Do you agree most pranking borders on cruelty? More MythBusters-related Q&A here: ruclips.net/video/EEuhyrqpwWw/видео.html Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions: ruclips.net/channel/UCiDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOAjoin
I read the book called "The Complete Practical Joker". The author took great pains to warn about cruel pranks. One thing they said was a good prank takes advantage of and exposes someones prejudice or ignorance. At the end of every chapter there was a warning in the form of a story about a prank that ended very badly. The book was entertaining, informative, and very sobering.
One of the best pranks is the "Telekinetic coffee shop" prank as an advertisement for the movie Carrie from 2013, which is a special effect prank like you wanted to do at a hotel. It is not embarrassing anyone, just scaring them a bit to think Telekinesis is real 😂🤣 Just search for it here on yt.
I remember the episode where Tory, Grant and Kari built the replica Ark of the Covenant with the stun/shock battery in it - seemed like you were not amused. I'm with you, not a fan of most pranks.
Pranks are a social tool for both testing and forging relational bonds. Like fire and a hammer, in the hands of most, they can and will bend, break or destroy friendships. But wielded by the right person, who understands the temper(ament) of the recipient, it can paradoxically increase trust, intimacy and joy.
@@jfbeam Yes! As soon as he started talking about the back of Jamie’s head I knew exactly what he’d see, and that he’d know Jamie was chuckling about something, even without seeing his face! 😆
I want to draw attention to the fact that Adam, in his compassion and understanding, did not just explain the prank pulled on him by Jamie but ALSO provided context as to why Jamie may have felt driven to prank him. He could have just said "Jamie made it look like I peed myself and I told him it wasn't cool" and I don't think a single one of us would have questioned it. But he went beyond that to ensure nobody got the impression that his colleague was trying to humiliate him apropos of nothing. What an amazingly stand up guy.
Adam is a story teller. That's not the way to tell an engaging story. Jamie would tell it like that, and that's exactly what you'd expect... no nonsense, no drama, "just the facts, mam."
I was surprised to learn a whole back Jamie and Adam didn't like each other. Though, rewatching the show, I never saw hostility between the two. Despite the two not liking each other, they put that aside to make a great show. Mythbusters, the people, not just the show, was special.
@russbell6418 rite, I recall that A&J never once ate dinner together which blows my mind...think about the thousands of hours they spent together on the show, in the office, & traveling!!
@russbell6418 I agree. Dislike is too strong, but I don't think it was a neutral professional relationship either. They probably had troubles working together that would typically ruin shows. They pushed through. I mentioned no signs of hostility, but that isn't true. They threw chirps and small vocal jabs at each other, which makes it ev n more funny because there was a layer of legitimacy to it. As well, it makes their moments of connection even more sweet. Two people whom dislike each other can work towards a common goal. There is no bad guys, just incompatibility that they put the effort in to work with. Mythbusters was big in my ongoing love for science, learning, and all that great stuffs I hold pride in. Ima reiterate this show was special.
Used to work in an office where a bunch of the guys were constantly pranking each other. I warned them - I don't wanna play with you idiots - mess with me and I go straight to the nuclear option - you have been warned.
They really would be good at it too. It would have been an entirely different show and I totally understand why Jamie would agree to never do it again, but I kind of wish they just went for it.
Hah! Was not expecting to see you here Sam! Nice to know that one of my favorite train-tubers (not sure if that's the correct term) watches Adam Savage.
I appreciate the fact that he immediately drew the line when he realized what Jamie did and Jamie respected it. Too many people take offence when someone pushes back after a line has been crossed.
Exactly, and Adam did the same thing with his wife: When she said she didn't like it and explained why, he actually listened and both agreed with her and agreed not to do it again. In contrast I have a friend who knows I love cats and loved to 'tease' me by making a negative comment every single time the subject of cats was talked about, to try and rile me up. Instead, I decided well I don't like this person constantly insulting something I love which is important to me. So I'm just not going to bring up the subject of cats anymore and will not respond to any attempts to bait me. A while later said friend finally asked about it and I explained. They took great offense and said it was just teasing, I was taking it too seriously etc etc. If they were a mature person, they would have done as Jamie and Adam did and respected how I felt. They were not, so as a result I felt even less inclined to share anything with them.
I worked at a place where pranks were common. Most of them were minor and often fun but I was warned on my first night there that a couple of guys always took things too far. If anyone complained or responded in kind, they quickly went from annoying to destructive and dangerous. They made an otherwise fun job miserable. Someone always has to take things too far. On my last night working there I decided to prank those two back, with a couple of very minor pranks for them to find the next day. One of them got set off that night. This dude who was constantly doing much worse things got so mad he was throwing things and screaming threats at me. Some people just suck. By far my favorite prank was someone changing the name tag on my toolbox so that the first and last letters were correct, but everything in the middle was jumbled up. Apparently it took me a month to notice. Lol.
A different kind of "respect push back" was the team from Jackass. They viciously pranked each other (I would have loathed knowing them), but they always responded to being pranked by physically attacking the pranker (or sometimes just someone who was laughing too hard), and the over-the-top immediate response, the anger and violence, was part of their joy in the prank. But in doing so, it accepted that such a response is _natural_, is the _correct_ response to a prank. You were attacked, fight or flight, you should be expected to respond. By contrast, shows like Punk'd were fundamentally about attacking the victim and _making the victim accept it._ Getting angry/upset after the reveal meant you were "a bad sport", "couldn't take a joke". IMO, such pranks are about dominance.
I think a lot of people in our society have the idea that they have the right, the _privilege,_ not to be questioned or called out for their behavior. "White fragility" isn't just for accusations of racism anymore. People will feel "attacked" if you tell them they were driving on the wrong side of the highway. Adam and Jamie continue to be excellent role models in their treatment of others, even today!
Jamie and Adams's relationship is so fascinating to me. I know They; 've talked about it a lot, because people obsess over the fact that they both say...they are not friends. They don't hang out, they don't have each other over for Christmas...they are strictly colleagues and respect one another immensely. However, the level of knowing someone so well you can judge their moods by the color of their head is on another level. What a fascinating pair, and I miss their collaboration. I also understand why it doesn't happen again. Thank you Adam and Jamie for everything.
99% of the people I work with are people I dont see privately. I dont get the total fascination about this, at all. And him being able to see the mood of Jamie due to the color of his head, is well mainly because Jamies head turns red easily due to physical or "mental" "stress". Its obvious when you watch mythbusters. I loved mythbusters and I loved the whole crew but potraying them as these mythical creatures for, basicallt potraying normal human decent behaviour, is getting cringeworthy. Ive read too many comments while watching these clips I guess.
They really seem like “work friends” to me. I’ve had plenty of people over the years that I love spending time with on the clock but hardly even think about once we clock out. And that’s okay! I value those people who make my life better at work, even if that’s the extent of our relationship.
I remember that one episode of Mythbusters where Tory, Kari, and Grant upped the current on a prop and shocked the crap out of Adam.. and you could see that Adam was not pleased...
Yeah, because that amount of electricity can kill someone. It was high voltage power from a cattle prod going through the prop. There’s a difference between shocking someone as a prank, and doing something stupid that could get someone seriously hurt or killed.
There was discussion in another episode that the whole thing was [edit- made to look like] actually Jamie's idea. [edit cont: it was the outtakes/behind-the-scenes episode where they're talking about pranking each other. They mention it can go too far like when Jamie wanted to zap Adam with the electric fence transformer, then they cut straight to that part of the Baghdad Battery episode where he got zapped. As other comments have said, though, Adam has it was a producer's idea to get Scottie/Tory/Kari to do it.]
My mom used to have a similar threat when dealing with pranksters in her office: "Just remember, I don't get mad. I get even." I don't know how many times that threat made someone rethink something they were about to try on her, LOL
I was gonna say, I think GOOD pranks are pranks that make the prank-ee laugh after the ruse has been revealed. I think that's the enjoyment of it, the human urge to laugh when everything is okay. If it makes someone panic too much, that relief will be in sighs, not laughs, and I think that's where pranks go wrong.
I like the pranks where the pranked gets the feeling of having superpowers. Like those tricks where the volunteer is asked to do something mundane like press a button or open a box and something impossible happens and the magichian seems as baffled as the audience.
@Culpride my only thing with those would be, for example, Adam's proposed TV prank show. For some individuals, if the prank is too fantastical and or realistic, it could cause acute psychosis. It would not occur often I don't think, but if the subjects aren't screened before for a large scale prank, then there's a risk you make someone go crazy 😭😭
I like watching EvenOut for that reason. One of them might have some mundane interaction with somebody, walk away, then the identical twin will walk from the opposite direction and confuse the person/people. Vlad NCL dressing up and talking like a woman before switching to his deep voice and literally flexing is hilarious too.
I'll share a mild yet funny prank I did to my wife. Every night we brush our teeth together before going to bed. And one of these evenings, she noticed and commented that her tube of toothpaste were due for replacement very soon. That gave me an idea, so the next day I secretly bought the same tube, and over the next two weeks I pressed just a little toothpaste back into the old tube from the new one. Maintaining the perception that it was aaaaalmost empty. And every night she were amazed and bragged about how she was able to always squeeze just a little bit more out of this everlasting tube. We had a very good laugh when I finally confessed and it's now her favorite story to tell.
It's the same idea of changing the environment and letting them experience it. Just on a small scale. The increasing turtle size is the same idea. I've also seen twins play with the same idea pretending to be the same person, showing up in a "time loop" like setting.
The old "Candid Camera" show from the '60s did a good job of pulling a prank on somebody, but for a surprise rather than for a fearful reaction. I remember one prank where they took a car sawed it in half lengthwise and put a motorcycle in each half. Then they had a prankster jump into a cab and yell "Follow that car!" and the car then splits in half and goes in two defferent directions. Another one where a gas station attendant is filling up a car where they've put a HUGE hidden gas tank into. The expression on people's faces was precious and hilarious!.
All TV prank shows are bullying. Including Candid Camera. There's a wild power imbalance between the show and the victim. And a requirement, a implied demand, to not "be a bad sport" when the prank is revealed.
See, that's the essence of a good prank. The prankee should come out of it mildly bemused, ideally chuckling to themselves, but never harmed nor insulted.
@@djcfrompt There is no essence of a good prank. It's still bullying. You're giving an immense amount of social pressure for the victim to 'play along' and 'be a good sport' because 'it's a joke.'
