Being pranked

[Hyena Dandy]

I hate having pranks pulled on me. This probably goes back to how often it happened to me when I was in elementary school. I was not, you see, the most socially aware kid. I really hate having practical jokes pulled on me, and thus I won't pull them on anyone else.

That said, I don't hate practical jokes IN GENERAL. I hate them applied to me, in specific. Some people enjoy them, they like it happening to them, and they like doing it to other people. If you like practical jokes, that's great, just do it to me. In concept, they're fine, and shouldn't bother me. In practice, they just... GET to me.

To clarify, what it needs to do to get to me is that it needs to have a few qualifications

1) It has to be targeted. If a website simply posts a fake news feed on April 1st, then I don't care. They aren't trying to do anything to me, in particular.
2) It has to be misleading. That is, it can't just be a little joke, it has to actually be lying to me. I don't mind, for example, someone spamming my facebook page, or tagging me in posts or something. Those I don't consider pranks, I consider them silly.
3) It has to be coerced. If you lie to me about something, and I'm seeing through it, and you keep just insisting until I concede okay, maybe you're right, then you go "Ha! Tricked ya!" it annoys me. If you say something absolutely ridiculous, and I believe you right off, that's different. I think the coercing one is the biggest to me.
4) It can't have anything funny about it BEYOND that I believed something that wasn't true, or did something stupid.
5) It has to be pointless. That is, it can't be in the vein of satire or something else where you're trying to make a point about human nature or how I think or whatever.

So, I guess that's why I don't like pranks? And I don't approve of their use.

Now, to explain what I guess is a practical joke that I DO like. My friend, the Pinkie Pie page, has a joke he does. There is, in the My Little Pony fandom, a fanfiction about Pinkie Pie (who is my avatar) killing another character, Rainbow Dash and baking her into cupcakes because... It's never explained. Point is, the joke Pinkie does is that their secret ingredient is 'Love'. A lot of the humor comes from all the puns based on love that he slips in. He's also not being COERCIVE about it. They're not trying to convince people that it's not love, he actually spends most of the time explaining it is love, just without outright saying it. And if someone says "So it isn't other ponies" they'll look shocked that you would think such a thing. Rather than saying "Yes! It totally is!" and then when you say it isn't, saying "No, it was love all along." That page is also the main reason I don't get bothered by trollface. I only ever see it when they use it, and they'll usually only use it there. Or when he's doing something else that's SILLY, rather than malicious.

So, where did that rant go? Nowhere! But at least I used a lot of words.

[MrsEclipse]

My brother absolutely hates the sitcom/cartoon stock plot where the characters start playing pranks on each other and it escalates until something goes horribly wrong. I hate it, too. It exemplifies everything that's wrong with practical joking.

I like the idea of pranks when it's something that you know will make the other person laugh, like rickrolling someone who likes Rick Astley. Or harmless ones like rounding up a bunch of huge dolls and buckling them into your friends car so she goes outside to go to work and there's a big stuffed moose in the driver seat or something.

I loved the book in the Disney Fairies series, "Fawn and the Mysterious Trickster." In the book, Fawn and Beck play tricks on each other, but its all in good fun- they can't wait to see what the other is going to try, and then they have to top it. Then a third party starts pulling pranks on them both, and his tricks are so much better than theirs, but he's so good at hiding his identity that it's a mystery to find out who's doing this. The end is pretty obvious and kind of far-fetched, but it really drives the point home.

NONE of the pranks in the book are mean-spirited, and ALL parties are enjoying it. In that sense, the prank is just another way of sharing fun and humor between friends.


Re #3: Some people seriously need to take a hint that their joke isn't going to work and give it a rest. I hate hate HATE that.

[mikoyan29]

I have a stuffed wolverine that I got off the WWF site and I kept it in my office. Well apparently some people never learned the whole "keep your hands off my stuff" lesson from kindergarten. I've had him tied to a car antenna and all sorts of stuff. I don't mind so much if he's moved from office to office but when you're doing stuff that is going to damage him, you've cross a line. Especially since I think some of the people at work are too big of pussies to own up and buy a new one if they damage it. And it wasn't cheap either.

[HYHYBT]

Anybody going to take the other side? Claim that any and all practical jokes are fine and dandy, even if the victim hates them?

[SkullKing]

I hate pratical jokes.

it is the main reason why me and my father don´t have a good relation.

Once when I was little he told me my Grandma had died just to mess with me.

Some things are quite simply unforgivable.