Double trouble! Cabot and Barrett Phillips, the two brothers who convinced their sedated younger sister that the zombie apocalypse was happening after her dentist appointment, opened up to Ellen DeGeneres on Wednesday, April 13, about how they pulled off the incredible prank.
“We’ve known for a few weeks now that she was getting the teeth out,” Cabot explained to DeGeneres of his younger sister, Millicent, who was also on hand for the TV appearance. “And she’s such a funny, expressive young woman. We’re like, ‘She would do something that’s just gold for the family to watch for years to come.’ And everybody does the normal wisdom teeth videos, and we were like, ‘What could make it better?’ And we were like, ‘Zombies.'”
The older siblings knew that their younger sister was too scared to watch AMC’s smash horror series The Walking Dead, and arranged the perfect prank to counter their sibling’s phobia. In the viral clip, Millicent is on her way home after her dental procedure. Then, suddenly, a fake warning from the Centers for Disease Control about a zombie outbreak blares over the radio. The teen’s concerned expression turns to fear and pure panic as she believes that a zombie apocalypse is actually happening and her brothers, of course, hilariously play along.
As witnessed in the clip, Cabot and Barrett prepared heavily for the prank, pulling together weapons (rakes, gardening tools, the usual) and other vital survival needs to help their family through tough times. They also tricked Millicent into picking between their pet dog or cat (she chose to rescue the cat, by the way), and Funfetti or chocolate cake. The brothers even had their mom join in on the ruse. “She was all too willing to get involved,” Barrett told DeGeneres of their mom, who was seated in the audience. Millicent added: “It kind of makes me worried, for future reference, that she’s really good at this lying.”
The clip, which was posted on April 11 to YouTube, has garnered more than 14 million views. While most of the world thought it was funny, Millicent revealed to DeGeneres on Wednesday that she’s received some backlash for her choices.
“I’ve been getting a lot of hatred about this from the dog people, naturally,” she told DeGeneres. “[Our dog] bites, he’s tiny and he’s, like, 10 years old,” she added as rationale. “He’s kind of just like a grumpy old man at this point. … He’s never returned the love I’ve given to him. It’s so hurtful.”
Watch above!
