Ant McPartlin tickled fans with a video on Instagram that appeared to show his presenting partner Dec in tears.
The clip, uploaded to the duo’s joint Instagram account, has been viewed tens of thousands of times.
But instead of concerns about what has reduced Decland Donnelly to a blubbering mess of snot and sobbing, followers applauded the prank on the TV star.
Ant and Dec fans in hysterics over Instagram ‘crying’ video
The short clip starts with Ant walking into a room where Dec is tapping away at a laptop.
But as Ant approaches, with the camera showing his point of view, and Dec’s face comes into focus, he appears utterly disconsolate.
His eyes and his nose are all a sore red, as if both have been streaming.
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Dec’s lips are turned down, ensuring his mouth forms a permanent grimace.
And his brow is furrowed with wrinkles as if the light entertainment fave carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.
But all is certainly not as it seems.
That’s because Ant is apparently on a wind up.
‘What are you crying for?’
“On no, what’s the matter?” a mock-concerned Ant asks urgently, confusing Dec.
Ant’s frantic enquiries continue, with his co-host unable to figure out what’s going on.
“You seem really upset, is everything okay with you? What are you crying for?” Ant repeats again and again.
I’ll beat them up if they’ve upset you!
He even squeezes Dec’s face with his left hand as he films with his right, briefly showing his wrist tattoo in the frame.
Ant continues: “Who has upset you? I’ll beat them up if they’ve upset you!”
The reason for Dec’s pained expression became apparent in the post’s caption.
It revealed in a hashtag that Ant was using a ‘crying’ filter popular on TikTok to take the mick out of his mate.
“Having a bawl with this one,” Ant punned.
View this post on Instagram
How fans reacted
Followers were in stitches at Ant’s antics, going by reactions to the post, with laughing emojis littering the comments section.
And comedian Chris Ramsey was among those to express his appreciation, with a number of clapping emojis.
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Elsewhere, one amused observer admitted: ‘This really got me.”
Someone else wrote: “It is just too good.”
And a third guffawed: “Ha ha, this filter.”
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