There’s a reason these supposed Apple earbuds look like toothbrushes

Up until recently, an aspiring internet prankster had very little chance of getting people to jam toothbrushes into their ear canals hoping to hear sweet music. It probably just wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime. But very recently, a wonderful thing happened: Apple released its much-anticipated iPhone 7, a smartphone noticeably lacking a traditional headphone jack. Users were instructed to use faintly ridiculous wireless headphones called AirPods instead. (The name Air Bud was already taken.) Who cares that these little white plastic monstrosities look like replacement heads for electric toothbrushes? Apple’s will be done. Wherever the company wants to go, its cult-like devotees are more than willing to follow. This turn of events must have struck Julius Dein, a curly-haired, 22-year-old magician and practical jokester from London, as a comedic opportunity too good to pass up. The impish Dein threw on an Apple-branded polo shirt, grabbed some ordinary toothbrushes, and headed to a U.K. music festival to see if he could get attendees to believe that the dental hygiene instruments were actually headphones. His quest proved scarily successful.