![]() Thankfully, the current landscape seems to be more annoyed than entertained by this type of intrusive comedy. I can’t imagine being at the whim of some deepcut cable network no one’s heard of when i’m trying to get a shitty breakfast sandwich in the morning. Even when the pranksters get to cosplay as employees, the pranks are then often at the expense of working class people just trying to get a quick meal, or run an errand, or blow off steam during their free time. So many of these pranks are inflicted on those in low-wage positions like fast food and retail, places where workers are regularly subjected to the rages of entitled asshole customers. Basically, don’t hold people hostage for your own entertainment, especially when those people are making minimum wage. Don’t record them for a video, and don’t ask them for ridiculous requests you know they can’t fill. Whether impersonating people with authority or just being their random wacky selves, the power-dynamics between prankster and prankee on these shows are heavy skewed as they tend to target working class people who are often… at work! A good code to live by is to leave people the hell alone while they’re working. Nothing could be more tone-deaf than convincing someone they’re going to be arrested for a crime they didn’t commit or having someone remove their clothes for a fake medical inspection, yet both have seen air time. With a budget to burn, these Hollywood productions masquerade actors as police officers, doctors, and taxi drivers. Even the third party observers, watching from our TVs, only know it’s a prank if told ahead of time, otherwise there’s no distinction between what we are watching and an actual traffic stop or Subway security camera footage.Īlong with being corny as hell, the themes that pop up ever so frequently on these shows are rightly problematic in a way I can’t imagine flying in 2020 and beyond. Elsewhere in the comedy world, that’s on par with a comedian having to explain why their joke is funny, and if you have to do that you’ve failed. Once the prankster announces their true intentions, then and only then is it funny. ![]() Their targets, the live audience, are not allowed in on the joke until after the big reveal. Unlike stand-up, roasts, improv, sitcoms, and movies, pranks do not acquire the audience’s consent first. What is a prank but just a lie? Whether it’s pretending to do something unpleasant or pretending to be someone you’re not, it is completely indistinguishable between farce and fact to the pankee (sometimes done to elicit terror rather than amuse like on Scare Tactics). As we look into what we do and don’t need in a post-COVID world, surely we can let the terrible genre of prank comedy die along with business formal dress codes and millionaire celebrities getting nude for votes. Disastrous casting aside, the lowest form of comedy are pranks. ![]() In the dodged bullet of the year, Netflix announced they were scrapping an upcoming prank show starring-wait for it-comedians Bryan Callen and Chris D’Elia, both of whom have been accused of sexual assault. ![]()
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