Owen Prescott, creator of the Instagram account fruitprank, has quickly amassed a following among University of Minnesota students. 

Despite posting videos for fun, Prescott has developed a large fan base through his produce-related escapades. 

His account primarily features comedic fruit-related activities. He started his account a few weeks into his second semester, after receiving feedback from a friend about how it was funny for him to eat a grapefruit during his lecture.

Prescott, a freshman living in Territorial Hall, studies kinesiology and plans to study physical therapy post-graduation. His account title describes what he posts — pranks involving fruit.

“It was just an easy thing to pick [the fruit] up from the dining hall for free and then just bring it in and eat it,” Prescott said.

One of his most popular posts involved him taking an apple on a walk through Superblocks’ courtyard, with Pharrell Williams’ “Just a Cloud Away” playing in the background. 

Shortly after Prescott first started posting, Jack Gerdes discovered his channel. He quickly became a fan.

“I found him when he was hella niche, when he was at 100 followers,” Gerdes said. “It was crazy.”

Since both Gerdes and many other followers’ appreciation for fruitprank has only grown. Prescott calls his following of over 2,600 individuals fruitpranknation, and, despite this significant following, Gerdes proudly gives himself the title of being one of Prescott’s biggest fans.

“I gotta say [I’m] a ten out of ten [fan],” Gerdes said. “I have a signed picture of an apple from him.”

Although some may view Prescott as a comedy genius, rising from the slums of Territorial Hall to become vegetables’ biggest hater, Prescott simply posts for fun, with no intention of profiting from or leveraging his fame for his benefit.

“I thought it’d be fun to just try to create content just because I thought the idea was so ridiculous and, you know, let’s just see what happens,” Prescott said. 

Although Prescott’s videos have reached thousands of viewers, including viewers outside of the university community, Prescott really sees no negatives in what he posts. 

“I’m not stressing about each video and the numbers it does or how well it does,” Prescott said. ”I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily negatives to it, it’s been great.” 

Prescott frequently humiliates himself in public settings as part of his content. Examples include cracking a coconut open in the middle of class, screaming in the dining hall, pretending to be a shark and catching a banana in the tub.

Keagan Johnson happened upon Prescott’s account via Instagram’s suggestion. Although not as big a fan of fruitprank as fellow follower Gerdes, Johnson is a dedicated follower of the account.

Johnson said beyond the comedy of Prescott’s content, his account is important for the University community.

“I feel just having someone not really afraid to post online and come up and be cringe,” Johnson said. “I feel like it shows that the campus isn’t really aggressive towards people who want to share themselves outside.”

Prescott’s content serves two purposes for Johnson: it acts as comedic relief to his fan base and is proof of an accepting culture on the university campus. 

Prescott said he gets nervous whenever he has to do something that might attract attention in public, but he has learned that people do not care as much as he initially thought.

“I’m going to keep living my life after that the same way,” Prescott said. “They’re going to keep living theirs. I just gave them a funny little story.”