Curtailing The Excess of Prank Videos
Hashim Yussuf Amao, Ibadan

Comedy: a revival of hopes, relief from woes, wine for the soul. When sadness ravages the mind, a thrilling comedy could ignite joy, bubble in the belly, renew hopes, and make life worth living again. It sometimes wets the cheeks with tears: not salty tears that emit at the happenstance of sorrow, but reflex tears that discharge with the "dimorphous expression" of irresistible laughter. "With our hectic lives, a dose of comedy is a must." asserted Anita Reddy, the notable Indian actress.

Away from its function as solace, comedy pumps money into pocket. It bestows fame on jokesters. Societal value, influence, special treatments, and opportunities are among the many privileges comedians enjoy. Skits, stand-up comedies, and street interviews are among many ways comedians pop entertainment on our screens. Lately, the most prevalent form of these comedies is the Prank Comedy where pranksters befool unsuspecting victims with untold pranks, while putting their funny reactions into recording for the enjoyment of viewers.

Prank comedy can be traced to the group of the entertaining Jerky Boys. The American duo of Johnny Brennan and Kamal Ahmed took the American entertainment industry by storm in the Nineties, and successfully etched their names in the historical book of prank comedy. The two friends would call unsuspecting victims on the phone, in healthy calls that would later be recorded into audio records for sale—audio records later formed albums. Interestingly, many Americans longed to be called by the Jerky Boys, as it would be a golden opportunity to feature in their audio records that traveled far and near across lovers of entertainment. Their record label, Atlantic Records (a subsidiary of Select Records), would later confirm that the Jerky Boys sold 8,000,000 albums and made records across charts like Billboard, with a certified (double) Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Only a healthy prank could have achieved this feat.

Many of today's pranksters only draw inspiration from the Jerky Boys and other foremost pranksters, their unhealthy pranks are contrary to the legacy of the Jerky Boys'. While Jerky Boys consider the mental health of their prank victims and would even seek their privacy before they get their voices released for public listening, many of today's pranksters have toiled the mental health of their prank victims with unhealthy pranks, false accusations, harassment with soldiers, attacks with harmful objects, and bullying. Many of their victims even get to see themselves over the internet without their consent—a breach of privacy.

Consideration is rarely given to elderly men or pregnant women, many of whom are frail. In a clime where many people work around with smiling faces but severe health conditions, some pranksters refuse to be sensitive about this, so they go about making their victims aghast with pranks that result in intrigue and commotion. Hypertensive, asthmatic, mentally unstable, and other fragile victims—who wouldn't inscribe their ailments on themselves—could easily give up at the attack of too much tension.

Today, many pranksters wouldn't put some respite on their tough pranks; they go as far as making pranks inside fueling stations, which could easily result in an inferno. In the best interest, health care centres, schools, gatherings where a cluster of old, weak men sit and gist should be excluded from unhealthy pranks. Nigerian pranksters like MC Fredom, Trinity Guy and others, who once met their waterloo with insensitive pranks after angry mob pounded on them, needed only a little sermon before they could fix the loose strings in their unhealthy pranks.

The consideration of unhealthy pranks was a major reason platforms like YouTube, in 2019, placed a ban on harmful prank jokes and even put an option to report pranks that endanger people's lives and sanity. Legally, pranksters should be in the know, that they could be sued under "will-less murder", should they get their victims hurt or dead from their unhealthy pranks.

Nigerian pranksters should buck the trend of unhealthy pranks. Health and mental wise, it behoves pranksters to consider the fact that it is not everyone walking on the roads who is fit for their costly pranks. Like the Jerky Boys and other legendary pranksters, they should consider the well-being of their victims and not induce unnecessary fears, psychological and mental torture on them. Non-consensual pranks, harmful words, and bullying might cost innocent victims their health, sanity, and even relationships, which, once lost, may never be regained.


Hashim Yussuf Amao
Twitter: @LegalBard
hashimlegalbard@gmail.com

I cannot believe that such a silly action got no punishment. There should be some deterrent against these people who use other people time and money for their selfish fantasies. A prank is a prank only when it doesn't hurt anyone physically or mentally, but ironically it does both.

Inasmuch as they claim to get us entertained,fine,but they should be limit to these things.

Noni

I had wanted to create similar post sometime ago.

One unique thing about our Nigerian mentality is Abuse of opportunities.

Go to TikTok and YouTube and you'll catch a list of streaming videos where fun videos are taken to the extreme. Most which are devoid of the fun they seem to portray.

It's either a youngster is pranking his father's age mate or his mother's grandma's age mate.

Or a teen using derogatory words to pass a simple message that could still be avoidable. In all of which one would end up missing the message after being baptized by the insolence from the video.

Vidoes that garner lots of likes and appreciations are usually simple and short. Thought outside the box. And heartwarming.

We rather have many thought-provoking videos and noise pollution in place of good and fun filled videos.

People are doing all sorts of bizarre things in the name of pranks... place people's lives and relationships at risk. One idiot even had the mind to scare kids...the latest is the one that degrade women. They are constituting public nuisance and should be treated that way.

Nice write up... Ee get why!

Nigeria get code of conduct?
That idiot guy wearing black suit and dreadlocks will just be messing with ppls health in the name of prank video


You nor knw who get HBP or hypertension
Just be doing stupid video to get likes

You try prank me for street na plank straight for your head, belike buhari never taya una

As for me, anything prank is a no go area....


You go don chop blow or slap before you know wetin dey, no just try to prank me, I hate faking things.

Na everything dem dey use play pranks for this generation wey we dey...

even some Political parties na prank dem dey play dere Presidential aspirant, VP, Governorship aspirant, Deputy etc.....


Soon we go start to hear the contestant manifestos and dem go start to sound like prank for ear.....

A lot of individuals have taken this whole prank thing to a totally unhealthy level..I saw one today when the guy attempted to prank a pregnant woman on a rail track. I saw no joke in that.
The good thing however is that it's a two sided coin. Remember a prank gone wrong I saw some time back. The beating the guy got ehn (as he was considered a ritualist), if e hear say prank dey mile twelve, him go pass ijebu ode.

I see 5 pranksters lynched by angry and frustrated mob, I see pranking dying a natural death in Nigeria permanently.

This I have seen.

Nice piece and necessary.

Good

This space booking of a thing is becoming too much on this forum.

Na to slap the person wey dey do the prank

Nowadays, many prank videos are made to disparage Christianity
Prank videos where a man acting as pastor bathing some women and annointing their veejay under camera.
And many ignorantly believe

Didn't hear of the jerky boys

Prank videos dey risky in this part of Africa called Nigeria ooo.

Pipo dey VEX and dem go arrange you like say na you promise to make $1 equal to 1 naira

The same way APC is Pranking Nigerians with Agbado master

Na that 'Won ti de o' guy dey gimme joy most. Even the cripple dey follow multitude japa .

But then, there are many out there who are HBP patients.

Trinity go be like, "Shout & get shot in the head".

Leave them... One day, their cup go full!

The day they prank a depressed, murderous person who is armed and resorts to deadly violence, that's when they will stop!

Most of these guys don't think of consequences before pranking. There are hypertensive people all over the place. I just hope someone won't slump and die during one of their silly pranks.

Tell dem o. I m tired of those insensitive pranksters on YouTube

Those guys are constituting nuisance just in the name of creating contents

Nigeria sef na prank.