Time Jacker
Loving YTtalk
Yep. The word 'prank' is light hearted and friendly. The dictionary calls it "a practical joke or mischievous act." It is supposed to be light hearted; not assault, sexual harassment and criminal damage.
The War on Prank Channels
- Thread starter AxeDetroit
- Start date
Yep. The word 'prank' is light hearted and friendly. The dictionary calls it "a practical joke or mischievous act." It is supposed to be light hearted; not assault, sexual harassment and criminal damage.
WilliamRayWalters
I Love YTtalk
Exactly. I remember watching the type of pranks where they have a fake serial killer with a chainsaw and thinking "well, what if one of them had a heart attack" or "what if one of them pulls a gun". I agree, it's pretty easy to determine that most of these pranks are nonsense.
Crown
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Back in the early days of YouTube, I used to like prank channels such as Rémi Gaillard ( https://www.youtube.com/user/nqtv ) - The main premise of his pranks is doing silly things in public without actually have a victim. Example: he'd have a disco party with lights and music in an elevator or, he'd get dressed up in a Pacman costume and run up and down supermarket aisles (like the game of pacman) - They were pretty harmless and no-one got hurt or made to look stupid other than Rémi himself.
But now, prank channels have just got out of hand. Honestly I think it all started around the time mobile phones had integrated cameras and bored people just started daring each other to do stupid stuff to people and film it to get their 15 minutes of fame. Things got worse when they discovered they could make $$ from them on YT. And then all the fake pranks started when they realised their victims could get the videos taken down for invasion of privacy so they all started using actors.
I agree with @WilliamRayWalters in his post above about the whole "fake" thing. Someone is supposed to be getting "pranked" - The attraction is supposedly the fact that the "victim" is somehow being tricked and the viewer is there to see the reaction of a real person. The whole premise is that they're supposed to be real. If you take away the "real", then there is no "victim" and there is no prank and so the whole premise for the humour no longer exists. All you are left with is some mediocre acting of people running around pretending to be scared.
If it didn't matter if the prank is real or not, then why even call it a prank? Why not title the video as a "funny sketch" if that's what it is? The reason is that it does matter for the reasons I mentioned above. So by being fake, it makes the video pretty terrible.
I also really dislike the sense of entitlement that some of these prank channels have when their pranks sometimes backfire. I remember watching one recently and the victim actually turned on the YouTuber who was pranking him and grabbed hold of him. The YouTuber got all annoyed and was shouting at the victim saying "Chill dude, it's just a prank." - (Erm really? So you can just take a camera and start filming and that gives you license to do WTF you want without assuming any responsibility for your actions?)
/rant
But now, prank channels have just got out of hand. Honestly I think it all started around the time mobile phones had integrated cameras and bored people just started daring each other to do stupid stuff to people and film it to get their 15 minutes of fame. Things got worse when they discovered they could make $$ from them on YT. And then all the fake pranks started when they realised their victims could get the videos taken down for invasion of privacy so they all started using actors.
I agree with @WilliamRayWalters in his post above about the whole "fake" thing. Someone is supposed to be getting "pranked" - The attraction is supposedly the fact that the "victim" is somehow being tricked and the viewer is there to see the reaction of a real person. The whole premise is that they're supposed to be real. If you take away the "real", then there is no "victim" and there is no prank and so the whole premise for the humour no longer exists. All you are left with is some mediocre acting of people running around pretending to be scared.
If it didn't matter if the prank is real or not, then why even call it a prank? Why not title the video as a "funny sketch" if that's what it is? The reason is that it does matter for the reasons I mentioned above. So by being fake, it makes the video pretty terrible.
I also really dislike the sense of entitlement that some of these prank channels have when their pranks sometimes backfire. I remember watching one recently and the victim actually turned on the YouTuber who was pranking him and grabbed hold of him. The YouTuber got all annoyed and was shouting at the victim saying "Chill dude, it's just a prank." - (Erm really? So you can just take a camera and start filming and that gives you license to do WTF you want without assuming any responsibility for your actions?)
/rant
ChargunHD
The FawX is on the Hunt
Nowadays theres a fine like between a prank and being outright wrong. The Muslim bomb prank was disgusting IMO. In a time where the whole world had its eyes on the Muslim & Islam community these "pranksters" went ahead and decided to put fuel on the fire and have a "Fake Bomb Scare Prank". The video clearly depicts a Muslim character running around throwing what pedestrians believe is a "bomb".
What kind of image does that show/make of the Muslim and Islamic communities and people who fled the hell they called home for a better life only to be shown to the world in this way.
Oh but its ok because they said "They dont hate Muslims" and "It's all for fun". Yes, scaring people for life after the country is on high alert due to terrorist attacks where the largest planned attack in Paris happened only a week ago. Yeah no problem dude its fine keep making prank videos (Y)
Prank channels make me sick!
What kind of image does that show/make of the Muslim and Islamic communities and people who fled the hell they called home for a better life only to be shown to the world in this way.
Oh but its ok because they said "They dont hate Muslims" and "It's all for fun". Yes, scaring people for life after the country is on high alert due to terrorist attacks where the largest planned attack in Paris happened only a week ago. Yeah no problem dude its fine keep making prank videos (Y)
Prank channels make me sick!
Time Jacker
Loving YTtalk
That one was pretty much a staged mock execution. So bad and so pathetic. I just steer clear of those channels. They're all run by a bunch of dim witted dude-bro's anyway.
ChargunHD
The FawX is on the Hunt
I try my best to shy away but with the small minded friends I have on Facebook who are all sheep it was hard NOT to see it appear on my news feed.
Time Jacker
Loving YTtalk
I have come close to deleting myself from Facebook so many times. I'd say the noise over quality has gotten pretty bad there.
ChargunHD
The FawX is on the Hunt
I too have come close several times but its hard when your main communication with your friends is Facebook. Its bad when they answer a Facebook message faster than answering a phonecall.