@@exeggcutertimur6091 I think you missed the point. It's not about the prank. There are no fundamentally "good pranks". It's solely about the person you are pranking. Is it something they would get a laugh out of? (A genuine laugh, not a forced, "I have to play along or I'll be a bad sport".) If not, it doesn't matter whether you think it is a "good" or "gentle" prank, it's not. It's like pick-up lines vs sexual harassment. There's no such thing as a "good pickup line", there's a person who is interested and you made them laugh, or a person who isn't and you harassed them.
it would absolutely hilarious if pulled off well, imagine falling asleep in a public park and next thing you know every person around you is dressed like a medieval peasant, knights in armor with swords drawn and smoking ruins.
Second rule: if called out on it, the gig's up. No "no man I'm serious" because at that point you're just making fun of a friend for being fool enough to trust you.
"He went back and got the original turtle." Babe, if someone did that to me, I'm sorry but we now have seven turtles. They are all mine. Go back and get the rest of my turtles.
Yeah, I'm finally down to 2 turtles after many decades of way more than 2. The last that departef was already very old when I got him 2 decades before.
This is a story that Roald Dahl wrote called Esio Trot. An old man is trying to seduce the lady in the flat below his and steals her pet tortoise every night and replaces it with a bigger one.
@@cranberrysauce61 often, maybe even usually; but that precludes the possibility that the target of the prank could just be a stodgy, overserious, thin skinned bump on a log.
That last part is EXACTLY why I'm not a fan of non-tiny pranks. There are often so many ways that it can cross the line of upsetting that it's not worth the risk. Two harmless pranks I did in school was 1: Gluing a quarter to the ground so you can see people trying to pick it up as they walk by. 2: I split a couple pencils length-wise to remove the graphite, then glued them back together, and those were my go-to pencils whenever someone needed to borrow a pencil. I'd just say "yeah I have one but it's broken so you need to sharpen it". Then you see how long they try to sharpen it haha.
Lol ok these are genuinely hilarious. Similar vein, but in my physics class we were making model rockets. Everyone was given a standard rocket kit. One of the teams (not mine) decided to "exchange" the fuel part for one in the teacher's desk. We go outside to show off our handiwork. Shoom, one after another they go a similar height... until it's their turn. "PSSSHOOOOOOOOMM!!!" Theirs goes like 5 times higher than anyone else's. THAT'S a great prank!!
I found a coin glued down in the grounds of a hospital, and I don't know how long it had been there but when I saw it and, I confess, tried to pick it up it was during the covid pandemic, and it occurred to me that a hospital is probably not the best place for a seemingly harmless prank that could result in visitors having extra germs on their hands. I hope everyone who touched it on their way in used the hand sanitiser.
I love small, harmless pranks. I moved recently and my neighbours have a garden that's absolutely filled with garden-gnomes and whatever kind of decorations. I just ordered a pretty kitsch Christmas themed one that will be added to their garden, curious how long it will stay (or maybe they decide to keep it).
The only pranks I find acceptable are the entirely harmless ones - like saying "It's pretty muggy outside" for them to then look out and see a bunch of mugs in the yard. And the prankster should be the one to clean up the prank afterwards
Oh that is a good one. completely harmless and just funny. no one feels stupid about it either, so it's having fun with the person you are pranking, not making fun of the person you are pranking
An early 1960s Candid Camera show in the UK involved Jonathan Routh driving a car with no engine downhill into a garage and explaining to the service person that the car wasn't running properly. Hilarity ensued.
@@brucegoatly The US show did something similar, but had sealed up, sanded and painted over the fuel cap hatch. ...then asked the attendant to "fill 'er up"
Once again, Adam Savage explains something in such a way as to fundamentally change how I view a thing and in the process makes me a better, smarter, more empathic person.
Adam reminded me of a great prank show from Germany called Verstehen Sie Spaß. One of their best skits was about a guy, who was driven somewhere in Germany. Suddenly, there was a tunnel and some fog and when they drove out on the other side, they were inexplicably "in Finland" (which is like 2000 kms and you'd have to take a ferry). So they stop at a gas station and everything is Finnish. There's even a dog sled and a cop car. Must've been a lot of work, but the expression on the guys face was worth every Pfennig :)) You can still find it here on YT.
He forgot the semi-prank where he yelled out "Myth busters!" while driving by Jamie's house. Jamie couldn't tell who was in the car so he was concerned some fan now knew his home address. Jamie told Adam that later and Adam said, "Oh that was me." Jamie says he thought they weren't doing pranks. Adam agreed he didn't mean to violate the agreement and apologized.
This is three rules I always followed when I would pull a prank. 1.) Make sure that the target is someone who will actually enjoy the prank. 2.) Cause no harm to the target or property damage. 3.) make sure that you can easily clean it up afterwards. 😊
There's a channel here on RUclips, Lindy and JLO. It's a family that pranks each other in a simple way. They fill water balloons with water and shaving cream, then hang them from doorways for a surprise ambush. They get each other all the time, and post videos daily. The great thing is everyone is laughing afterwards, even the target. I like those kinds of innocent pranks.
I could see how a situation could be used, to even further the 'targets' joy. But that requires knowing the person really well, having a great sense for various forms of humor and being able to 'jump over your own shadow'. Barely anyone can claim all of them. 😉
I worked in law enforcement for 20 years and I swear that two of the guys I worked with were Adam and Jamie's doppelgangers. One of the guys, George, reminded me of Adam but in his case he was a major prankster so I have finally found a difference between them and I now know they're two different people.... 😂
My mom used to make silk flower arrangements. Once, she took a round piece of the styrofoam that is used for such artificial flowers and iced it as one would a cake, and left this "cake" in the fridge. It was amusing to watch my uncle attempting to saw his way into the cake to get a piece; and we all laughed once he joke had been revealed. No cruelty, no sense of dread, no bad feelings. That's what a prank should be.
At an office party about 25 years ago I put out several bowls of packing peanuts that looked like fat potato chips/crisps whatever you call them - same colour, same shape, just a bit thicker. 'twas fun watching people pick them up, half chew them, then put them back with a strange look on their faces. While thewy were nice and crunchy, polystyrene doesn't really taste like potato.
@@olsmokey You could have pranked yourself if you didn't know there are edible packing peanuts. Look & feel the same as polystyrene, but don't spring back when you squish them really hard. Made from corn starch or similar, perfectly edible if a bit bland. I amuse myself watching reactions when stuffing a handful in my mouth.
Thanks for another fun watch, I agree that much of pranking is just not worth it. Usually, if I see someone getting pranked and it is in the typical rude / mean manner I just want to go over there and deck the pranker -- nothing about it is funny to me but it does bring in an emotion if that's what they were going for, they do achieve that.
Thank you for sharing that prank story. Not so much for the prank itself, but that wonderful description of how Jamie displayed emotion. I was trying to drink my morning tea, but just had to give up and let the chuckles run their course.
That's... Literally the opposite of the definition of a prank. Like, Merriam-Webster; "a malicious act" Origin: early 16th century; denoting a wicked deed
What an absolutely fantastic story! This is what made your relationship with Jamie so fantastic. While both very different personalities, you also had great respect for each other and also recognized important boundaries. Because Adam, you could've taken it all in and then plotted your revenge... and that probably would've ended up with an unproductive personality clash. With this show, you needed unconditional trust. And so, your "no pranks" pact ensured that. It was the right move.
Sometimes it's beneficial. When I was younger, I had a habit of leaving my car running while I went into the local convenience store. My best friend (who hated that I did that) and his gf (now wife) were driving by one night when I did it and they noticed, so they pulled in and he parked my car behind the store, then they parked up the road and watched me panic when I came outside and found my car was gone. I freaked out for a few minutes before telling myself "It's just a junk Neon". Then I called him for a ride and he pulls in 10s later, laughing his head off. B-stard. I stopped leaving my car running after that.
Ah, yes, the "simulate a terrible life lesson you really needed under controlled circumstances" kind of prank is another exceptional case, where the terrible feeling it creates is productive and helpful. Through a certain very valid lens, I think you would still call this a kind prank.
Had a buddy stop in every night on his patrol route. Would stop in to eat a Subway sandwich. Always left his cruiser unlocked, keys on his radio antenna. We stole the keys and moved the cruiser (On Camera BTW) one of us distracted him, the other "borrowed" the keys. Went outside and parked it around back, came in replaced the keys. We even "helped" look for the car. Several minutes later he found the car. Won't put what he said to us(NSFW). After then he always locked the doors and put the keys in his pocket.
as well as being a dumb thing to do in many places it is illegal... and can have serious repercussions, if a kid jumps in, drives off and kills themselves or someone else it is on the owner. also voids insurance in most instances.
I work at a place we’re having your screen locked when you’re not in front of it is very important. One of my senior coworkers if he sees one of the newer people not lock their monitor when they step away, he will flip the screen upside down and lock it for them. So when they come back, they’ll find the screen upside down and they’ll have to navigate how to re-correct it most of them learn pretty quickly after that.
The more I listen to Adam wax poetic about his philosophy of the world, the more I respect the man. I think I'm on his exact wavelength. When I was about 20, on April Fool's Day, my crush told all of my (and her) friends that she was officially dating me. And of course, me being on the spectrum and being next to unable to accurately read subtleties, I thought it was the real thing until she broke it to me in a "duh, of course it was a prank, catch a clue" way. It was heartbreaking, but in retrospect, I'm glad I saw that ever-so-slightly-off part of her early in the relationship. Ever since, however, I have made abundantly clear that anyone that plays an April Fools prank on me, harmless or not, is getting majorly demoted in my friend group or cut out altogether.
I always saw Mythbusters as taking place in a work environment, where pranks are not only discouraged and could even be dangerous. Things can go badly enough when you’re doing everything seriously.
Pranks suck, I was always the butt of my friend groups growing up, mostly cus I could take it at the time. But as an adult I’m a very jaded human being and I feel like a lot of that comes from the people I used to surround myself with. You can only take so much, it builds, and it hurts. Thank you Adam for being a real dude, calling out the bull shit.
Thank you so much for this one, Adam. I don't think pranking is always a bad thing, but it has to be done with a hell of a lot of care and the target has to at minimum A) not have a bad time and B) come out of it with a story they'll enjoy retelling. My favourite genre of prank is definitely 'prankster shocks the hell out of prankee by doing something incredibly nice/important for them'.
One of my favourite not-cruel pranks: I work in the science dept of a high school, and one April Fools I printed out periodic tables in alphabetical order (Actinium, Aluminium, Americium...), laminated them, and gave them to the final year students, telling them it was the updated version from the RSC. One asked how they were meant to find, say, the alkali metals. "That's why it's colour coded!" "Nope, still don't like it." They all kept them as souvenirs. Took me a couple of hours to rearrange!
IMO the best pranks are the ones that just make people really confused for a few seconds… Pranks that don’t cause any pain or lasting damage. At my high school for our senior prank we added some voice changers to all the school intercoms, which made everyone who used them sound absolutely ridiculous.
