Comedian Shane Gillis reveals Kid Rock loves pranking people by giving them fake watches
Zach BlassWatchmaking is a serious business, one that can be very buttoned up and traditional. But in an age of social media, we have begun to see humour creep into the mix more and more – particularly on Instagram through various watch meme accounts. We certainly have our cheeky side in our own coverage here at Time+Tide, but on a recent episode of The Bonfire podcast hosted by comedians Big Jay Oakerson and Dan Soder (who you can also see on Showtime’s Billions) their guest, comedian Shane Gillis, revealed a very elaborate watch prank that Kid Rock often plays on people that takes things to a whole other level.
Imagine you meet a famous actor or singer, and by the end of the evening they take off their watch, which they say is worth US$300,000, and tell you that they want you to have it. It would be a pretty special, yet conflicting moment. Should you accept it? Should you keep it for yourself or sell it? Or refuse such a grand offering on principle? The hysterical aspect here is that as Kid Rock’s target is mulling all of this over, the reality is that it is not, in fact, a precious metal and diamond watch worth US$300K – it is actually a total fake worth maybe US$20.
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Shane Gillis recounts on The Bonfire podcast: “Kid Rock was at our show in Nashville and we’re having a good time. At the end of the night he takes off his, it looks like an insane diamond watch, hands it to Billy and says, ‘I want you guys to have this. I want you to have this, it’s worth $300,000. I want you to have this watch.’
“Billy is like, ‘No, I can’t take it.’ So he’s like, ‘I’ll give it to Nate’. Nate’s like, ‘I’ll ******* take it, yeah!’
“After Kid Rock left, I was like, ‘Nate give me that ******* watch, we can’t keep this! He is blacked out [drunk], we can’t take a $300,000 watch from him!’
“So, I go to give it to Kid Rock as he is leaving and he’s like, ‘Keep that brother, you gotta hang on to that watch. Keep it!’
“Then I go back and we’re all just arguing over whose it is. I mean it’s an absurd-looking watch and then, in the middle of the fight, my girlfriend just googled that it was like worth $20. It’s a plastic watch.”
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As it turns out, Big Jay Oakerson had also seen the fruits of Kid Rock’s watch pranks himself. Oakerson said on the podcast episode: “I didn’t realise that Kid Rock has an Ari Shaffir-like joke that’s grenade level – like leave it and let it unfold. When we were there for the Kid Rock show, we met Marcus King, who has now become a buddy. Marcus is a chubby dude, and he had a watch on that was unclasped and still on his wrist. And, he was like: ‘Kid Rock gave this to me, man. It doesn’t fit, but when Kid Rock gives you a watch, man you wear that sh*t.”
To do it and to not see the result is hilarious. He [Kid Rock] wore it all night, he wears it so that, at the end of the night, he can just be like: ‘Great take this and he’s blacked out.’ He must have Ali G / Sacha Baron Cohen level commitment to character. Unbelievable, because Kid Rock is a character already.”
They go on to laughing at the fact that although Kid Rock had been arguing with the woman he was with at the time, he paused the conversation just to step away and execute his mischievous watch prank. They also then laugh at the idea that Kid Rock continually purchases the same watch, or keeps a bank of them in his inventory, just so he can continue to do this to unknowing people.
I was curious to see if there was any video evidence of this glorious watch prank, and right away a YouTube clip came up in my search where Kid Rock gave the exact same fake diamond watch to Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson – who wore the watch on air following his sit-down interview with Kid Rock. Quite hysterical.
Looking at the watch, I think it is fair to say most watch enthusiasts would not be fooled into thinking it was something very expensive. But, for those less “in the know”, it certainly may not be so obvious. Especially after drinks setting where the lights are low.
You can head to the link here to hear the full story told on The Bonfire, which begins as the 10-minute mark or so.