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Logan Paul, Sam Pepper lassoing women, demanding kisses in resurfaced 'prank' video sparks fury

Logan Paul and Sam Pepper can be seen walking around Santa Monica, California, lassoing women on the streets as part of a new 'hooking up' strategy

Logan Paul might have left Floyd Mayweather rather "surprised" by his prowess following their June 6 exhibition boxing match that saw no winner declared but when it comes to social media, Paul is at the receiving end of major backlash and shaming as a video of his YouTube prank days with the infamous vlogger Sam Pepper made rounds.

Back in 2014, when Paul was just transitioning from the micro-vlogging app Vine to YouTube, he participated in some of Pepper's videos. These collaborations were part of Pepper's prolonged series on the platform where the bespectacled vlogger would walk around the streets, groping women, grabbing them, and at times even kissing women, all without permission as part of YouTube prank. One of those collaborations between Paul and Pepper started making rounds just before his fight with Mayweather, and the video sees the controversial Paul lassoing women and forcing them to kiss him all as part of the prank.

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The deleted video from June 2014 was recently unearthed by the Twitter account MeTube, which aims at exposing sexually inappropriate behavior on YouTube videos, their Twitter bio reveals. They shared in the tweet caption, "We have a deleted 2014 video of @LoganPaul lassoing women in the street and not letting some go until they kiss him. It was a collab Youtube video with Sam Pepper, who weeks later would be investigated by LA police for a violent sexual assault," continuing the post with a link from a BuzzFeed News article.

The video sees Paul walking the streets of Santa Monica, California, along with Pepper, as the two look for women to rope in before demanding a kiss. The video was filmed shortly before the British vlogger, Pepper, was hit with multiple allegations of sexual assault. The video shows the two men don cowboy hats as they claim they are trying out a new technique to hook up with women. "Today we are picking up women," Pepper starts, in the video, before saying "Let's go!"

Paul then lassos a woman whom he tells can't be freed until she gives him a kiss, and she complies. Paul responds to that, "You're a good kisser." A second woman can be seen far from pleased as she chases Paul down the street, lashing out at him. Paul then lassoes in another woman who was passing by on a scooter whom he asks, "I was wondering, do you think you could put your number in my phone?" Shortly after, he can be seen having a run-in with a male friend of a woman he tries to hook up with.

The video had allegedly been filmed just five months before multiple women accused Pepper of sexual assault and rape. The outrage against Pepper had begun with another similar video of him groping a woman in the street as part of a prank. Pepper had said at the time that the clip was a "social experiment" to raise awareness for male victims of sexual assault. He had also claimed the women in the video were in on the prank.

Soon after, other women came forward with claims of being inappropriately touched or harassed by Pepper, who continued to deny all allegations of rape and apologized, calling himself an "idiot." No charges were filed against him either. But the video's comeback seven years later has piled on to the already exploding anger that social media seems to harbor against Paul for several of his controversies, starting with the Japan Suicide Forest video. One Twitter user replied under MeTube's post sharing the resurfaced video, "The Adventures of Rich White Boys Living Life Without Consequences." Another asked about the entire prank's idea: "Who tf thinks this is ok or funny wtf." 

One alarmed user responded to the video, tweeting: "Literally why I carry pepper spray and a knife everywhere with me." A user quipped, "I do like that someone just plain turned around and started hitting. That's probably the right thing to do." Another dissed Paul particularly, tweeting: "the guy should be over he literally filmed the corpse of a man who took his own life," recalling Paul filming the dead body of a hanging man and sharing it to thousands of his YouTube subscribers in a video documenting his visit to Japan's suicide forest.