Pranksters mercilessly trolled after trying to crash class at Toronto university

A group of TikTok pranksters' attempt to go viral with a stunt at York University has Toronto cringing. And, in a way, they may have succeeded, as social media users are talking about how prank culture is getting out of hand.

A video uploaded by YouTube channel "Dot's Finest" for all of its few dozen subscribers shows the group — speaking in an exaggerated 'Toronto mans' slang — framing up the (flimsy) concept of their prank, and the painful-to-watch execution that follows.

The video shows one of the men in the group, dressed in a baseball cap, balaclava, and sunglasses, entering a lecture hall at York University and intentionally disrupting the class.

After a rude exchange with the professor, the prankster breaks out into a rant about dropping out of university before forcing the class to endure a bland off-time freestyle.

A few students can be seen in the background shaking their heads disapprovingly, while others can be seen laughing — though it's unclear whether they're laughing with the pranksters or at them.

One comment on the YouTube video reads, "Seriously? The whole class looks absolutely annoyed. There is some nervous giggles, but no one seems to enjoy this. The prank is just bad man."

Clips of the video have been reuploaded to TikTok and X (formerly Twitter), where they have triggered a similarly collective cringe response among broader audiences.

A shortened clip of the prank's climax circulating on TikTok has garnered a whopping 1,575 comments as of writing, many slamming the pranksters for subjecting a large lecture hall to their fame-seeking shenanigans.

One comment said that watching the video was the "most second-hand embarrassment I have had the displeasure to experience."

Others voiced their weariness with this trend, like one user who replied, "these pranks are so played out."

For all of their hard work, the Dot's Finest YouTube channel has increased its subscriber count from 33 on Thursday to 57 by Friday.

The group's achievement of notoriety is likely not the type they were after, coming in the form of negative comments on multiple video sharing and social media platforms.