[imagesource: YouTube / Rémi GAILLARD]

It turns out France’s most notorious prankster, Rémi Gaillard, was not taken out during the making of his previous prank.

That involved mounting beachgoers as though he was an Olympic wrestler, so it was a possibility.

Nope, he is still very much out there, honing his skill at being one of the most annoying and outlandish pranksters in Europe.

This time he was less obvious, though, trying out some trickery instead.

Around two weeks ago, French local media was going berzerk over an unidentified flying object spotted several times in the skies above Occitanie in France’s southernmost region.

In actual fact, the mysterious object was all thanks to Gaillard who had sought to fool the media and a couple of unsuspecting passers-by.

The founder of Météo Gard-Hérault, a local weather service, was brought in as an accomplice for the hoax, sharing footage of the strange light on their Twitter page:

🛸 Le phénomène a été observé par plusieurs témoins depuis #Montpellier, #Cournonterral, #Palavas-les-Flots et #Sète. Des signalements similaires nous ont aussi été rapportés depuis #Narbonne, #Perpignan et l’#Andorre. #OVNI pic.twitter.com/SsZiPeg7uO

— Météo Gard – Hérault (@MteoGardHerault) November 10, 2021

Gaillard’s “UFO” had reportedly been seen by people in various towns across the region between November 9 and 11, reported Connexion:

Social media speculation had suggested that the UFO could have been a drone, a satellite, Father Christmas’ sleigh or French astronaut Thomas Pesquet returning to Earth from the International Space Station.

But the mystery was solved when Gaillard released an explanation on Twitter, also thanking the media for encouraging the thrill:

“You often make people believe anything, and I thought that it was my turn,” he added.

In the video, he appears with Loïc Spadafora, the founder of Météo Gard-Hérault, and an animal sanctuary owner, Marie Sanchez, who had acted as his accomplices for the prank.

Both Mr Spadafora and Ms Sanchez featured in media reports surrounding the unidentified object, with Ms Sanchez claiming that one of her cows had been encircled by the light.

He then released a more thorough exposé of the prank on his YouTube channel:

That alien get-up is strikingly similar to the time he chased cars down the road while disguised as a speed camera:

[source:connexionfrance]