YouTuber goes viral after earthquake ruins makeup tutorial – but was it real?

Connor Bennett

A YouTuber has gone viral after uploading a make-up tutorial that went spectacularly wrong during an earthquake. However, she might just be playing a prank on everybody. 

On July 5, Los Angeles, California was rocked with a huge 7.1 earthquake and a number of aftershocks that rumbled on throughout the night. 

It, obviously, interrupted plenty of daily activities in the surrounding area, and even played a part in messing up a number of Twitch streams – with fans witnessing Mike ‘shroud’ Grzesiek’s entire set-up shake during a game. However, one creator has seemingly used the moment to unfold two-year long pranks on viewers. 

Later in the day, on July 5, YouTuber ‘Ali J’ uploaded a video of herself having a ‘simple’ make-up tutorial being interrupted by the earthquake – giving her the seemingly perfect recipe for a viral video. 

The YouTuber started out by simply applying red lipstick to her lips before the earthquake struck and the make-up went across her face – leaving Ali J looking like the Joker from Batman. While the timing seemed remarkable, it’s just a bit too good to be true. 

Members of the YouTube comment section quickly went to work on dissecting the video for any little imperfection they could find, as they couldn’t believe it was real.

It didn’t take look before some internet detectives found that all of the Ali J YouTube videos had been recorded in an Earthquake simulator – with comparison pictures of her background and videos from the simulator itself showing striking similarities. 

A comparison of Ali J’s video and the Earthquake simulator.

Others pointed out that the YouTuber had not uploaded a single video since April of 2018, with the background not changing at all in that span of time. 

Some viewers also noted that the title of the video made a point of having the date in there while the other uploads just went by the date that YouTube automatically produces. 

Ali J’s YouTube channel had remained inactive for over a year before her prank.

Now, nobody is quite sure just why all of the YouTuber’s videos were recorded inside this earthquake simulator and only one has been used as a part of the prank.

It looks as though this prank was in-the-making for over two years, as Ali J used the room to record her ‘regular’ make-up tutorials, in the hope it would make the earthquake tutorial more legitimate.

The person behind the YouTube account has not commented on the upload, but they haven’t been able to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes.