Kaitangata man makes fun of National politicians
THERE is only one way a former Kaitangata man can better a video he made with the Deputy Prime Minister after two videos of him ‘‘trolling’’ National candidates went viral online.
This means Prime Minister Bill English had better beware of people wanting to take selfies with him.
In a video posted to Facebook on September 8, former Kaitangata man Josh Owens approached campaigning National candidate Paula Bennett in Auckland and got her to pose for his phone camera.
Ms Bennett apparently assumed Mr Owens wanted a selfie before he put his arm around her and said: ‘‘You know you and your boy Bill are going down, eh?’’.
Ms Bennett responded with a smile ‘‘No way! No way, sunshine’’.
‘‘You’re going down sis, you’re going down. Your time is up. Let’s do this, Paula, let’s do this,’’ Mr Owens chimed.
The video has since amassed more than 168,000 views on his Facebook page.
Mr Owens also shot another video earlier in the month in which he similarly ‘‘trolled’’ Jonathan Coleman, also in Auckland, by encouraging viewers to ‘‘vote Labour’’ and was seen chanting ‘‘let’s do this’’ after telling him he was also going down.
Speaking to the Otago Daily
Times, Mr Owens said approaching the National politicians and tricking them with Labour support was not something he planned but
‘‘just happened’’.
‘‘It just kind of came over me . . . I just kind of rode the wave.’’
When asked if he had any plans to track down any other politicians, Mr Owens said he would, ‘‘just to keep them on their toes’’.
‘‘It would be pretty hard to top off getting the Deputy Prime Minister. There’s only really one way forward from the deputy.’’
If he was to do another video it would have to be with the Prime Minister, he said.
While the videos were intended to make people giggle and have a laugh, Mr Owens was heavily into politics and wanted to draw attention to the election to get people to vote.
‘‘It doesn’t matter what side of the spectrum they vote from, as long as they get out and vote.’’
He was surprised at the attention he had received from the videos. Mr Owens only did it for a ‘‘bit of a laugh’’ and was not after attention.
Although he had lived in Auckland for about 12 years, he still considered himself a ‘‘Kai boy’’.