Prank Wars Online: Meet YouTube's 'Craziest Couple'
Couple become viral smash with more than 100 prank videos, 150 million views.
March 28, 2012— -- They're now called YouTube's "craziest couple." But in October of 2007, Jesse Wellens thought it would be funny to trick his girlfriend, Jeana, into eating what she thought was just a harmless spoonful of cinnamon.
"She didn't know what the reaction would be" -- it really was cinnamon, which is tasty sprinkled on French toast and revolting if you eat a whole mouthful -- "so I dared her to eat a tablespoon of cinnamon. She tried it, she started choking like crazy, I filmed it, and I put it on the Internet," Wellens, 29, of New Jersey, said in an interview with ABC News' "20/20."
Watch the full story on "20/20: Payback" online.
As was just becoming the trend back in the early days of online video, Wellens videotaped Jeana's shocked, gagging reaction and posted the video to the website Break.com.
The result? A viral smash hit that quickly generated millions of views, more than 4 million and counting. Yet the prank didn't sit well with Jeana, who wasn't about to take being "punked" lying down.
"I was mad because so many people saw the video, and then one day I was like, 'Well, he put me on the Internet, and it was embarrassing, so I'm going to do it to him,'" Jeana explained.
Jeana retaliated by setting up a hidden camera in their kitchen and smacking Wellens in the head with a pan. It was a shot across the bow in what would quickly become a viral prank war on Break.com.
The war began generating so much popularity on Break.com that the couple decided to create their own YouTube channel, prankvsprank. Their payback playback was a huge hit.
"This is overwhelming, for something so crazy that we did together just for fun, like, turned into this whole entertainment for millions of people," Wellens said.
Some people might question what exactly is wrong with these two, but it's just a bit of fun for them to spice things up.
"It keeps our relationship exciting, I guess you could say," Wellens said.
Their pranks have gotten more elaborate, as when Wellens pretended to give Jeana an impromptu haircut or -- perhaps the most elaborate -- when Jeana spent several days setting Wellens up to think she was cheating on him.
"That was a very strategic video. I had a lot of planning with that one," Jeana said.
The couple realize this isn't exactly how nice people behave. "It's how crazy people behave," Wellens said with a laugh.
They've filmed more than 100 pranks on each other, and their YouTube page has generated more than 150 million views.
"When they're executed really, really well, everybody really gets a kick out of it," said Mitch Rotter, general manager at Break Media, the parent company of Break.com.
It's that window into a spontaneous and funny moment that keeps people coming back for more, Rotter said.
"Somebody is completely unassuming -- they're not expecting this to happen -- and their response is honest, it's authentic. It's becoming more of a reality form of entertainment," he said.
Rotter said he thinks Jeana and Wellens have captured such an audience because no matter how many lines they cross, their relationship keeps going strong.
