A popular YouTube couple are under fire after an April Fools’ Day prank video in which they convince their 6-year-old daughter that she has to give her dog away.
“You want to tell them what’s wrong, Ev?” Cole LaBrant asks his daughter Everleigh in the video titled “We Have To Give Our Puppy Away... Saying Goodbye Forever :(” and filmed Sunday ahead of April Fool’s Day. The clip was viewed more than 2.3-million times as of late Wednesday morning. The LaBrant Fam YouTube page has more than 8.7-million subscribers.
“We’re giving Carl away to somebody else because we feel like we can’t take good enough care of him at our house,” explains her mother Savannah, citing a busy schedule of dance competitions and the fact the dog is apparently not house trained. “We feel like there’s a better home for him right now.”
The prank continues for about three minutes in the video as they film the girl crying and holding the small white dog.
“We’re going to let her give him away to whoever she wants,” explains Cole. “Who would you want to give Carl away to Ev? Are you going to miss him?”
“The last thing that we wanted to tell you…” begins Cole. Savannah leans in to whisper “April Fool’s” in her ear as tears run down her cheek.
“This is our April Fools’ video,” says Savannah. “We get to keep Carl!”
They explain to the camera that they didn’t think the girl would fall for their joke and initially thought she might be faking the tears. “Too far?” her dad asks the camera as Savannah points out to Everleigh that they had all been pranking each other earlier. “We were all April Fool’s-ing each other,” she says. “I’m honestly surprised you even believed me.”
Savannah gleefully pranks her dad later in the video (she serves him ice cream mixed with mustard), but some social media users were unimpressed by the initial puppy prank.
“I think they're a beautiful family and one of the only YouTube Family Channels I subscribe to. However, the prank on Everleigh was over the line,” wrote one user on Twitter. “And they should've stopped as soon as she was that visibly upset over giving her dog away.”
Comments on their YouTube channel are disabled, but some have posted to the family’s various Instagram accounts with criticism and support.
“You don’t deserve this hate, you are a lovely family who loves to perform pranks on each other, you shouldn’t get hate for being yourself having fun in your family,” wrote one fan account.
The couple have yet to comment on the reaction to the video.
