Oobah Butler Brings His Hoaxes to HBO — SkimNews
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- Scams for a Better Tomorrow will feature Oobah Butler gaming online reviews, assuming made-up personas and launching fake companies with bogus backstories to expose “bullshit” across wine, wellness, royalty and other industries.
- Oobah Butler develops a mock skincare serum made from children’s tears in the trailer and tries to bring influencers, consumers and Wall Street investors on board.
- Daniel Lucchesi directs the series, which Butler created and executive produces with Dave Kneebone, Janel Kranking, Eli Bush, Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, Tristan Cross, Adam Schwartz, Richie Doyle and Conor Hannon.
- TripAdvisor listed Butler’s fake restaurant as London’s No. 1-rated dining establishment, one of the viral hoaxes that preceded the series.
- YouTube videos hosted by Butler during his Vice tenure earned tens of millions of views.
- Catfish UK featured Butler as co-host in 2021, while his Channel 4 film How To Trick Your Way Onto The Property Ladder arrived in 2026.
- HBO now has four A24 unscripted series, following Neighbors, Born to Bowl and Ben Stiller’s New York Knicks history series; Neighbors has been renewed for a second season.
Why it matters: For A24 and HBO, the material change is their fourth unscripted collaboration, alongside a second season of Neighbors. Butler’s program adds a regular series built around audacious hoaxes spanning consumer brands, Wall Street investors and royalty, drawing on the same imaginative approach behind his earlier fake restaurant.
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