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What do you do when someone pranks you?

novaphile said:
That one bothered me a lot, because it was a dog in a costume.



The dog would be the recipient of any fear reaction, including being beaten with objects or shot.



First time I saw it, I wanted to beat the owner to death with a baseball bat.



******* prick.
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Oh, thank you...
I still think I saw a mechanical version (or pulled into view by a cord) but I definitely now recall that damned one with the dog. [emoji15]

If it ain't Halloween, on a public street with crowds, you're really risking the dogs health. [emoji35]
 
Jim_MDP said:
Oh, thank you...
I still think I saw a mechanical version (or pulled into view by a cord) but I definitely now recall that damned one with the dog. [emoji15]

If it ain't Halloween, on a public street with crowds, you're really risking the dogs health. [emoji35]
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Dressing a dog in costume, and walking it for Halloween, sure why not?

My dog is happy for walks, rain or shine, coat on or not.

But some of that stuff I saw, like putting his dog on an elevator, or setting it loose in car park...
 
It's not just not a good prank. As I was saying, if an average person, based on what they know, would have good reason to fear imminent harm, that's legally assault. It may not be battery if you didn't actually stab them, or whatever, but it IS assault. It's also cause for self-defense.

And I would like to add two legal doctrines in the USA (and most of the world) that the pranksters would do well to consider:

- the eggshell skull doctrine: you're responsible for any damage to the person in an unlawful act, even if it's because that guy has some health problem you didn't know about. Like, if someone has a heart attack or faints and hits his head on the pavement, you're fully responsible for it.

- the felony murder doctrine: if anyone actually dies, the fact that you premeditated the unlawful act, automatically elevates it to murder. Regardless of whether you actually intended to kill.
 
HansMustermann said:
- the felony murder doctrine: if anyone actually dies, the fact that you premeditated the unlawful act, automatically elevates it to murder. Regardless of whether you actually intended to kill.
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The felony murder rule generally cannot be applied if assault was the triggering crime, and assault is the crime most likely to be committed by the wannabe Jamie Kennedys. I guess it could apply if you were like, "Ha ha, I'm robbing this bank, everybody down, lol" and somebody died as a result.

I also wouldn't say it exists in most of the world. It's like three common law backwaters, and that might be an overcount.
 
Emily's Cat said:
One that involves "prank" threatening a stranger with a weapon, or that "prank" assaults a stranger.

I mean, it seems like it should be common sense to NOT engage in "pranks" of that sort, but common sense seems less and less common every year.
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Common sense, as I have mentioned in the past, is highly overrated. It's the sort of thinking which convinces people that the sun revolves around the Earth.


"Aw c'mon you guys, I'm tired and the suns' going down. No no my boy, you're confused, the horizon's moving up!" (Firesign Theater)
 
mumblethrax said:
The felony murder rule generally cannot be applied if assault was the triggering crime, and assault is the crime most likely to be committed by the wannabe Jamie Kennedys. I guess it could apply if you were like, "Ha ha, I'm robbing this bank, everybody down, lol" and somebody died as a result.
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Standard disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer (and definitely in the USA) and this isn't legal advice.

However it seems to me like robbery is a felony in any state I know of, and some of these pranks (e.g., the one linked to earlier) are indistinguishable from robbery. I'm guessing that holding someone up with a knife or gun (even a prop one) and then going "well, I wasn't actually going to take his wallet, it was just a prank" probably wouldn't fly far in court.

And even if it doesn't get escalated to felony murder, if the guy is injured, you're up to aggravated robbery. Hell, depending on just who you decided to prank, just the class of person can escalate the seriousness. E.g., don't pull that stunt on a cab driver.

Attempted kidnapping is also pretty much invariably a felony. Etc.
 
I've always considered practical jokes a form of sadism, in that the prankster gets pleasure from causing and observing someone else's pain and distress. And yes, being deliberately humiliated can be as painful as being physically hurt. It sure as hell isn't funny.
 
Come on, it really depends on the kind of practical joke. And like other jokes, whether it's funny or not really depends on people's ability to appreciate the joke, i.e. on their sense of humor and their degree of self-importance.
This is also why you shouldn't prank strangers. Stick with people you know well enough to be sure they won't shoot you.
As skeptics, we ought to know that we can be fooled and appreciate whenever somebody succeeds in fooling us, as long as it's not an attempt to take advantage of us. Good practical jokes aren't. At best, they remind us how gullible we tend to be, which is a valuable lesson.
 
quadraginta said:
This explains why slapstick comedy never caught on.
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Slapstick comedy caught on because all the participants were consenting participants in the show.

Can you explain your thought process, resulting in this bizarre attempt at equating a voluntary spectacle with abusing someone against their will for your amusement?
 
theprestige said:
Slapstick comedy caught on because all the participants were consenting participants in the show.
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Sure it did. :rolleyes:

Can you explain your thought process, resulting in this bizarre attempt at equating a voluntary spectacle with abusing someone against their will for your amusement?
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I think you are overthinking the comment.

For one thing, watching people get humiliated and/or hurt for the amusement of others has a long tradition in human history. The ways to do that with consenting participants of any sort is a comparatively recent development.
 
dann said:
Come on, it really depends on the kind of practical joke. And like other jokes, whether it's funny or not really depends on people's ability to appreciate the joke, i.e. on their sense of humor and their degree of self-importance.
This is also why you shouldn't prank strangers. Stick with people you know well enough to be sure they won't shoot you.
As skeptics, we ought to know that we can be fooled and appreciate whenever somebody succeeds in fooling us, as long as it's not an attempt to take advantage of us. Good practical jokes aren't. At best, they remind us how gullible we tend to be, which is a valuable lesson.
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You're talking about actual jokes. We're talking about harassment and abuse that the perpetrators try to dismiss as jokes when challenged about their anti-social behavior.
 
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