Were YouTube Pranks Ever Funny? (According to Reddit)

Redditor LovableJackassv4 took to the r/comedy subreddit with a question this week: “Are YouTube Pranks still funny to you?” The top response by u/swefalittlebit seemed to sum up the community’s response: “Were they ever funny?”

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But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t additional YouTube prank conversation to be had (which we’re including here with original punctuation and spelling). “They used to be, when it was harmless and fun for both side, it’s been years that ‘prank’ consist more and more often at just annoying/disrepecting/hurting people for ‘fun,’” wrote u/The_kind_potato. “I always thought ‘if you wouldn’t do it without the camera, thats not a prank that being a dick.’” 

“A example (for me) of a good prank is the one of the guys in the van doing sound effects who match what people are doing, or the twins who ask people for their way separately one after another for making it look like ‘time travel,’" u/The_kind_potato continues. “Those are harmless and its funny for everyone”

What about pranks that achieve some kind of social good? “The only one I will endorse was the one where they torture thieves by booby trapping the bikes they steal,” says u/HackPremise. 

Maybe the problem is prank humor in general. “Lowest form of comedy,” says u/repsychadelic. 

“It really is,” agrees u/CookieMonsta94. “Slapstick and Prop Comedy are funnier than this shit. I actually wish it would just disappear off the face of the earth tbh.”

u/FBI_Tugboat suspects part of the problem is that YouTube pranks are perpetrated by unfunny amateurs. “Jackass? Hilarious. Punk'd? Hilarious. Both were very controlled and actually funny, coming from people that knew the victim.Call me an asshole, but a lot of this ^^ shit truly isn't funny to me until the prankster gets hurt”

One problem, points out u/guleedy, is that YouTube pranks are becoming increasingly dangerous and borderline unlawful. “It's the slipper slope of this type of content. Eventually people will get bored and more drastic measures will be taken. Now on tik tok it's not even just pranks you can see full on crimes committed. Eventually this will change but again lawmakers asleep on the wheel.”

Whatever you do, don’t try any of your ‘funny’ pranks on u/NIPURU. “I think we all have a duty to kick their asses for being assholes. I take a vow to swing at any mf that does any stupid shit like this to me or anyone around me.”

People like u/NIPURU make these tough times to be a YouTube prank artist. In fact, the type of prank videos that u/HardGayMan enjoys are “Only when the people making the video get the shit beat out of them. Those ones are funny.” Cracked emphatically decries violence, but this thread was full of similar comments. Redditors sharing videos of pranksters getting slugged by prankees earned cheers, including this one from u/SigarroSagarro:

“Warms my heart every time.”