That is so funny! And also - it's the same for EVERYONE, not just one person being singled out (like, it would have been cruel if it had just changed a single person's voice)
We had senior pranks, too, but they weren't harmful. We filled a classroom with balloons. One year they put old tires over all the light poles and even the flagpole (still can't figure out how they did that), and put a guy's motorcycle on top of a concrete awning over a walkway. These were all funny and annoying (to some), but they never really harmed anyone and no one was ever humiliated by them.
Yup... yet another Adam perspective that I can fully relate to... neve understood most of the pranks I've seen pulled either live or on a show... thanks for putting into words the way they've always made me feel... I was almost always uncomfortable and now it fully makes sense!
Pranks can also go wrong. Back in high school someone decided to pull a prank of backing off the pressure on the shop class door closer so it swung freely. Often the door was left open during class. That day we were being a bit noisier than usual. The teacher told me to close the door so we wouldn't bother the neighboring classes. I reached out, backhanded, and gave the door a jerk. The door slammed closed and smashed 3 of my fingers. 2 healed up mostly OK. My ring finger on my right hand has had ever since, a split, deformed nail and the finger tip is slightly twisted and I can't put full pressure on it. This happened when I was 17, I'm now 69. 52 years of a finger that doesn't look or work right.
i KNEW i always liked adam. fully agree abt pranks, and so happy to see folks talking abt other great examples in the comments! love someone quoting john hodgman's advice, "if it's not fun for all, then it's no fun at all." also the best possible response to a prank: if you go here there's no turning back and we will destroy everything and everyone. lol extremely true. the LAST people you want to be pranking are folks like adam and jamie......lol
For me, it's about allowing others to keep their dignity. Unfortunately, too many people lack the discernment, empathy, and maturity to keep this in mind.
I feel EXACTLY the same way about pranks, always have. For a good few years, I refused to leave my room on April 1st, terrified of even a little prank happening. It's extremely difficult to do a prank that isn't cruel, and few people try - I used to refer to April 1st as "a day of unconditionally excused cruelty". It's so nice to know someone else gets it, especially someone so well-respected and worldly. Thank you, Adam. :)
As a prankster, I love how fun they are and feel really bad if a prank is not taken as intended (with fun). My favorite April fools prank was when I baked my husband an intensely lemon cake and colored it so that he expected chocolate. His reaction was gold XD
Yeah, I'd have been the same. Totally empathise from that one. It just ruined the whole vibe too, because it went from 'banter' to learning a hard lesson fast.
Remember how Tory looked like a puppy that'd dueced on the rug? He genuinely didn't want to do that prank. iirc that wasn't even their idea. A producer had came up with it, plus getting your hands shocked like that is really dangerous.
To be honest, fence chargers normally run the current through the ground, and your shoe. When you touch both poles, it can be painful. That's how you do it - alternate strands of wire - when fencing out dangerous predators.
My favorite prank back in college when my friends would leave our computers unlocked and on Facebook was to surreptitiously change their birthday to something like a week out from the current day. At that point nobody remembered birthdays anymore and people often would write on your wall wishing you happy birthday because Facebook said it was so. So it was just a ticking time bomb about a week later when a whole bunch of people would bombard their wall with birthday wishes. Felt like a really good prank that's harmless and can bring a little joy, genuinely proud of coming up with it.
Some prank calls can be funny. There are some ones online of someone doing a Tom Baker impression and calling various Doctor Who actors, for example, and most of them take it in stride(though the actor for the 7th Doctor just thought it was Tom calling him while drunk, which produced an equally funny result).
Prank calls are never funny, just mean. At least in person you can tell what's going on before and around the prank. Calling someone up, you've just interrupted them from what they were doing. Or worse yet, they are at work, trying to do their job.
Someone did this to me once when I was a kid, made me think I'd won a competition with a magazine I loved. Told all my family and we were all excited. Then they called and said "Got ya!". I never talked to that person again, it destroyed our trust.
These days, you can't really prank-call people: nobody picks up the phone if they don't know the number. Maybe you could prank-call a business or something: call up and do a fake cowboy accent the whole time or something, then drop it at the very end. Or call up a pizza restaurant and start doing a secret agent impersonation when it comes time to pick toppings. Something like that where nobody gets hurt and big tips get handed out as necessary to compensate people for their time. But it has to be in a low-impact situation.
One I did see was a person giving a course who struggled in carrying what looked to be a very heavy cardboard box. He then asked one of the attendees to pick it up. They did and it bounced off the ceiling as it was empty. There was the first lesson of the manual handling course - check the weight before lifting, because they are seen the other guy stuggling they assumed it was heavy and lifted without checking. Was it a prank - debatable, was it a good lesson - yes.
Very similar prank: We secured a few stacks of newspapers (relative did delivery so we had a few spare stacks lying around) inside this gigantic box and then taped a gift card inside. Gave the gigantic wrapped gift to my SIL for Christmas. Entirely harmless and delightfully fun for everyone.
I do the opposite when teaching people stocktaking. In the plumbing area I'll be explaining stuff, and ask someone to hand me an item off the shelf near them, about the size of a can of beans. They go to grab it and it doesn't move - being a roll of lead. Just a bit difference in weight. Always gets everyone laughing, and the roll of lead gets passed around for everyone to try out for themselves. Then I point out gold would be almost twice the weight, so all those heist movies... yeah...
When I was a kid, we had some friends who would sometimes ask us to tend their cats while they were away on trips. we had a tradition of leaving a bunch of sticky notes with little silly messages hidden around their house for them to find when they got back. one year they recorded their returning home and edited together a video of them finding all the sticky notes and laughing themselves silly. that's the kind of "prank" I can get behind
Most "pranks" seem designed to provoke surprise emotions like annoyance, embarrassment, fear, anger, disgust, etc. Probably because those are the easiest emotions to achieve. I hate that. But there are pranks, or at least prank-adjacent activities that can be positive. Telling a joke is basically surprising someone with emotions like amusement and delight. Or, I'm thinking of some of the Improv Everywhere stuff, like freezing time in Grand Central Station, or creating a time loop in a Starbucks, where people can be surprised with wonder and disbelief. Then there's the time Penn & Teller, specifically Teller I think, tried to buy a round of Jello for everyone in a diner. The waitress wouldn't allow it, because she was sure it had to be against some kind of rule somehow (?), but did allow them to send a bowl of Jello to one person. He thanked them, saying he hadn't had it since childhood and it brought back great memories. They surprised him with nostalgia and joy. So if you feel the need to prank, instead of putting effort into making someone unhappy for your amusement, put it into surprising someone in a positive way?
As a kid, I was a huge fan of Candid Camera, so when Punked came out I was excited but, I couldn't stand it, I'm not sure if it because I was older but while Candid Camera was fun and lighthearted I found Punked mean to borderline cruel.
Likewise me, re Candid Camera, until my father pointed out that a lot of the gags in Candid Camera involved wasting people's time, and there are people (he gave me some examples) who can't afford to have their time wasted.
I am SO in agreement with Adam on pranks. I don't even like watching movies where bad things happen to people. Life tosses enough unavoidable crap at us that I don't feel the need to add to my or anyone else's burdens for "fun". I'd much, MUCH rather be a part of making someone feel wonderful and surprised.
My biggest issue with pranks is that it removes your sense of trust, your ability to know that this moment is real. Yes, there's a ton of Cruelty in it. There's a weirdness where people like seeing someone distressed, which I find to be really disturbing. But in the wake of that prank? You have someone that doesn't trust the other person anymore.
I work in excavation. Truly it can be an extremely dangerous occupation. My coworkers and myself prank each other and even mock each other relentlessly. The purpose is not cruelty but to bring some levity to a tough, sometimes monotonous, sometimes life-threateningly dangerous day of work. I trust them with my life, and no amount of grease under the door handle, pockets stuffed with dirt, hidden toilet paper, or equipment blocking the outhouse door changes that.
@Khronogi I assure you that we accomplish our job with great care and observe all safety standards. There is plenty of room for professional performance and having a laugh. I think it warrants stating that no matter your demeanor, a trench collapse or ruptured gas line is equally dangerous to all.
@@noblesavage300 I am in commercial construction (union carpenter) I 100% know where you are coming from in all of this. I've even considered driving my small car up to the door after my buddy went into the porta-john LOL but don't have the nerve to follow through as I don't want to piss the wrong person off lolol. although I know for a fact he would find it hilarious, out of context the jobsite superintendent see's it at the wrong time and I could be thrown off the job or have a legit chewing out. Some jobsites are obviously more lax than others.
@justins21482 It probably helps that I'm the senior most employee in a small company 😅 Not that it makes me immune from a good butt-chewing, but the PM and both owners are also practical jokers. We have our fun certainly, but we keep things in the boundaries of break times. Context fully matters and we have our game faces on at go time. I'm extremely fortunate to work with great people. We give each other a hard time, but we really do lift each other up and do our absolute best to make sure all of us return home in one piece.
Adam, I love you the most for this. Like standing on the edge and trying to explain why it’s not okay for someone to be behind you. I’d never finish creations if it wasn’t for that. A sense of being.
I agree on the pranks. Someone I know pranked his classmate while on a group trip by leaving an opened condom in his bed in a hotel they were all staying in, to freak him out or embarrass him or something. The problem is the victim complained to the coach who chewed out the hotel staff who chewed out the housekeeping staff..... all of whom were completely innocent. It only came out later that it was a "prank"....
totally agree. I never understood why it's supposed to be funny. But, I also do not get 'fail videos' at all, so that makes me a total weirdo, I guess. 😆
What baffles me is that there are so many people who aren't the pranker that find that shit hilarious, one could make a RUclips career out of basically harassing people
I despise the lottery ticket prank. Though it has never happened to me personally, I've seen the expressions of those who have endured it. It’s especially heartbreaking when the victims are people for whom any amount of winnings could genuinely be life-changing. I’ve been in that place-times when ends weren’t meeting, and debt loomed heavily over me. Many of us have, to some extent or another. If I believed I had won even a modest amount of cash, I’d immediately know how that money would be spent. My joy wouldn’t just come from the excitement of winning but from the hope of relieving some of that debt and easing the weight on my shoulders. To go from the euphoria of thinking your burden might be lightened, to the crushing realization that it was all a joke, would be devastating. I might manage to put on a face of forced laughter, but inside, my spirit would be shattered. That’s a cruelty I would never wish upon anyone.
A stranger once asked me if my pickup was a diesel at a gas pump... I know the nozzles are different sizes, and I knew I was pumping the correct fuel, but my heart still sank, and for a split second I felt awful, and that I had ruined my new truck. Turns out he wasn't pranking me. He had just noticed the large diameter of the exhaust pipe, and it was a genuine question. That split second dread, followed by a sigh of relief, is a good prank. If a person feels bad after, then I agree the prank went too far.
This might be the best video I’ve watched today. A great prank that Adam prefaces by saying he snores and that’s annoying but Adam knowing Jamie so well, even though they are not friends, to instantly know what has happened, that’s awesome.
The best prank show ive seen is "The Carbonaro Effect." It's a compilation of totally harmless pranks that entail Magician tricks and slight of hand. Nobody is hurt or humiliated, there is only wonder and whimsy
It’s so refreshing hearing someone else voice a dislike of pranks. I love your partner’s way of putting it. I also have no enjoyment from the feeling of being pranked or scared and done enjoy watching it being done to others. I think a joke or prank (or indeed ‘banter’) should always bring enjoyment to both people not just one.
I have met people who understand the line between prank and cruelty but those people are surprisingly rare. For some people it is probably an excuse to be cruel.
That isn't a prank, though. Pranks or even light trolling are just for laughs. There are pathetic cases of people who feel inferior who pick on people feel big, but those are just bullies, and those are small people.
John Cleese also loved mean pranks as well. The whole cast of Monty Python pulled one on an interviewer when they were doing an anniversary special and the host asked where one of the missing members was at because there was a cardboard cutout there in his place. John and the others responded by saying that he had recently passed away and they had brought the cutout of him with them as a way to honor his memory and to have him there in spirit because of how much they missed him with his sudden passing. The host felt bad for not doing his research and not knowing that he had passed away, and had joked about him not coming with them, and he apologized for bringing up a sad subject that way. They did the interview special for about 2 hours, and only at the end of it, when the host again apologized to them and the cast member's family for their loss, did John and the others burst into laughter at how the host had fallen for it and admitted that the guy was either sick or busy doing another project and couldn't make it (can't remember which). That's just one example of many he has done. He has no problem with cruel pranks.
I did that at work once accidentally. Someone from another office called and asked for a coworker. She said "tell them I got hit by a bus" Took the person off hold said (very matter of factly) "she got hit by a bus" And they believed it....fortunately, she was there to take the call. It was funny, but in hindsight I can see how it was mean.
If I recall correctly, the troupe had to prohibited from producing an episode of their show with the volume gradually getting lower, causing people to turn their TVs all the way up by the end of it, where they would suddenly blast a loud noise at full volume.
The two rules of pranking/practical jokes: 1. Don't prank someone who is not your friend. 2. Don't prank someone who you don't know for sure enjoys pranks. Any violation of these rules is just plain bullying.
I've seen incredible pranks pulled on complete strangers that were found to be hilarious by everyone, including the person being pranked, and those pranks had absolutely nothing to do with bullying.
@@StoneE4 Were these pranks you saw on TV shows or RUclips channels? Because 1) they are going to edit out the ones that go bad, lest the audience feel bad, and 2) the professionals are scoping out their targets ahead of time to make sure that it's someone who would enjoy the prank.
@@marscaleb Neither... It's pretty damn hard to "edit out the ones that go bad" when you're right there, in real life, seeing the prank play out in front of you.
I have been passionate for 20+ years about Mythbusters. And now I enjoy Adam's posts and the recollection of the past videos as he answers fans' questions. I am also a huge fan of Rhett and Link from GMM, they are another awesome team. It would be incredible if Adam and Jamie, and Rhett and Link would collaborate on some foolish, interactive, scientific experiment. Just a thought from a fan in Canada - to hopefully put some time in to endure winter. LOL!
That’s why I liked Improv Everywhere- though technically “pranks”, there was no victim or target- they just staged these scenes and people could choose for themselves whether to ignore, observe or participate. They made a few mistakes along the way, where their good intentions resulted in reactions they hadn’t considered… but for the most part, nobody is getting upset when they see a time loop being acted out at Starbucks, or mannequins dancing in a storefront window, or a guy at a baseball game who simply cannot find his seat and winds up getting the entire stadium cheering him on as he gets closer to it, etc.
Thank you, Adam Savage, for speaking out about pranks. Yes, there's almost always an element of cruelty in a prank. Occasionally, it's even unintentional.
Yeah, I worked at a place that agreed to do the Punked thing years ago. As an employee it was so cringe and actually made some of the customers cry. It was not funny at all. It likely hurt business. And the customer's never felt relieved or got "in on the joke". It was a miserable experience for them which went against everything we were about at the time. The owner kicked them out. (the punked crew)
The good part of a prank is the unexpected surprise. The bad part of a prank is making that surprise come from something negative, or the fear of something negative.
A good prank should never leave any lasting feeling of negativity, physical or emotional, and any "fallout" should be quickly reversible. Adding "Never Gonna Give You Up" to a friend's Spotify playlist and waiting for them to play it without noticing? Easily reversible. Putting a glitter bomb in their bedroom? Not so much.
The show idea you pitched sounds 1000% like something one of the "more fun" doctors (who?) would pull on a sleeping companion. Goto sleep in venice, wake up in pompei. Hopefully less volcano activity on that day. Edit : brilliant, fantastic idea you had btw. Makes me miss those porta-potty switch gags.
I've always had two ways of doing household pranks. One; moving something like sugar, or their coffee mug to an unreasonable place when they're not looking - and let them try and retrace their steps. It was always important to do this when they're not in a rush, or not trying to do something - just a relaxing morning or evening. You have to be upfront when it's done. My father and I would regularly do this to one another when he was still around. Two: Put something completely out of place in with other things, like a wrench in the fridge, or coffee grounds in the trunk of a car. It's intentionally harmless and silly, and makes the person being pranked confused, and if done correctly laugh at the absurdedity of the foreign object. I've always believed a prank done right make both parties involved in the prank laugh.
There's a group of us that hang out on the weekends for boardgames, and one of the girls always ends up getting her phone hidden. She usually comes up with a fix (has someone text her or something). One time it was in the freezer - I was allowed to give a hint "when you're getting colder, you're getting warner, and when you're getting warmer you're getting colder". Got a good laugh out of her when she figured it out.
That last story could have ended _very_ badly. You don't know how people will react to these things, and humiliation can stay with you for a _long_ time.
I was in a diner that had a TV and custo erst had the remote. I got the re one that day and had turned on a show. Another customer came in, walked to the TV and switched it to a basketball game. They ignored the big sign about the remote. So whenever they weren't staring at the screen I lowered the volume. After a few minutes, up he got to turn it up. This happened several times before a waitress came by and he complained about the TV volume not working. She advised him it never works well without the remote. Myself and other customers as well as his wife had a good laugh. He apologized and I gave him the remote. Pranking him was better than the show I was going to watch, lol.
Offering someone a job and then telling them there's no job when they report for duty isn't a prank, it's breach of an employment contract (verbal) and I hope they got sued. What a mean-spirited thing to do.
Do you agree most pranking borders on cruelty?
More MythBusters-related Q&A here: ruclips.net/video/EEuhyrqpwWw/видео.html
Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam questions:
ruclips.net/channel/UCiDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOAjoin
I read the book called "The Complete Practical Joker". The author took great pains to warn about cruel pranks. One thing they said was a good prank takes advantage of and exposes someones prejudice or ignorance. At the end of every chapter there was a warning in the form of a story about a prank that ended very badly. The book was entertaining, informative, and very sobering.
One of the best pranks is the "Telekinetic coffee shop" prank as an advertisement for the movie Carrie from 2013, which is a special effect prank like you wanted to do at a hotel.
It is not embarrassing anyone, just scaring them a bit to think Telekinesis is real 😂🤣 Just search for it here on yt.
I remember the episode where Tory, Grant and Kari built the replica Ark of the Covenant with the stun/shock battery in it - seemed like you were not amused. I'm with you, not a fan of most pranks.
Pranks are a social tool for both testing and forging relational bonds. Like fire and a hammer, in the hands of most, they can and will bend, break or destroy friendships.
But wielded by the right person, who understands the temper(ament) of the recipient, it can paradoxically increase trust, intimacy and joy.
I like Adam's idea of a flash-mob style of prank show. Maybe one day the expense will be worth the gold it could produce.
I love that Adam knows Jamie so well that he could tell he was trying not to laugh by the color of the back of his head!
"Mood" head.
😆
If you've watched Mytbusters, you'd recognize it, too.
@@jfbeam Yes! As soon as he started talking about the back of Jamie’s head I knew exactly what he’d see, and that he’d know Jamie was chuckling about something, even without seeing his face! 😆
I want to draw attention to the fact that Adam, in his compassion and understanding, did not just explain the prank pulled on him by Jamie but ALSO provided context as to why Jamie may have felt driven to prank him. He could have just said "Jamie made it look like I peed myself and I told him it wasn't cool" and I don't think a single one of us would have questioned it. But he went beyond that to ensure nobody got the impression that his colleague was trying to humiliate him apropos of nothing. What an amazingly stand up guy.
Thank you.
Adam is a story teller. That's not the way to tell an engaging story. Jamie would tell it like that, and that's exactly what you'd expect... no nonsense, no drama, "just the facts, mam."
I was surprised to learn a whole back Jamie and Adam didn't like each other.
Though, rewatching the show, I never saw hostility between the two.
Despite the two not liking each other, they put that aside to make a great show.
Mythbusters, the people, not just the show, was special.
@russbell6418 rite, I recall that A&J never once ate dinner together which blows my mind...think about the thousands of hours they spent together on the show, in the office, & traveling!!
@russbell6418 I agree. Dislike is too strong, but I don't think it was a neutral professional relationship either. They probably had troubles working together that would typically ruin shows. They pushed through.
I mentioned no signs of hostility, but that isn't true. They threw chirps and small vocal jabs at each other, which makes it ev n more funny because there was a layer of legitimacy to it.
As well, it makes their moments of connection even more sweet.
Two people whom dislike each other can work towards a common goal. There is no bad guys, just incompatibility that they put the effort in to work with.
Mythbusters was big in my ongoing love for science, learning, and all that great stuffs I hold pride in. Ima reiterate this show was special.
The Mythbusters "Mutually Assured Destruction" agreement of pranks 😅
My face hurts from smiling, this is so maliciously adorable.
Used to work in an office where a bunch of the guys were constantly pranking each other. I warned them - I don't wanna play with you idiots - mess with me and I go straight to the nuclear option - you have been warned.
They really would be good at it too. It would have been an entirely different show and I totally understand why Jamie would agree to never do it again, but I kind of wish they just went for it.
That's exactly what I was thinking! :D
@@62swampboy62 happened to me at private school. Only once and never again with me.
“When he is experiencing high mood, it’s often discernible by the colour of his head” ABSOLUTELY killed me 😂
Hah! Was not expecting to see you here Sam! Nice to know that one of my favorite train-tubers (not sure if that's the correct term) watches Adam Savage.
But WHICH head? 🙄
I appreciate the fact that he immediately drew the line when he realized what Jamie did and Jamie respected it. Too many people take offence when someone pushes back after a line has been crossed.
Exactly, and Adam did the same thing with his wife: When she said she didn't like it and explained why, he actually listened and both agreed with her and agreed not to do it again.
In contrast I have a friend who knows I love cats and loved to 'tease' me by making a negative comment every single time the subject of cats was talked about, to try and rile me up. Instead, I decided well I don't like this person constantly insulting something I love which is important to me. So I'm just not going to bring up the subject of cats anymore and will not respond to any attempts to bait me. A while later said friend finally asked about it and I explained. They took great offense and said it was just teasing, I was taking it too seriously etc etc. If they were a mature person, they would have done as Jamie and Adam did and respected how I felt. They were not, so as a result I felt even less inclined to share anything with them.
@@seriilynthe only thing you should be sharing with that friend is distance
I worked at a place where pranks were common. Most of them were minor and often fun but I was warned on my first night there that a couple of guys always took things too far. If anyone complained or responded in kind, they quickly went from annoying to destructive and dangerous. They made an otherwise fun job miserable.
Someone always has to take things too far.
On my last night working there I decided to prank those two back, with a couple of very minor pranks for them to find the next day. One of them got set off that night. This dude who was constantly doing much worse things got so mad he was throwing things and screaming threats at me.
Some people just suck.
By far my favorite prank was someone changing the name tag on my toolbox so that the first and last letters were correct, but everything in the middle was jumbled up. Apparently it took me a month to notice. Lol.
A different kind of "respect push back" was the team from Jackass. They viciously pranked each other (I would have loathed knowing them), but they always responded to being pranked by physically attacking the pranker (or sometimes just someone who was laughing too hard), and the over-the-top immediate response, the anger and violence, was part of their joy in the prank. But in doing so, it accepted that such a response is _natural_, is the _correct_ response to a prank. You were attacked, fight or flight, you should be expected to respond.
By contrast, shows like Punk'd were fundamentally about attacking the victim and _making the victim accept it._ Getting angry/upset after the reveal meant you were "a bad sport", "couldn't take a joke". IMO, such pranks are about dominance.
I think a lot of people in our society have the idea that they have the right, the _privilege,_ not to be questioned or called out for their behavior. "White fragility" isn't just for accusations of racism anymore. People will feel "attacked" if you tell them they were driving on the wrong side of the highway.
Adam and Jamie continue to be excellent role models in their treatment of others, even today!
Jamie and Adams's relationship is so fascinating to me. I know They; 've talked about it a lot, because people obsess over the fact that they both say...they are not friends. They don't hang out, they don't have each other over for Christmas...they are strictly colleagues and respect one another immensely. However, the level of knowing someone so well you can judge their moods by the color of their head is on another level. What a fascinating pair, and I miss their collaboration. I also understand why it doesn't happen again. Thank you Adam and Jamie for everything.
True professionals. All of the Mythbusters were incredible. I'm lucky to have grown up with the show.
That’s an ideal coworker; you might not get on personally but you put that aside to get the job done
99% of the people I work with are people I dont see privately.
I dont get the total fascination about this, at all.
And him being able to see the mood of Jamie due to the color of his head, is well mainly because Jamies head turns red easily due to physical or "mental" "stress". Its obvious when you watch mythbusters.
I loved mythbusters and I loved the whole crew but potraying them as these mythical creatures for, basicallt potraying normal human decent behaviour, is getting cringeworthy.
Ive read too many comments while watching these clips I guess.
They really seem like “work friends” to me. I’ve had plenty of people over the years that I love spending time with on the clock but hardly even think about once we clock out. And that’s okay! I value those people who make my life better at work, even if that’s the extent of our relationship.
I remember that one episode of Mythbusters where Tory, Kari, and Grant upped the current on a prop and shocked the crap out of Adam.. and you could see that Adam was not pleased...
Yeah, because that amount of electricity can kill someone. It was high voltage power from a cattle prod going through the prop.
There’s a difference between shocking someone as a prank, and doing something stupid that could get someone seriously hurt or killed.
Grant wasn't still on the show at that time.
He was PISSED OFF, clearly. That didn't work out well for them. That clearly wasn't a successful prank, in my book.
@@Blood-PawWerewolf It was not mains power. It was hooked up to a transformer intended for animal fences.
There was discussion in another episode that the whole thing was [edit- made to look like] actually Jamie's idea. [edit cont: it was the outtakes/behind-the-scenes episode where they're talking about pranking each other. They mention it can go too far like when Jamie wanted to zap Adam with the electric fence transformer, then they cut straight to that part of the Baghdad Battery episode where he got zapped. As other comments have said, though, Adam has it was a producer's idea to get Scottie/Tory/Kari to do it.]
“I will find the thing that is funny to everybody BUT you” is such an amazing threat
My mom used to have a similar threat when dealing with pranksters in her office: "Just remember, I don't get mad. I get even." I don't know how many times that threat made someone rethink something they were about to try on her, LOL
"Confuse, don't abuse" kind of pranks are the best pranks 😂
I was gonna say, I think GOOD pranks are pranks that make the prank-ee laugh after the ruse has been revealed. I think that's the enjoyment of it, the human urge to laugh when everything is okay. If it makes someone panic too much, that relief will be in sighs, not laughs, and I think that's where pranks go wrong.
I like the pranks where the pranked gets the feeling of having superpowers. Like those tricks where the volunteer is asked to do something mundane like press a button or open a box and something impossible happens and the magichian seems as baffled as the audience.
@Culpride my only thing with those would be, for example, Adam's proposed TV prank show. For some individuals, if the prank is too fantastical and or realistic, it could cause acute psychosis. It would not occur often I don't think, but if the subjects aren't screened before for a large scale prank, then there's a risk you make someone go crazy 😭😭
Ya.
I like watching EvenOut for that reason. One of them might have some mundane interaction with somebody, walk away, then the identical twin will walk from the opposite direction and confuse the person/people. Vlad NCL dressing up and talking like a woman before switching to his deep voice and literally flexing is hilarious too.
I'll share a mild yet funny prank I did to my wife. Every night we brush our teeth together before going to bed. And one of these evenings, she noticed and commented that her tube of toothpaste were due for replacement very soon. That gave me an idea, so the next day I secretly bought the same tube, and over the next two weeks I pressed just a little toothpaste back into the old tube from the new one. Maintaining the perception that it was aaaaalmost empty. And every night she were amazed and bragged about how she was able to always squeeze just a little bit more out of this everlasting tube. We had a very good laugh when I finally confessed and it's now her favorite story to tell.
See, that's a perfect example of a wholesome prank. Adam is spot on, if the prank is inducing panic and embarrassment, it's just cruel.
It's the same idea of changing the environment and letting them experience it. Just on a small scale. The increasing turtle size is the same idea. I've also seen twins play with the same idea pretending to be the same person, showing up in a "time loop" like setting.
aww now that's a fun prank!
A prank that induce a feeling of wonder is pretty wholesome.
Yep, a magician is a professional prankster.
There was a prank show in the UK where they pretended to send people into space....it didn't go well!
The old "Candid Camera" show from the '60s did a good job of pulling a prank on somebody, but for a surprise rather than for a fearful reaction. I remember one prank where they took a car sawed it in half lengthwise and put a motorcycle in each half. Then they had a prankster jump into a cab and yell "Follow that car!" and the car then splits in half and goes in two defferent directions. Another one where a gas station attendant is filling up a car where they've put a HUGE hidden gas tank into. The expression on people's faces was precious and hilarious!.
All TV prank shows are bullying. Including Candid Camera. There's a wild power imbalance between the show and the victim. And a requirement, a implied demand, to not "be a bad sport" when the prank is revealed.
See, that's the essence of a good prank. The prankee should come out of it mildly bemused, ideally chuckling to themselves, but never harmed nor insulted.
@@djcfrompt There is no essence of a good prank. It's still bullying. You're giving an immense amount of social pressure for the victim to 'play along' and 'be a good sport' because 'it's a joke.'
Idk man, Just For Laughs and "confuse but never abuse" mentality pranks are never about bullying@@galyndean
When it comes to pranks, I will always spout John Hodgman's wise adage: If it's not fun for all, it's no fun at all.
Agreed. Classics like replacing the family photos with weird al, or wallpapering a friends room with magazines, etc are pretty good.
@@exeggcutertimur6091 I think you missed the point. It's not about the prank. There are no fundamentally "good pranks". It's solely about the person you are pranking. Is it something they would get a laugh out of? (A genuine laugh, not a forced, "I have to play along or I'll be a bad sport".) If not, it doesn't matter whether you think it is a "good" or "gentle" prank, it's not.
It's like pick-up lines vs sexual harassment. There's no such thing as a "good pickup line", there's a person who is interested and you made them laugh, or a person who isn't and you harassed them.
I love the idea of people talking about dragon attack that happened 3 hours ago. It's the perfect prank.
it would absolutely hilarious if pulled off well, imagine falling asleep in a public park and next thing you know every person around you is dressed like a medieval peasant, knights in armor with swords drawn and smoking ruins.
One big rule I've always followed: if you pull a prank, you are responsible for making things right. You make the mess, you clean it up.
That's what I really appreciated about the turtle prank, they returned the original turtle
“Clean up or die.” -Jamie’s sign
Second rule: if called out on it, the gig's up. No "no man I'm serious" because at that point you're just making fun of a friend for being fool enough to trust you.
@@adamsbjayes
so if you make a mess of someone's emotions and thus make them feel less safe around you, what do you do to restore their trust in you?
"He went back and got the original turtle." Babe, if someone did that to me, I'm sorry but we now have seven turtles. They are all mine. Go back and get the rest of my turtles.
Yeah, I'm finally down to 2 turtles after many decades of way more than 2. The last that departef was already very old when I got him 2 decades before.
That's also the plot of Roald Dahl's Esio Trot.
I'm calling them XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL and Donatello.
@@tinyblep9978I came here to say that
This is a story that Roald Dahl wrote called Esio Trot. An old man is trying to seduce the lady in the flat below his and steals her pet tortoise every night and replaces it with a bigger one.
"It's just a prank, bro." is the call of someone who's never seriously faced the consequences of their actions
for real, if they have claim its a prank to get it the point across, what they just did is a nuisance harassment.
@@cranberrysauce61 often, maybe even usually; but that precludes the possibility that the target of the prank could just be a stodgy, overserious, thin skinned bump on a log.
@@98.11Deet Then why did you prank _them?_
How much would a court pay in damages for public humiliation? I think that's why we see less pranks.
That last part is EXACTLY why I'm not a fan of non-tiny pranks. There are often so many ways that it can cross the line of upsetting that it's not worth the risk.
Two harmless pranks I did in school was
1: Gluing a quarter to the ground so you can see people trying to pick it up as they walk by.
2: I split a couple pencils length-wise to remove the graphite, then glued them back together, and those were my go-to pencils whenever someone needed to borrow a pencil. I'd just say "yeah I have one but it's broken so you need to sharpen it". Then you see how long they try to sharpen it haha.
Lol ok these are genuinely hilarious. Similar vein, but in my physics class we were making model rockets. Everyone was given a standard rocket kit. One of the teams (not mine) decided to "exchange" the fuel part for one in the teacher's desk. We go outside to show off our handiwork. Shoom, one after another they go a similar height... until it's their turn. "PSSSHOOOOOOOOMM!!!" Theirs goes like 5 times higher than anyone else's. THAT'S a great prank!!
I found a coin glued down in the grounds of a hospital, and I don't know how long it had been there but when I saw it and, I confess, tried to pick it up it was during the covid pandemic, and it occurred to me that a hospital is probably not the best place for a seemingly harmless prank that could result in visitors having extra germs on their hands. I hope everyone who touched it on their way in used the hand sanitiser.
I've seen the quarter prank done with a canadian dollar coin stuck to about half a meter of rebar at a fairground. it became it's own legend
I love small, harmless pranks. I moved recently and my neighbours have a garden that's absolutely filled with garden-gnomes and whatever kind of decorations. I just ordered a pretty kitsch Christmas themed one that will be added to their garden, curious how long it will stay (or maybe they decide to keep it).
The only pranks I find acceptable are the entirely harmless ones - like saying "It's pretty muggy outside" for them to then look out and see a bunch of mugs in the yard. And the prankster should be the one to clean up the prank afterwards
Oh that is a good one. completely harmless and just funny. no one feels stupid about it either, so it's having fun with the person you are pranking, not making fun of the person you are pranking
An early 1960s Candid Camera show in the UK involved Jonathan Routh driving a car with no engine downhill into a garage and explaining to the service person that the car wasn't running properly. Hilarity ensued.
I very much endorse this example of a prank.
It's Pretty Muggy is the Dad Joke of pranks...... I love it!
@@brucegoatly
The US show did something similar, but had sealed up, sanded and painted over the fuel cap hatch.
...then asked the attendant to "fill 'er up"
Once again, Adam Savage explains something in such a way as to fundamentally change how I view a thing and in the process makes me a better, smarter, more empathic person.
You are just a kind hearted person and I absolutely appreciate that.
Adam reminded me of a great prank show from Germany called Verstehen Sie Spaß. One of their best skits was about a guy, who was driven somewhere in Germany. Suddenly, there was a tunnel and some fog and when they drove out on the other side, they were inexplicably "in Finland" (which is like 2000 kms and you'd have to take a ferry). So they stop at a gas station and everything is Finnish. There's even a dog sled and a cop car. Must've been a lot of work, but the expression on the guys face was worth every Pfennig :)) You can still find it here on YT.
He forgot the semi-prank where he yelled out "Myth busters!" while driving by Jamie's house. Jamie couldn't tell who was in the car so he was concerned some fan now knew his home address. Jamie told Adam that later and Adam said, "Oh that was me." Jamie says he thought they weren't doing pranks. Adam agreed he didn't mean to violate the agreement and apologized.
I can see how that could actually be pretty unsettling at the time.
This is three rules I always followed when I would pull a prank.
1.) Make sure that the target is someone who will actually enjoy the prank.
2.) Cause no harm to the target or property damage.
3.) make sure that you can easily clean it up afterwards. 😊
I agree so much with Adam's take on pranks here. The good pranks are kind. there are better ways to laugh than inflicting pain and other people.
There's a channel here on RUclips, Lindy and JLO. It's a family that pranks each other in a simple way. They fill water balloons with water and shaving cream, then hang them from doorways for a surprise ambush. They get each other all the time, and post videos daily. The great thing is everyone is laughing afterwards, even the target. I like those kinds of innocent pranks.
Anything that causes actual physical, mental, monetary, and/or reputational damage is never a prank. As Adam said, it's just cruelty by that point.
I could see how a situation could be used, to even further the 'targets' joy. But that requires knowing the person really well, having a great sense for various forms of humor and being able to 'jump over your own shadow'. Barely anyone can claim all of them. 😉
We learn more from pain then from pleasure though.
@@ItApproaches wtf are you supposed to learn from a prank
I worked in law enforcement for 20 years and I swear that two of the guys I worked with were Adam and Jamie's doppelgangers. One of the guys, George, reminded me of Adam but in his case he was a major prankster so I have finally found a difference between them and I now know they're two different people.... 😂
My mom used to make silk flower arrangements. Once, she took a round piece of the styrofoam that is used for such artificial flowers and iced it as one would a cake, and left this "cake" in the fridge. It was amusing to watch my uncle attempting to saw his way into the cake to get a piece; and we all laughed once he joke had been revealed. No cruelty, no sense of dread, no bad feelings. That's what a prank should be.
At an office party about 25 years ago I put out several bowls of packing peanuts that looked like fat potato chips/crisps whatever you call them - same colour, same shape, just a bit thicker. 'twas fun watching people pick them up, half chew them, then put them back with a strange look on their faces.
While thewy were nice and crunchy, polystyrene doesn't really taste like potato.
@@olsmokey You could have pranked yourself if you didn't know there are edible packing peanuts. Look & feel the same as polystyrene, but don't spring back when you squish them really hard. Made from corn starch or similar, perfectly edible if a bit bland.
I amuse myself watching reactions when stuffing a handful in my mouth.
I mean, if there wasn't a real cake for the reveal I would consider that a bit mean. Fake cake is funny, but gimme cake, man.
Thanks for another fun watch, I agree that much of pranking is just not worth it. Usually, if I see someone getting pranked and it is in the typical rude / mean manner I just want to go over there and deck the pranker -- nothing about it is funny to me but it does bring in an emotion if that's what they were going for, they do achieve that.
Thank you for sharing that prank story. Not so much for the prank itself, but that wonderful description of how Jamie displayed emotion. I was trying to drink my morning tea, but just had to give up and let the chuckles run their course.
That was cool to learn. I remembered you explaining before that you & Jamie had that agreement but I never heard the story that sparked it. Thanks!
A true prank is one where both parties laugh. Not all this harassment and bullying on RUclips.
That's... Literally the opposite of the definition of a prank.
Like, Merriam-Webster; "a malicious act"
Origin:
early 16th century; denoting a wicked deed
What an absolutely fantastic story!
This is what made your relationship with Jamie so fantastic. While both very different personalities, you also had great respect for each other and also recognized important boundaries. Because Adam, you could've taken it all in and then plotted your revenge... and that probably would've ended up with an unproductive personality clash. With this show, you needed unconditional trust. And so, your "no pranks" pact ensured that. It was the right move.
Sometimes it's beneficial. When I was younger, I had a habit of leaving my car running while I went into the local convenience store. My best friend (who hated that I did that) and his gf (now wife) were driving by one night when I did it and they noticed, so they pulled in and he parked my car behind the store, then they parked up the road and watched me panic when I came outside and found my car was gone. I freaked out for a few minutes before telling myself "It's just a junk Neon". Then I called him for a ride and he pulls in 10s later, laughing his head off. B-stard. I stopped leaving my car running after that.
Your buddy did you a solid.
Ah, yes, the "simulate a terrible life lesson you really needed under controlled circumstances" kind of prank is another exceptional case, where the terrible feeling it creates is productive and helpful. Through a certain very valid lens, I think you would still call this a kind prank.
Had a buddy stop in every night on his patrol route. Would stop in to eat a Subway sandwich. Always left his cruiser unlocked, keys on his radio antenna. We stole the keys and moved the cruiser (On Camera BTW) one of us distracted him, the other "borrowed" the keys. Went outside and parked it around back, came in replaced the keys. We even "helped" look for the car. Several minutes later he found the car. Won't put what he said to us(NSFW). After then he always locked the doors and put the keys in his pocket.
as well as being a dumb thing to do in many places it is illegal... and can have serious repercussions, if a kid jumps in, drives off and kills themselves or someone else it is on the owner. also voids insurance in most instances.
I work at a place we’re having your screen locked when you’re not in front of it is very important. One of my senior coworkers if he sees one of the newer people not lock their monitor when they step away, he will flip the screen upside down and lock it for them. So when they come back, they’ll find the screen upside down and they’ll have to navigate how to re-correct it most of them learn pretty quickly after that.
The more I listen to Adam wax poetic about his philosophy of the world, the more I respect the man. I think I'm on his exact wavelength.
When I was about 20, on April Fool's Day, my crush told all of my (and her) friends that she was officially dating me. And of course, me being on the spectrum and being next to unable to accurately read subtleties, I thought it was the real thing until she broke it to me in a "duh, of course it was a prank, catch a clue" way. It was heartbreaking, but in retrospect, I'm glad I saw that ever-so-slightly-off part of her early in the relationship. Ever since, however, I have made abundantly clear that anyone that plays an April Fools prank on me, harmless or not, is getting majorly demoted in my friend group or cut out altogether.
I always saw Mythbusters as taking place in a work environment, where pranks are not only discouraged and could even be dangerous. Things can go badly enough when you’re doing everything seriously.
Pranks suck, I was always the butt of my friend groups growing up, mostly cus I could take it at the time. But as an adult I’m a very jaded human being and I feel like a lot of that comes from the people I used to surround myself with. You can only take so much, it builds, and it hurts. Thank you Adam for being a real dude, calling out the bull shit.
Thank you so much for this one, Adam. I don't think pranking is always a bad thing, but it has to be done with a hell of a lot of care and the target has to at minimum A) not have a bad time and B) come out of it with a story they'll enjoy retelling. My favourite genre of prank is definitely 'prankster shocks the hell out of prankee by doing something incredibly nice/important for them'.
finally, someone saying exactly how I have always felt about pranks (and saying it 1000% better than I have ever been able to haha) ❤
One of my favourite not-cruel pranks: I work in the science dept of a high school, and one April Fools I printed out periodic tables in alphabetical order (Actinium, Aluminium, Americium...), laminated them, and gave them to the final year students, telling them it was the updated version from the RSC. One asked how they were meant to find, say, the alkali metals.
"That's why it's colour coded!"
"Nope, still don't like it."
They all kept them as souvenirs. Took me a couple of hours to rearrange!
HA
that's EXACTLY how I feel about pranks. loved "myth busters", love your channel. I always learn something. you're my guy.
IMO the best pranks are the ones that just make people really confused for a few seconds… Pranks that don’t cause any pain or lasting damage.
At my high school for our senior prank we added some voice changers to all the school intercoms, which made everyone who used them sound absolutely ridiculous.
That is so funny! And also - it's the same for EVERYONE, not just one person being singled out (like, it would have been cruel if it had just changed a single person's voice)
We had senior pranks, too, but they weren't harmful. We filled a classroom with balloons. One year they put old tires over all the light poles and even the flagpole (still can't figure out how they did that), and put a guy's motorcycle on top of a concrete awning over a walkway. These were all funny and annoying (to some), but they never really harmed anyone and no one was ever humiliated by them.
Yup... yet another Adam perspective that I can fully relate to... neve understood most of the pranks I've seen pulled either live or on a show... thanks for putting into words the way they've always made me feel... I was almost always uncomfortable and now it fully makes sense!
Pranks can also go wrong. Back in high school someone decided to pull a prank of backing off the pressure on the shop class door closer so it swung freely. Often the door was left open during class. That day we were being a bit noisier than usual. The teacher told me to close the door so we wouldn't bother the neighboring classes. I reached out, backhanded, and gave the door a jerk. The door slammed closed and smashed 3 of my fingers. 2 healed up mostly OK. My ring finger on my right hand has had ever since, a split, deformed nail and the finger tip is slightly twisted and I can't put full pressure on it. This happened when I was 17, I'm now 69. 52 years of a finger that doesn't look or work right.
i KNEW i always liked adam. fully agree abt pranks, and so happy to see folks talking abt other great examples in the comments! love someone quoting john hodgman's advice, "if it's not fun for all, then it's no fun at all."
also the best possible response to a prank: if you go here there's no turning back and we will destroy everything and everyone. lol extremely true. the LAST people you want to be pranking are folks like adam and jamie......lol
For me, it's about allowing others to keep their dignity. Unfortunately, too many people lack the discernment, empathy, and maturity to keep this in mind.
I feel EXACTLY the same way about pranks, always have. For a good few years, I refused to leave my room on April 1st, terrified of even a little prank happening. It's extremely difficult to do a prank that isn't cruel, and few people try - I used to refer to April 1st as "a day of unconditionally excused cruelty". It's so nice to know someone else gets it, especially someone so well-respected and worldly. Thank you, Adam. :)
As a prankster, I love how fun they are and feel really bad if a prank is not taken as intended (with fun). My favorite April fools prank was when I baked my husband an intensely lemon cake and colored it so that he expected chocolate. His reaction was gold XD
I will never forget Angry Adam after the shock prank. If looks could kill everyone would have been dead in Mythbusters HQ
I kept thinking of that this whole video.
Please link it, I need to see it
Yeah, I'd have been the same. Totally empathise from that one. It just ruined the whole vibe too, because it went from 'banter' to learning a hard lesson fast.
Remember how Tory looked like a puppy that'd dueced on the rug? He genuinely didn't want to do that prank. iirc that wasn't even their idea. A producer had came up with it, plus getting your hands shocked like that is really dangerous.
To be honest, fence chargers normally run the current through the ground, and your shoe. When you touch both poles, it can be painful. That's how you do it - alternate strands of wire - when fencing out dangerous predators.
My favorite prank back in college when my friends would leave our computers unlocked and on Facebook was to surreptitiously change their birthday to something like a week out from the current day. At that point nobody remembered birthdays anymore and people often would write on your wall wishing you happy birthday because Facebook said it was so. So it was just a ticking time bomb about a week later when a whole bunch of people would bombard their wall with birthday wishes. Felt like a really good prank that's harmless and can bring a little joy, genuinely proud of coming up with it.
A prank is something where *everyone* ends up wanting to laugh afterwards. Everything else is bullying.
Some people laugh when scared. So yes, but maybe.
@@FrietjeOorlog the key is "wanting to laugh" not actually laughing neccesarily, but wanting to.
I think this is a pretty good definition.
And since you can't read minds or predict the future, they're the same thing in reality.
Spoken like a true participation trophy recipient.
Oh my gosh.
I cannot tell you how good that story makes my heart feel.
Thank you so much for sharing, Adam! 🥹 ❤🎉
The way you and Jamie handled that was beautifully done. 🍻
Thank You for this. I'm not even a fan of prank calls because my empathy goes through the roof just being around it.
Some prank calls can be funny. There are some ones online of someone doing a Tom Baker impression and calling various Doctor Who actors, for example, and most of them take it in stride(though the actor for the 7th Doctor just thought it was Tom calling him while drunk, which produced an equally funny result).
Prank calls are never funny, just mean. At least in person you can tell what's going on before and around the prank. Calling someone up, you've just interrupted them from what they were doing. Or worse yet, they are at work, trying to do their job.
Someone did this to me once when I was a kid, made me think I'd won a competition with a magazine I loved. Told all my family and we were all excited. Then they called and said "Got ya!". I never talked to that person again, it destroyed our trust.
These days, you can't really prank-call people: nobody picks up the phone if they don't know the number. Maybe you could prank-call a business or something: call up and do a fake cowboy accent the whole time or something, then drop it at the very end. Or call up a pizza restaurant and start doing a secret agent impersonation when it comes time to pick toppings.
Something like that where nobody gets hurt and big tips get handed out as necessary to compensate people for their time. But it has to be in a low-impact situation.
" nuclear Powers when it comes to pranking"
Is an underrated line in this video.
Well done LOL
Adam's expensive prank show is basically the movie Westworld, and we all know how that ended.
as sex tourism for the ultra rich?!? 😀
Or Fantasy Island
@xiaoka duh only the rich do that
Um “Prank Encounters?” On Netflix?!
There was one were a nuke went off outside a window (tv screens), and "shook" the building. Guy seemed pretty pranked...
THANK YOU
It is so refreshing to have someone say this.
One I did see was a person giving a course who struggled in carrying what looked to be a very heavy cardboard box. He then asked one of the attendees to pick it up. They did and it bounced off the ceiling as it was empty. There was the first lesson of the manual handling course - check the weight before lifting, because they are seen the other guy stuggling they assumed it was heavy and lifted without checking. Was it a prank - debatable, was it a good lesson - yes.
Very similar prank: We secured a few stacks of newspapers (relative did delivery so we had a few spare stacks lying around) inside this gigantic box and then taped a gift card inside. Gave the gigantic wrapped gift to my SIL for Christmas. Entirely harmless and delightfully fun for everyone.
I do the opposite when teaching people stocktaking. In the plumbing area I'll be explaining stuff, and ask someone to hand me an item off the shelf near them, about the size of a can of beans. They go to grab it and it doesn't move - being a roll of lead. Just a bit difference in weight.
Always gets everyone laughing, and the roll of lead gets passed around for everyone to try out for themselves. Then I point out gold would be almost twice the weight, so all those heist movies... yeah...
When I was a kid, we had some friends who would sometimes ask us to tend their cats while they were away on trips. we had a tradition of leaving a bunch of sticky notes with little silly messages hidden around their house for them to find when they got back. one year they recorded their returning home and edited together a video of them finding all the sticky notes and laughing themselves silly. that's the kind of "prank" I can get behind
Most "pranks" seem designed to provoke surprise emotions like annoyance, embarrassment, fear, anger, disgust, etc. Probably because those are the easiest emotions to achieve. I hate that.
But there are pranks, or at least prank-adjacent activities that can be positive. Telling a joke is basically surprising someone with emotions like amusement and delight. Or, I'm thinking of some of the Improv Everywhere stuff, like freezing time in Grand Central Station, or creating a time loop in a Starbucks, where people can be surprised with wonder and disbelief.
Then there's the time Penn & Teller, specifically Teller I think, tried to buy a round of Jello for everyone in a diner. The waitress wouldn't allow it, because she was sure it had to be against some kind of rule somehow (?), but did allow them to send a bowl of Jello to one person. He thanked them, saying he hadn't had it since childhood and it brought back great memories. They surprised him with nostalgia and joy.
So if you feel the need to prank, instead of putting effort into making someone unhappy for your amusement, put it into surprising someone in a positive way?
I so agree! Adams call to caution towards Jamie is so hilarious to me. I'll carry that sentence in the back of my mind just in case from now on
As a kid, I was a huge fan of Candid Camera, so when Punked came out I was excited but, I couldn't stand it, I'm not sure if it because I was older but while Candid Camera was fun and lighthearted I found Punked mean to borderline cruel.
Likewise me, re Candid Camera, until my father pointed out that a lot of the gags in Candid Camera involved wasting people's time, and there are people (he gave me some examples) who can't afford to have their time wasted.
Punked was like watching a car crash sometimes. To enjoy the pain of others is cruelty, indeed.
I always had a sense you were a good person... but genuinely - hearing you relate this and your stance on it - just proves it to me.
Agreed. Especially since most pranks aren't pranks but just bullying. Fun at someone's expense. That's no fun.
I think all pranks should follow the same basic rule:
"Confuse, don't abuse"
I so want that show, if anyone asks if they need actors… I’ll be there in the front. 7:51 😂❤
I am SO in agreement with Adam on pranks. I don't even like watching movies where bad things happen to people. Life tosses enough unavoidable crap at us that I don't feel the need to add to my or anyone else's burdens for "fun". I'd much, MUCH rather be a part of making someone feel wonderful and surprised.
My biggest issue with pranks is that it removes your sense of trust, your ability to know that this moment is real.
Yes, there's a ton of Cruelty in it. There's a weirdness where people like seeing someone distressed, which I find to be really disturbing. But in the wake of that prank?
You have someone that doesn't trust the other person anymore.
I work in excavation. Truly it can be an extremely dangerous occupation. My coworkers and myself prank each other and even mock each other relentlessly. The purpose is not cruelty but to bring some levity to a tough, sometimes monotonous, sometimes life-threateningly dangerous day of work. I trust them with my life, and no amount of grease under the door handle, pockets stuffed with dirt, hidden toilet paper, or equipment blocking the outhouse door changes that.
@@noblesavage300 til someone gets hurt. In "an extremely dangerous occupation" one should not even risk it, be professional.
@Khronogi I assure you that we accomplish our job with great care and observe all safety standards. There is plenty of room for professional performance and having a laugh. I think it warrants stating that no matter your demeanor, a trench collapse or ruptured gas line is equally dangerous to all.
@@noblesavage300 I am in commercial construction (union carpenter) I 100% know where you are coming from in all of this. I've even considered driving my small car up to the door after my buddy went into the porta-john LOL but don't have the nerve to follow through as I don't want to piss the wrong person off lolol. although I know for a fact he would find it hilarious, out of context the jobsite superintendent see's it at the wrong time and I could be thrown off the job or have a legit chewing out. Some jobsites are obviously more lax than others.
@justins21482 It probably helps that I'm the senior most employee in a small company 😅 Not that it makes me immune from a good butt-chewing, but the PM and both owners are also practical jokers. We have our fun certainly, but we keep things in the boundaries of break times. Context fully matters and we have our game faces on at go time. I'm extremely fortunate to work with great people. We give each other a hard time, but we really do lift each other up and do our absolute best to make sure all of us return home in one piece.
Adam, I love you the most for this. Like standing on the edge and trying to explain why it’s not okay for someone to be behind you. I’d never finish creations if it wasn’t for that. A sense of being.
I agree on the pranks. Someone I know pranked his classmate while on a group trip by leaving an opened condom in his bed in a hotel they were all staying in, to freak him out or embarrass him or something.
The problem is the victim complained to the coach who chewed out the hotel staff who chewed out the housekeeping staff..... all of whom were completely innocent. It only came out later that it was a "prank"....
😬
That’s awful!
Adam said just about everything I feel about pranks, and I'm going to add this video to my bookmarks of useful responses.
agree a million percent on "pranks" Not a fan in any form of them. Shocking or scaring someone for "laughs" has always felt a little "off" to me
totally agree. I never understood why it's supposed to be funny. But, I also do not get 'fail videos' at all, so that makes me a total weirdo, I guess. 😆
I would add that pranks that humiliate are unacceptable... If you have to be hurtful to get a laugh, you've failed.
What baffles me is that there are so many people who aren't the pranker that find that shit hilarious, one could make a RUclips career out of basically harassing people
Omg, Adam's idea of a prank show sounds like so much fun... I would love to stay at that hotel as an actual guest, that sounds amazing! :D
I despise the lottery ticket prank. Though it has never happened to me personally, I've seen the expressions of those who have endured it. It’s especially heartbreaking when the victims are people for whom any amount of winnings could genuinely be life-changing.
I’ve been in that place-times when ends weren’t meeting, and debt loomed heavily over me. Many of us have, to some extent or another. If I believed I had won even a modest amount of cash, I’d immediately know how that money would be spent. My joy wouldn’t just come from the excitement of winning but from the hope of relieving some of that debt and easing the weight on my shoulders.
To go from the euphoria of thinking your burden might be lightened, to the crushing realization that it was all a joke, would be devastating. I might manage to put on a face of forced laughter, but inside, my spirit would be shattered. That’s a cruelty I would never wish upon anyone.
The comment about pranks being borderline cruelty is spot on. That is why I'd rather be pranked than pranking someone else.
A stranger once asked me if my pickup was a diesel at a gas pump... I know the nozzles are different sizes, and I knew I was pumping the correct fuel, but my heart still sank, and for a split second I felt awful, and that I had ruined my new truck. Turns out he wasn't pranking me. He had just noticed the large diameter of the exhaust pipe, and it was a genuine question. That split second dread, followed by a sigh of relief, is a good prank. If a person feels bad after, then I agree the prank went too far.
This might be the best video I’ve watched today. A great prank that Adam prefaces by saying he snores and that’s annoying but Adam knowing Jamie so well, even though they are not friends, to instantly know what has happened, that’s awesome.
you are a really good human. we need more. thanks for being you, adam
The best prank show ive seen is "The Carbonaro Effect." It's a compilation of totally harmless pranks that entail Magician tricks and slight of hand. Nobody is hurt or humiliated, there is only wonder and whimsy
It’s so refreshing hearing someone else voice a dislike of pranks. I love your partner’s way of putting it. I also have no enjoyment from the feeling of being pranked or scared and done enjoy watching it being done to others. I think a joke or prank (or indeed ‘banter’) should always bring enjoyment to both people not just one.
When you said the words,(@ 5:15) " The color of his head." it caught me so off guard and I CRIED laughing!
I have met people who understand the line between prank and cruelty but those people are surprisingly rare. For some people it is probably an excuse to be cruel.
Or a dominance thing. They may not even realize it, but the pranker is trying to be "above" the target in some way.
That isn't a prank, though. Pranks or even light trolling are just for laughs. There are pathetic cases of people who feel inferior who pick on people feel big, but those are just bullies, and those are small people.
John Cleese also loved mean pranks as well. The whole cast of Monty Python pulled one on an interviewer when they were doing an anniversary special and the host asked where one of the missing members was at because there was a cardboard cutout there in his place. John and the others responded by saying that he had recently passed away and they had brought the cutout of him with them as a way to honor his memory and to have him there in spirit because of how much they missed him with his sudden passing. The host felt bad for not doing his research and not knowing that he had passed away, and had joked about him not coming with them, and he apologized for bringing up a sad subject that way. They did the interview special for about 2 hours, and only at the end of it, when the host again apologized to them and the cast member's family for their loss, did John and the others burst into laughter at how the host had fallen for it and admitted that the guy was either sick or busy doing another project and couldn't make it (can't remember which). That's just one example of many he has done. He has no problem with cruel pranks.
I did that at work once accidentally. Someone from another office called and asked for a coworker. She said "tell them I got hit by a bus"
Took the person off hold said (very matter of factly) "she got hit by a bus"
And they believed it....fortunately, she was there to take the call. It was funny, but in hindsight I can see how it was mean.
If I recall correctly, the troupe had to prohibited from producing an episode of their show with the volume gradually getting lower, causing people to turn their TVs all the way up by the end of it, where they would suddenly blast a loud noise at full volume.
The two rules of pranking/practical jokes:
1. Don't prank someone who is not your friend.
2. Don't prank someone who you don't know for sure enjoys pranks.
Any violation of these rules is just plain bullying.
I've seen incredible pranks pulled on complete strangers that were found to be hilarious by everyone, including the person being pranked, and those pranks had absolutely nothing to do with bullying.
@@StoneE4 Were these pranks you saw on TV shows or RUclips channels? Because 1) they are going to edit out the ones that go bad, lest the audience feel bad, and 2) the professionals are scoping out their targets ahead of time to make sure that it's someone who would enjoy the prank.
@@marscaleb Neither... It's pretty damn hard to "edit out the ones that go bad" when you're right there, in real life, seeing the prank play out in front of you.
I have been passionate for 20+ years about Mythbusters. And now I enjoy Adam's posts and the recollection of the past videos as he answers fans' questions. I am also a huge fan of Rhett and Link from GMM, they are another awesome team. It would be incredible if Adam and Jamie, and Rhett and Link would collaborate on some foolish, interactive, scientific experiment. Just a thought from a fan in Canada - to hopefully put some time in to endure winter. LOL!
That’s why I liked Improv Everywhere- though technically “pranks”, there was no victim or target- they just staged these scenes and people could choose for themselves whether to ignore, observe or participate.
They made a few mistakes along the way, where their good intentions resulted in reactions they hadn’t considered… but for the most part, nobody is getting upset when they see a time loop being acted out at Starbucks, or mannequins dancing in a storefront window, or a guy at a baseball game who simply cannot find his seat and winds up getting the entire stadium cheering him on as he gets closer to it, etc.
Thank you, Adam Savage, for speaking out about pranks. Yes, there's almost always an element of cruelty in a prank. Occasionally, it's even unintentional.
Yeah, I worked at a place that agreed to do the Punked thing years ago. As an employee it was so cringe and actually made some of the customers cry. It was not funny at all. It likely hurt business. And the customer's never felt relieved or got "in on the joke". It was a miserable experience for them which went against everything we were about at the time. The owner kicked them out. (the punked crew)
The good part of a prank is the unexpected surprise. The bad part of a prank is making that surprise come from something negative, or the fear of something negative.
A good prank should never leave any lasting feeling of negativity, physical or emotional, and any "fallout" should be quickly reversible. Adding "Never Gonna Give You Up" to a friend's Spotify playlist and waiting for them to play it without noticing? Easily reversible. Putting a glitter bomb in their bedroom? Not so much.
That prank show of yours would be the best thing to watch in a loooong time.
One thing I've never liked about pranks is how quickly they can escalate.
The show idea you pitched sounds 1000% like something one of the "more fun" doctors (who?) would pull on a sleeping companion.
Goto sleep in venice, wake up in pompei. Hopefully less volcano activity on that day.
Edit : brilliant, fantastic idea you had btw. Makes me miss those porta-potty switch gags.
I've always had two ways of doing household pranks. One; moving something like sugar, or their coffee mug to an unreasonable place when they're not looking - and let them try and retrace their steps. It was always important to do this when they're not in a rush, or not trying to do something - just a relaxing morning or evening. You have to be upfront when it's done. My father and I would regularly do this to one another when he was still around.
Two: Put something completely out of place in with other things, like a wrench in the fridge, or coffee grounds in the trunk of a car. It's intentionally harmless and silly, and makes the person being pranked confused, and if done correctly laugh at the absurdedity of the foreign object.
I've always believed a prank done right make both parties involved in the prank laugh.
With my ADHD brain, you could move the sugar less than 2 feet away and id never spot it.
I don't know if I have ADHD but if you did either of those things to me, I'd wonder if I hadn't done it myself and forgotten when, how, or why
I once put a small onion in my Mom's coffee machine (unchopped of course)
There's a group of us that hang out on the weekends for boardgames, and one of the girls always ends up getting her phone hidden. She usually comes up with a fix (has someone text her or something). One time it was in the freezer - I was allowed to give a hint "when you're getting colder, you're getting warner, and when you're getting warmer you're getting colder".
Got a good laugh out of her when she figured it out.
Adam , again you show your wisdom and insight. I too think pranking is usually based on cruelty, hazing culture and bullying.
That last story could have ended _very_ badly. You don't know how people will react to these things, and humiliation can stay with you for a _long_ time.
6:25
"You don't want to start this war." lol
I was in a diner that had a TV and custo erst had the remote. I got the re one that day and had turned on a show. Another customer came in, walked to the TV and switched it to a basketball game. They ignored the big sign about the remote. So whenever they weren't staring at the screen I lowered the volume. After a few minutes, up he got to turn it up. This happened several times before a waitress came by and he complained about the TV volume not working. She advised him it never works well without the remote. Myself and other customers as well as his wife had a good laugh. He apologized and I gave him the remote. Pranking him was better than the show I was going to watch, lol.
Adams prank show sounds better than any other Ive ever heard! I think it wouldve been great!!!
Thank you for putting the things I've felt about pranking into such perfect and succinct words.
Offering someone a job and then telling them there's no job when they report for duty isn't a prank, it's breach of an employment contract (verbal) and I hope they got sued. What a mean-spirited thing to do.
I really like Adam's prank show idea, I'd absolutely watch it.