This afternoon at 4:00 pm PDT, Canadian comic Nathan Fielder revealed that the ‘Dumb Starbucks’ coffee shop in Los Feliz was a publicity stunt for his Comedy Central show “Nathan For You”.

I knew something was wrong not long after I got there. I cut through an alleyway to find a place in line when I found a filming permit that was used over the weekend that identified the production and its contacts. A quick google search raised my suspicions.

It was dumb. I mean, really dumb. Like…totally lame.

Being punked like that (by a Canadian no less) and suffering crap coffee would have amounted to a big fat fail in my book except for the fact that I met the legendary street artist Saber MSK and his posse. The interminable wait of over two hours in line was made worthwhile through thought-provoking discussions about art, culture, politics and a mutual love for açai with blueberries.  It was Saber that disabused me of the notion that Banksy was behind this.

While other members of the press played into this event by asking questions about the show and the network, I was the one that asked Fielder where their health permit was. Not five minutes later, the LA County Health Department (← gal pal Rebecca Metz is featured in this story for USA Today) showed up and shut down the entire operation. I’m somewhat surprised they didn’t do it earlier.