Contrary to popular opinion, practical jokes were not invented by the jokesters at Jackass or the pranksters on YouTube. Fellow man has been pranking other fellow men for centuries. The first recorded practical joke was when Cain pointed at the sky and told Abel to look at that giant hand coming out of the clouds then pounded him with a rock when he was not looking. The laughter only lasted a few seconds before Cain realized that what he had planned as a harmless jest had gone terribly awry. Since then, men have been planning ways to make their brethren look like idiots at every opportunity. And yes, I say men, because women are not immature enough to laugh at the misfortunes of others and much less plan these misfortunes so meticulously and preferably within eyesight of at least one other person. There must be a witness or several to the tragic moment when the seat is pulled out from under someone, or the pie is tossed in the face, otherwise the moment has no real validity. The shared laughter is what the practical joke is all about in the first place. Now with practical joke videos streaming endlessly in the cyberspace realm of youtube.com, there is really no need for the extra witnesses at all.
The Japanese are leaders in these joke videos and have invented ever more ludicrous and embarrassing ways to humiliate their victims. There are whole television shows now on prime time that have been imported from Japan about wannabe athletes running a gauntlet of mechanical obstacles that actually slam them into the water or demolish them in any number of embarrassing ways. The winners make a few bucks to be sure, but there are no shortages of these morons just waiting in line to be crucified. Laughing at them seems to be the only item of importance and Americans have come to love these inane and sophomoric shows, propelling them into the highest rankings among reality television shows.
What are reality television shows really except lame attempts to make the viral joke videos serious enough to merit watching? Shows like Survivor pretend to be about serious matters like actually making it out of the wild alive and the nobility of man, but in the end it is really about who will get blindsided at the elimination. We tune in week after week in order to see who will get physically beaten at a challenge, who will get to sick with dysentery to continue, or, like one hapless contestant, who will fall face first into the fire after passing out while fanning the flames. The poor sucker was seriously burned and had to be evacuated to a hospital burn ward.
With the advent of youtube.com, practical joke videos have hit their peak. Some would say that joke videos had their heyday with Americas Greatest Home Videos, or whatever that lame show was called that Daisy Fuentes hosted. Some would claim that it was TVs Practical Jokes and Bloopers, which gave several more years of fame to Johnny Carsons former sidekick, Ed McMahon, but not until the invention of youtube have we seen practical jokes from all walks of life in record numbers. All you need to do is go to www.youtube.com and search for practical jokes to see, among other things, cheerleaders set on fire, exploding toilet stalls, and many other nasty practical joke videos too gruesome to mention here.
My only thought is that everyone now needs to be constantly on guard lest you get Punkd by one of your Hollywood friends.