A SCENE in one of those 90s or early 2000s movie showed a couple of teenagers abducted their teenage female friend as joke, put her in the trunk of a car and drove her to where their birthday surprise was supposed to be.
When they opened the trunk of the car, their friend was suffocated and was already dead. The entire movie revolved around the ghost of the dead girl haunting her teenage friends.
This Halloween season, it’s the time for practical jokes and pranks once again. For some this may be some sort of fun ice breakers to make a more lively mood and energy. For people who have patience and a stomach for these kinds of jokes, this could be really fun and entertaining especially when done rarely, when the subject of the prank is least prepared. Most of the times we use fake blood, ugly masks, or whatever we can think of to scare our friends.
But in this time of jokes and pranks, one important question is forgotten to be asked. When does a prank qualify as joke and when is it too much?
In the United States, a couple of male friends garbed in Muslim attire reenact a fake decapitation in the sidewalk making passersby who witness it run for their lives, scampering in fear. Some ran towards the corner of the street, panting and even puking in panic. For one, this prank is very racist and can instill incurable fear of Muslims in the eyes of the witness. Second, it is no way funny and only done to cause emotional and traumatic harm to passersby.
In a pure sense of the act, a prank is supposed to be funny and should cause both parties to laugh and to enjoy what happened. In the Philippines, a good example may be the famous “Wow Mali” video series. These are practical jokes, in one way temporarily embarrassing the subject, but it turns around and makes him/her realize it was all but a joke by pointing to him/her that a camera records the entire situation and that it’s part of a television show “Wow Mali”. Most of the times, the subject covers his/her face in embarrassment but then is very sport and cheerful about the prank.
This may not be the April Fools’ season but Halloween still is a moment for people to do their scary, creepy pranks. What should be kept in mind is that pranks should remain funny for both parties and should not harm the subject physically and mentally.