Responsible pranks often elicit joy and laughter. Taken too far, they bring out the worst in people who want to be left alone in peace. It’s time to rethink pranks and show respect above temporary amusement.’
In today’s landscape of pranking, good manners and right conduct have been thrown out the window.
Yes, they do it all: fart in your face, eat your food, sip your drink, thrown a bucket of rice at you, touch you inappropriately, call you ‘boy’, paint your car, you name it, all in the name of clicks and earning from their channels.
‘Responsible pranks often elicit joy and laughter. Taken too far, they bring out the worst in people who want to be left alone in peace. It’s time to rethink pranks and show respect above temporary amusement.’
Some get their instant comeuppance by being punched in the face, slapped, tasered, pushed hard, or even thrown into a canal. Some pranksters, when told to back off, point to the camera and yell, ‘It’s a prank, bro.’ Still others dare you to a fight, especially when they are pranking an elderly person or, worse, somebody who is wheelchair-bound.
A dumb prankster once tried to get the goat of an MMA fighter and was told to back off by the fighter’s handlers. But he kept pestering the guy, even challenging him to a fight in the ring, where he received a beating so brutal you would think he wouldn’t do it again. Lo and behold, he was back at it the next day!
Pranksters will stop at nothing to get a reaction, good or bad, even if it means being brutally slammed into the ground, all for views and clicks.
Why has pranking evolved into what it is now? Years back, pranks were all for good fun, to elicit laughter, intended to be lighthearted affairs, innocuous jokes that serve as a glue that binds individuals, creating cherished memories and inside jokes that are fondly remembered.
Today’s pranksters don’t want to work, get their hands dirty, work under the sun, don’t wear working clothes, or work squarely for hard-earned money.
It must be stressed that pranks, just like what we see on the television show “Just for Laughs,” are not bad per se. Responsible pranks often elicit joy and laughter. Taken too far, they bring out the worst in people who want to be left alone in peace. It’s time to rethink pranks and show respect above temporary amusement.
