Practical jokes involve performing actions on an unsuspecting person and are popularized on TV shows. They can be performed on specific occasions or new members of organizations. Pranks can involve the telephone, computer, email, hoaxes, visual deception, and false reporting. It’s important to consider the psychological effects and legal ramifications of pranks.
Practical jokes are a form of prank where an unsuspecting person is the butt. They differ from word jokes in that certain actions are performed. Also known as pranks, practical jokes have been popularized on television shows such as Candid Camera and Punk’d! Practical pranks are traditionally performed in various cultures on April Fool’s Day, Halloween, and the Day of the Holy Innocents. They are also often performed on new members of schools, camps, fraternities, and other similar organizations.
Practical jokes can fall into many categories. Some make use of the telephone or computer, such as in prank or crank calls, where the caller pretends to be someone else to prank the call recipient, often asking silly questions or using puns to induce recipient to say something obscene. Computer pranks can take the form of applications that pretend to be games, but interrupt the player with startling noises or visuals. Other computer jokes make it appear that the victim’s computer is malfunctioning.
Another prank that computer use can play is subscribing someone to multiple spam emails, often of an obscene nature. This is known as email bombing, but variations include signing someone up for embarrassing or funny mail, such as weird catalogues, or ordering delivery to someone’s home without their knowledge.
Sometimes, hoaxes are perpetrated on a large scale by the media through fake news or fake documentaries presented as true. Notable examples include Orson Welles’ 1938 radio adaptation of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, in which Welles reported as if Martians were actually invading Earth at the time of his broadcast. The 2004 Sci Fi Channel special The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan, which was billed as a documentary but was actually fabricated by Sixth Sense director Shyamalan.
Other types of pranks include visual deception, such as covering a bed with sheets or loosening the tops of salt and pepper shakers so that trying to use them spoils the food; suddenly removing someone’s clothes in public, sometimes called gasping or sharking; pranks that produce unexpected results when the victim performs an everyday action such as sitting down or opening a door, such as using a whoopie cushion; and false reporting, mislabeling, or misrepresenting something to play a joke, such as marking a regular door with a sign that says it opens automatically.
The jokes can be quite mean at times and many don’t find the genre funny at all, while for others these jokes are much funnier than more conventional comedies. When performing pranks, it’s important to consider the possible psychological effects on the target of the prank and any disciplinary or legal ramifications your actions may have.
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