YOUTUBE — If you’re into practical jokes, you will love the latest trend in YouTube videos.
Online videos have been a fertile field for pranks for years. Usually, the perpetrators are known to the victims, such as family members pranking family members.
But there are now more and more entire YouTube channels dedicated to playing jokes on unsuspecting strangers.
Of course, the purpose is to get a rise out of people. Or maybe there really isn’t a point; it’s just something to do.
The sample of videos below presents a cross-section of stunts. A young man approaches young women and speaks to them in Taylor Swift lyrics. Two guys accost strangers on a beach and talk to them as if they were talking to babies. A guy asks to borrow a stranger’s cell phone and then walks away with it. And a guy approaches people from behind, puts his hands over their eyes and asks “Guess who?”
To be honest, no matter how annoying these pranks get, most the responses from most victims is underwhelming. Some are amused, some are confused, all are shutting down any initial impulse to dope slap this idiot.
And it could happen to you. At any time.
