It’s the 21st century and everyone is working really hard to become social media stars. It seems as though the days when medical or engineering degrees were the holy grail are long gone. Nowadays, it is all about how many views, likes, comments, shares, follows, retweets, and features you will get. It’s been interesting to see how social media boomed so much over the past decade, and I will admit that I have enjoyed being a bystander in the journey. I will also admit that I have watched a few too many prank videos than my busy days allow. But when it comes to the pranks, there are a few that left me scratching my head and wondering how they could pass as funny. You don’t have to agree with me, but here are a few of the pranks that I really don’t think are funny at all.
Breakup prank on girlfriend/boyfriend
There are so many variations of this prank that range anywhere from direct breakups or the strange “my mother wants us to break up” versions. I may be old school, but how these pranks pass as funny is beyond me. In my view, relationships are not meant to toy with your emotions or cause pain, even if just for a few moments. By no means are they easy or simple, but pretending to break someone then turning around and claiming it was all a prank is not okay.
Firstly, almost everyone has experienced the heartbreak that comes along with failed relationships. If you haven’t, I can tell you now that it really sucks. Not the “I wish I could have the burger but the store is closed” kind of feeling. It’s the “I can’t eat, sleep or stop crying” kind of pain. Thinking back to all of the breakups I have gone through, I would not appreciate being pranked in that way.
Anything that plays on a phobia
So here’s the thing, I don’t like snakes and would freak out if I even saw one in a glass box. So the person who dares to prank me with a fake snake will be blacklisted for eternity. While my feelings towards snakes is not a phobia, the underlying reason is still valid. Growing up, I loved swimming, and one fine day there was a snake in our pool with me. I won’t get into details, but since then, just the mere thought of snakes gets me into a frenzy.
For some strange reason, YouTubers are finding it funny to prank their friends or significant others with things like fake spiders, snakes, clowns, etc. This is wrong for many reasons, but mainly because they are triggering their friend’s anxiety. The biggest issue I have with this is that overcoming a mental illness isn’t simple. It takes time, work, and lots of support, so to play on someone’s phobia is just cruel. Just because the Kardashians did it, that does not make it okay.
Cheating pranks
There are many couples on social media that have tried some variation of this prank. I’ve seen some who have gotten a friend to lie in bed with them and others have gotten a friend to send flirty texts. Can we just break this down for a second? In what world is cheating funny? Maybe the people who are doing these pranks have never been cheated on? I have thought long and hard about this one to see if maybe I was the one being overly sensitive. After all, I have been cheated on a few too many times. Help me understand this one, please…
I personally think that we should not be glorifying such actions and turning them into jokes. Cheating is never okay. Laughing about someone being cheated on is not okay. Pretending to cheat is not okay. Or am I missing something?
Robberies, injuries, etc
I have seen a few pranks on YouTube where people pretend as though their house has been broken into and they were murdered. Some variations of this prank even include fake blood. Firstly, murder is not funny. Ever. It doesn’t matter how smoothly the shenanigans go or how much the audience laughs. If you are pretending to be dead to make someone else freak out, then there is something extremely wrong with you.
Just touching on my personal experience of losing my mom, death has always been something I feared. Not so much my own demise, but losing someone else that means so much to me. It has been over fifteen years and I am still trying to accept that she is gone. Fifteen! So seeing other people play around with the concept of death is just insulting.
As for robberies, I will not be surprised if when it happens for real, the pranksters not taken seriously.
Wow. These are cruel. The cheating one I’ve seen as a trend of TikTok and I agree it is not funny. Why would you want to do that to someone you love?
In general I think people are taking pranks to a whole other level for views on social media. It’s just not funny. 🤦
I love playing pranks on my friends and family. But fun pranks like pretending like I’m going to hug them but put my cold hands on their warm face/neck or message a friend’s crush from their phone. 😛
Your pranks sound cute and funny. They aren’t diabolical like what some people have decided to do lately. It’s actually quite sad!
I am not a fan of hurtful pranks and what are people thinking?!
That’s the thing Beth, they aren’t. 🤦🏾♀️
exactly
I agree. None of the above is remotely funny.
Right?! It baffles me what people do for fame these days 🤦🏾♀️
These are all pretty stupid if you ask me. I’ve seen Youtubers pull awful pranks on people just to get views. One guy electrified his door handle so when his girlfriend got home she would get a little zap. The girlfriend had a phobia of getting electrocuted. I think stuff like that is pretty evil 😐
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Wow! Just wow… 😳 I hope she dumped him and moved on with life. That’s pathetic!
