James Corden pranked David Beckham with a fake statue, and the result was magic

The Late Late Show With James Corden pulled off an all-time great prank this week when David Beckham met the statue that was going to be unveiled by the LA Galaxy before the start of the season — or so he thought.

Corden learned that Beckham hadn’t seen his likeness, and put in place a plan that left the superstar stunned.

Corden’s team went about sculpting a fake version of the Beckham statue that accentuated everything Becks hated about proofs he was shown. This meant a massive chin and a comically large butt. A gaping, three-tooth mouth, and offset eyes topped off the look that was so horrifically bad it would make the Cristiano Ronaldo statue blush.

Cordon hired actors to pose as guests at a gala to show off the statue, made up a comedian to look like a spitting image of the sculptor (who Beckham met during the process) and disguised his film crew as employees of the Galaxy, filming Beckham in the lead up to the reveal for LAGalaxy.com.

The result was magical, as a stunned Beckham was lost for words after staring into the void of his misshaped, golden face.

”It doesn’t look anything like me though. Look at my eyes. The only good thing is the hair, and that’s about it. [...] Look at my bum. Look at my arse. It definitely doesn’t look like that.”

Beckham was borderline distraught as he asked Galaxy officials what they thought about the statue, growing frustrated when everyone told him it was amazing. To his credit, Beckham was so gracious about it all, apologizing to the sculptor, telling him that he didn’t want to offend — but also informing people that his wife and parents were flying out from the U.K. for the public unveiling, and that this was atrocious.

Finally when Cordon revealed the prank Beckham just burst out laughing — after calling Cordon a “wanker” of course.

The real statue looked much better, and Becks approved.