(Not) Dying From Laughter: Has Pranking Gone Too Far?

Imagine coming home expecting to find bored kids and a bored husband, only to be greeted by a sea of little plastic balls. Your partner ordered a truck full of them and just transformed your home into the coolest indoor playground ever, complete with a trampoline. Your kids are having the time of their lives! Welcome to the Atwood family.

If his YouTube videos are anything to go by, you get the impression that online prankster Roman Atwood's partner perpetually lives on a really exciting roller coaster, never knowing what's next. The Atwoods' family bond practically jumps out of the screen — this is clearly a very close-knit bunch.

Of course, Roman Atwood was also the prankster to produce the video that was aptly titled "Killing My Own Kid PRANK!!", now viewed over 42 million times. This is where he chucked a dummy dressed in the exact same outfit his young son was wearing a floor down, tricking his partner into thinking the boy might have been horrifically injured. "I f*cking hate you!", she exclaimed as she removed the Spider-Man mask to find Styrofoam underneath. This wasn't the only time Atwood set up pranks that involved convincing his partner that something terrible just happened to one of their kids. I don't know about you, but my partner would have to be really very awesome to get out of that kind of thing without a divorce.

In another equally shocking prank, a pizza delivery man is convinced that he's about to be murdered by a man in a panda suit, only to be showered with money. He laughs at the end, but is it truly acceptable to make people believe their life is in danger under the banner of pranking?

Some pranks start out without the intention to make people believe their life or another's is in danger, but end with far more tragic consequences. When Australian radio DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian decided to impersonate the Queen of England and Prince Charles and tricked a nurse into revealing medical information about Kate Middleton, the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, felt so bad that she committed suicide. 

When my own young son decided to rub Vaseline on all the door handles, an idea he obviously got on the internet, that was a little irritating but also benign. When, however, pranks have people believe that something truly horrifying just happened, we cross lines that we shouldn't. These pranks can cause distress at best, and PTSD, a heart attack, or suicide at worst. 

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Even those pranks that involve little more than grabbing a sandwich out of a total stranger's hand and eating it on camera can get out of hand — while I'm more inclined to feel empathy towards victims of crazy pranks, we also need to remember that the prankster themselves can end up in danger. One of the Viral Brothers found himself tazered after placing fake poop on someone's Lamborghini, for example. The Model Pranksters had a gun pulled on them after impersonating CIA agents in a prank. Perhaps it's a good idea to remember that the USA counts 90 guns for every 100 people before pranking someone? 

From Zeus To April Fool's: The Social Purpose Of Pranking

The Legal Consequences Of Pranking

Most pranksters have the intention to make others, including the target, laugh after a brief moment of surprise and even shock. Think before you prank, though, as you may find yourself facing scary-sounding criminal charges including assault (which, by the way, doesn't even have to involve physical contact), reckless endangerment, destruction of property, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping or false imprisonment, or stalking. 

The legal system isn't set up to let people committing acts that scare the living daylight out of fellow citizens off the hook just because they have a camera and are planning to publish their mischief on YouTube — and for good reason. No matter your initial intentions, pranks can and do cause real harm to real people, leaving lasting psychological or physical damage. 

Why Do People Prank?

Despite the fact that the modern prank often goes far too far, anthropologists have found that pranks are an integral part of the social gel that binds humans together. They date back at least to the time Greek Mythology evolved; remember how Prometheus pulled a prank on Zeus? Then you've got the role of court jesters, who were able to influence rulers through humor, and of course April Fool's Day, some version of which goes right back to the Middle Ages and perhaps even to the Roman Empire. 

Coming-of-age rituals in Africa often involve a man dressed in a creepy mask knocking boys who are about to become men right off their "adult pedestals", before welcoming them into the group as equal members of their societies with open arms. Modern sorority and fraternity initiations feature similar rituals, in which prospective members are torn down and humiliated before being built up again, this time as members of a new group. 

Pranks done right serve a wider purpose, that of creating a feeling of belonging. There's nothing that binds us together in quite the same way as humor does, and pranks have the fascinating quality of simultaneously suspending the normal daily order and getting us to think about what is and isn't accepted in the society we live in. What's more, humans find inherent value in being shaken out of the boredom of ordinary routines. Humor plays an important sociological role across societies — it diffuses tension, relieves stress, gets us to think about who we are, and helps establish groups.

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Tricking your partner into thinking that your kid is dead, though, terrifying a stranger to the point he thinks he is going to lose his life, or doing something that leads someone to commit suicide? Not funny, not responsible, and also often illegal.