It seems that a certain ‘whoareyou’ on the Web site bragster.com (which advertises itself as ‘Jackass Meets Facebook’) posted a dare to his fellow members:
Pick a fountain, any fountain… Let’s see everyone bring the bubbles in a fountain near you. I’ll be dropping in my fountain tomorrow.
His challenge has met with results amusing to people like me, and infuriating to the authorities! The famous Neptune Fountain, in the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany was ‘bubbled’ first. Not to be outdone, the ‘French Team‘ struck a fountain in Lyon, France, and posted this video of their exploits on YouTube.
The latest prankster to strike is ‘mr_bubble‘, who targeted the fountain in Trafalgar Square, London. According to a newspaper article:
‘Mr Bubbles’ – a 19-year-old film-making student from Kilburn – said: ‘I have been wanting to do this for years. I have always been fascinated by fountains and love bubbles. When the French pulled off Lyon, I got some tips from them.
‘I used my bath to test the mixture for bubbles and then four of us executed the plan. They switched off the fountains but it was too late. There were bubbles everywhere. A huge crowd formed and everyone was playing with the bubbles. It was funny to watch. It put a smile on a lot of faces and I made sure the materials were eco-friendly. It was harmless fun.’
Mr Bubbles has tried to hide his identity but he is also known as ‘Billzy’ on the social network and is pictured on his profile page. His previous pranks include directing traffic in a high-visibility jacket and posing as a piece of still art in galleries.
He warned of further foam parties. He said: ‘Mr Bubbles is not going to stop at one fountain. Another English city is being targeted this weekend.’
Bragster.com – dubbed ‘Jackass meets Facebook’- – has grown to almost a million users since launching in early 2007, with recent dares including heavy metal music in a library.
Authorities failed to see the funny side of the Trafalgar Square stunt.
A Greater London Authority spokesman said: ‘Our staff had to check to see whether the substance was anything seriously damaging to a very important piece of architecture. This was an act of vandalism.’
Well, I think the Greater London Authority can relax. It’s just a bit of fun – and I’d love to have seen it in person! The video below shows the Trafalgar Square fountain awash with bubbles.
Looks like one could do a fair amount of washing there!
Peter
ah……… The pranks of the 70’s. It wasn’t such a big deal then. The buildings and grounds crews just cleaned it up.
When i left my boarding school around 1964/5 we stole 2 gallons of washing up liquid and tipped it down the school fountain that was switched off over night,this fountain was the fitration for the school swimming pool,result one 50metre by 15metre Bubble Bath!
neat! Sort of like when people mistakenly put dish washing liquid into a dishwashing machine. whoopsie!