This mysterious student sticker prank in York bar has taken over the media 

What started as a joke between students has somehow turned into one of the most talked-about stories in York nightlife over the past few months.

In recent days, it has been reported by Stone Roses Bar (Clifford Street, York City Centre) that mysterious “VOICE ACTIVATED” stickers have appeared all around the student bar. The most popular locations were on hand dryers, toilets and even the jukebox near the inside bar.

Stone Roses posted a slideshow of photos revealing the evidence of the prank and claimed that students were spotted talking to hand dryers like they were Alexa devices by saying “PLAY OASIS” and begging the hand dryer to turn on by shouting “START.”

The funniest part? For a few days no one knew who was responsible for the prank. Until the ominous culprit took to Instagram to reply to Stone Roses in a comment thread, admitted it was him (James Richards, a current University of York student) that pulled all of this off. 

The York Tab asked James about why he did all this, to which he responded: “I did it because its funny to see people talk to random objects and I took inspiration from a bathroom in Italy.”

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I don’t know about you, but I definitely hope European bathroom appliances are not voice activated, as they probably would be expecting an answer in Italian rather than an angry, probably drunk, young English person to be screaming at it for the foreseeable… but if that is to be the case, it would still be equally as funny. 

Imagine having one too many to drink and then walking into the bathrooms for a breather and seeing someone shouting an instruction to a hand dryer. I think that’s enough for today, time to call it a night.

The obvious wittiness and humour to the prank meant that news spread quickly through word of mouth, Instagram stories, TikToks and group chats across the city. Before long, nearly every student in York has probably heard about these voice activated bar appliances and wants to see them in person too.

In the days since the stickers appeared, things escalated. The prank was even picked up by the BBC, turning what was originally a local student joke into something much bigger.

In the BBC article, the pub owners gave a statement saying “everyday we are going around and finding them (the stickers) on different machines we have got.”

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Students across York reposted the article with captions like “this is peak York behaviour” and “whoever did this deserves a degree immediately.”

The York Tab asked the man responsible, James Richards, what he thought of the sudden media outburst.

He said: “The social media coverage is mad, my mate called me this evening telling me we were on the news and I wasn’t expecting this to be the reason we were.”

“I didn’t go with the intention of the stickers,” he explained. “I printed them out ages ago and then just randomly remembered them on that Friday.”

So the whole prank essentially started as an insignificant joke between friends, expected to only last for that night and that night only.

At this point, the prank has become more than just a joke. It is now part of York student culture and will be remembered for many months or even years. Maybe Stone Roses will gain a new reputation, where students will go into the toilets or near the juke-box to check and see if there’s any evidence left of the prank. 

For now, I can imagine the responsible person is watching as people yell at hand dryers, enjoying every second of it until the humour fizzles out or a new idea is devised…

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Featured image via Instagram @stonerosesbar_york