I personally don’t like pranks. As an educator, I’ve learned that even the simplest of pranks can be hard for some to process. One year as school librarian, I placed a fancy covered baking dish at the check-out with the note: ‘Help yourself to a Brownie.’ Once opened, the lid displayed another note stating, “GOTCHA! April Fools! Feel free to help yourself to a Brown E!!” And of course the dish was filled with little cutout brown letter E’s. Well, I can tell you, more that a few kiddos burst into tears. A few downright inconsolable. You never know someone else’s threshold for a joke, or what their sense of humor might be. Pranks are a slippery slope for sure!
Oh no! The poor kids 🙁 I hope you gave them brownies the next day! It’s a very cute prank but you’re absolutely right, you never know how the recipient will feel about it! Thanks so much for sharing your experience <3 Your comments had landed in my spam :(
Recently a 20-year-old YouTuber died, just because he was doing this robbery prank, and the other person shot him in his self-defense!!!!
I was shaken to the core after reading this news,
I agree with all of your points 💖💖
Are you serious?! That is heartbreaking! It’s sad to see people playing with life like that😔
I agree with you on so many of these points. Tik tok is becoming more ghetto by the day with these crappy pranks. If a friend ever pranked me with a snake, LOL, that might actually be the end of our friendship. People need to understand that there should be boundaries.
Haha you and I are the same 🙂
I don’t understand how anyone would find these funny. A prank is supposed to make someone laugh. If you are doing something to make someone else get angry, sad, or scared, that is just mean. ☹️
Agreed! 🙁
I completely agree. What is funny about any of these pranks? They cause pain, heartache or incite anxiety or fear. People take things to far for social media likes. What has happened to the days of simple pranks that brought laughter without hurting someone?
Yes! It’s such a weird concept to me, but I suppose with people earning income based on the number of followers and view they get, you can pretty much expect them to try anything. It’s sad.
It is sad. Hopefully people will realise how these types of prank can negatively impact people’s lives and put a stop to it.
Anyone who pulls a ‘prank’ like this isn’t a friend at all. It’s so selfish if you’re doing this to people purely for your own entertainment.
Good talk, Shelly DS. Definitely not funny. I don’t like them one bit. Both posters of the ugly pranks and viewers are guilty. Thanks for drawing attention to it.
Thanks for sharing your feedback. I hope this phase stops soon 🙁
I hope it does too.
I agree with all of this! I don’t think any of that is funny. I definitely have a phobia of snakes and spiders and that would be the list hurtful thing my people can do to me. A lot of these pranks are fears of mine, so I don’t think they’re cool. Maybe that’s why the pranksters do it, because it isn’t something they’ve actually had to endure. I don’t know, but I leave those alone. I’m a big prankster with my boys though, just not with that type of stuff.
Gosh yeah… do you think it’s a phase of the century? I can’t imagine why people would continue such silly pranks even after many news reports of prank related deaths!
Why would anyone think these are okay? None of these are okay! My son likes to watch prank videos on YouTube and honestly, not a one is funny to me. Most are just downright disgusting or irritating.
I agree with you… I just don’t understand how anyone else would think that it’s okay!
I’m particularly with you on the robbery/murder prank. Someone I was close with had their house robbed, set on fire, and her granddaughter was brutally murdered. It started off “as a joke” and turned into a horrible nightmare. My heart broke for my friend and her loss. So those who think posting prank videos of this type of shit is funny, they can go *bleep* off
Oh no 🙁 This is heartbreaking! I really hope people stop toying with life like that!
These people are really going all out for the likes.
But we as humans are intrigued how people react.
But these pranks are not good
And could lead to the trust factor being lost from the audience
Hmmm I actually hadn’t thought about the trust factor. That’s a very good point! I also think the person being pranked will lose trust and find it difficult to distinguish between jokes and reality.
I agree with you! I’ve watched a prank where this boyfriend dyed his girlfriends LONG hair, which must have taken years to grow, with permanent dye. I don’t understand what part of it was a prank because her hair was ACTUALLY dyed and damaged. So silly
Are you serious! That is just evil! I would not be happy at all if somoene who claims to love me does something that inconsiderate!
Exactlyyy I would never forgive someone for that! They have broken up after years of YouTube pranks, probably for the best!
I don’t know why anyone would think these are okay?!?!?! This stuff can seriously impact someone mentally 🙁
Pregnancy pranks,death pranks,cheating pranks , miscarriage pranks hell no you don’t need to lose something great you have for nothing. Respect & protect each other emotionally .
Amen!