https://twitter.com/CartlandDavid/status/1685016011773292545

21
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Tony Bennett, 🙏
I left my heart in San Francisco

Last edited 1 year ago by Dinger64
7
-1
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Have you got a big powerful buggatti royal? Ooooh!

1
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Bugatti!

1200px-Rétromobile_2015_-_Bugatti_Royale_Coupé_Napoléon_-_1929_-_002.jpg
9
0
George L
George L
1 year ago
Reply to  Dinger64

RIP indeed.. a great singer and musician.. ‘Take it to the limit’ was an incredible song.. I loved it and still do. Lots of special memories tied up with that song.. So long Randy..

9
0
Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago
Reply to  George L

And now tony Bennett

4
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
1 year ago
Reply to  George L

Don’t forget the emaciated Irish one hit wonder. How could you, she has dominated the headlines?

2
-1
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

It could be said that rather than undermining their efforts it actually magnifies them. For CC Sceptics, this is popcorn time.

8
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Did you say “believe”? ———-Believing things is religion not science. —-But Heretics like you and I know that already.

8
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

It isn’t about a climate crisis. Were we ever brought up to think that the climate would stay the same forever. The growth of crisis cults at the end of empires is nothing new and perfectly understandable from a psychospiritual point of view. You imagine that you are thirteen years old now and trying to be an optimist, You would need some serious serotonin levels.

45
-2
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

There is the sulky admission that somewhere in the last few years we diminished in power. No government will ever mention those points for obvious reasons but that they have shut our mouths against speaking about them is quite something. Not entirely of course and obviously our side has the best and the brightest on side. But the audacity of the attack should never be forgotten and that the last three years have been horrible but the next three years will be on an entirely different level.

19
-1
Monro
Monro
1 year ago

‘Is this just rampant snobbery?”

Of course it is.

And of course there is a climate crisis that will destroy civilisation. It’s called ‘climate change’.

It’s been going on for millions of years.

It will kill all of mankind eventually.

But the betting is that we will have done that to ourselves long before climate change, hot or cold, asteroids or anything else can do their worst.

35
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

They are coming from a particular rasa. In Vedic philosophy there are nine rasas. Rasa can roughly be translated as mood but it is more the spirit in which you enter into things. If you had their spirit you would cling to climate catastrophism, it would fit perfectly. In England the demoralisaton is the same in the highest paying schools and the lowest state schools. They all get off their tits just with different substances. This current mood of the country simply isn’t up to the task it really does have to change. I have no prescriptions just the understanding of the lateness of the hour.

14
-3
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

Honestly all of this nonsense talk is going to seem like wasted breath in the near future. Just focus on what your heart tells you is important.

26
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Another day another young person in peak physical shape declaring they’ve got a heart condition out of the blue.

https://www.thesun.ie/sport/football/11092304/premier-league-lars-dendoncker-retire-brighton-heart-condition/

20
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

It does state ”hereditary heart condition” for this lad, who happened to be from the same club. Hereditary heart conditions have obviously always existed but the obvious question everybody should ask nowadays in order to rule it out as a cause is ”did they get the Covid jab?” This news is just continuous.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64284281

Last edited 1 year ago by Mogwai
11
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Here’s my hat-trick. Best leave it there or I’ll be here all day! 🙁 This one was just down to the stress of the World Cup apparently, although she won’t be playing now so there is that….

”Breakout World Cup star Linda Caicedo may not feature again in the tournament after the Colombian collapsed at training in distressing scenes that were caught on video.
The young gun, 18, was rushed to hospital and was unconscious for at least 90 seconds as medics and terrified team-mates rushed to her aid at the team’s base in Sydney.
The rising star was later released from hospital but is unlikely to feature in her country’s match against Germany on Sunday.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12346941/Womens-World-Cup-star-grabs-chest-collapses-training-Linda-Caceido-Colombian-rushed-ambulance-losing-consciousness.html

10
0
varmint
varmint
1 year ago

JUST START OIL

26
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Episode 36 of the Sceptic: Karl Williams on Starmer’s Phoney Immigration Crackdown, Dan Hitchens on the Assisted Suicide Bill and Tom Jones on Reform’s Local Council Challenge

by Richard Eldred
16 May 2025
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

15 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

16 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

16 May 2025
by Will Jones

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

29

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

26

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

19

News Round-Up

18

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

27

Trump’s Lesson in Remedial Education

16 May 2025
by Dr James Allan

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Renaud Camus on the Destruction of Western Education

15 May 2025
by Dr Nicholas Tate

‘Why Can’t We Talk About This?’

15 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

POSTS BY DATE

July 2023
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  
« Jun   Aug »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences