Who doesn’t love a good laugh?
That can come from a variety of sources, like a joke or blunder. One popular one is the classic prank.
Poking fun at someone can make audiences laugh, but it’s important to find a balance so that no one gets hurt.
Sometimes, though, the joke isn’t funny anymore.
Kathleen Dindoff is a professor of psychology at Fanshawe College who says that you need to know the victim’s limit.
“I think at its best, it’s in jest and for fun,” Dindoff says. “But pranking can definitely go too far, and people are often targeted and sometimes bullied through pranking.”
She points out that it’s the element of embarrassing someone else that can make pranking dangerous.
“It’s one thing like when you see those shows where people do crazy stunts themselves and put themselves at risk, but when you seriously belittle someone else publicly, there’s an element of cruelty to that,” says Dindoff.
Dindoff isn’t convinced that pranking as a whole is bad, but she hopes that people will understand that people have feelings, and that treading upon those in order for a laugh is unnecessary.
