Arnold Schwarzenegger Pulls Hilarious Prank On EV Shoppers

Jun. 27, 2019 12:15 PM ET by Jared Rosenholtz / 4 Comments

"Carpool lanes are for sissies."

Most people know Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator movie franchise and his time as governor (or Governator) of California. Schwarzenegger is a self-professed lover of gas-guzzling vehicles and he's even owned highly inefficient vehicles like the Mercedes Unimog and Bugatti Veyron, which has 16 cylinders, four turbochargers and gets 7 mpg in the city. In the past, Schwarzenegger had a thing for Hummers, but has recently started to come around towards the idea of electric vehicles.

To help promote hybrid and electric vehicles, Schwarzenegger teamed up with a California non-profit called Veloz to go undercover and prank customers at a used car lot. Schwarzenegger is one of the most easily recognizable celebrities in the world, which further adds to the comedy of the video.

Arnold Schwarzenegger via YouTube

In the video, Schwarzenegger plays a salesman named Howard Kleiner, who is attempting to talk shoppers out of an electric car and into a gas guzzler. A couple comes in looking for an electric car like a Nissan Leaf, and Schwarzenegger brings out a modified Hummer H2 with a loud exhaust. The couple tells him the loud exhaust would annoy their neighbors but because the exhaust is so deafening, Schwarzenegger says, "You're God**** right it will impress your neighbors."

Another customer is looking at a BMW i3 because he wants a vehicle that can get him in California's carpool lane, which requires a special sticker. Schwarzenegger joking tells the shopper the dealership is giving out free bumper stickers today and brings out a few with hilarious expressions like "Carpool Lanes Are For Sissies" and "I Support The Oil Company Monopoly."

Arnold Schwarzenegger via YouTube

When customers start talking about the advantages of electric vehicles, Schwarzenegger has all sorts of hilarious rebuttals. One customer says his friend received a tax credit on his electric car, but Schwarzenegger says, "you want a tax credit, or do you want to have street credit?" During a test drive, a family notes how the Nissan Leaf is so quiet but Schwarzenegger finds a way to play this off as a disadvantage because "you hear literally everything your family says." The video is quite hilarious and does a great job promoting the advantages of electric cars using comedy.