In Defense of Pranksters.

This week, a prank my company created has been getting lots of press attention, prompting a deluge of critiques and celebrations on the art of pranking.  Did it go too far, or not far enough?  Was it funny, or a sick joke?  And of course, how would you react if it happened to you?!

I’m a big fan of a good prank and have given this topic more thought than most. I don’t think we do enough practical jokes in the world, and this blog will share some of my thoughts.

Let’s clarify what pranking really boils down to – it’s playing a joke on someone.  It’s fun.  But it is distinctly a joke on that person, not a joke with that person.  When we were children, we all pranked each other; often that involved hiding and jumping out to scare each other.  Pranking, or punk!ing, as Ashton calls it, has innocent origins.  However, most of us were also victims or instigators in some fairly malicious teasing – children can be cruel.  So what separates a prank from humiliation?

There are four main criteria.  Firstly, the actual act itself – a prank is a situation anyone would find awkward; it’s not a personal attack.  For instance, we knew in this prank that Alex had a slight fear of flying.  So Plan A was to charter a plane, attach some smoke canisters to the outside of the engines, like at air shows, and fake a double engine failure while the pilot dropped a few thousand feet.  We knew it’d be easy to film Alex’s terror, while he was actually completely safe.  But then we realized that as it’s a minor fear of Alex’s, it was too personal, and might have had the unintended consequence of sabotaging all future airborne travel for the poor guy!

The second is that a good prank must get the ‘pranked’ to play along.   Information should be exposed during the event from which, really, you ought to deduce it’s a prank.  But you don’t… and down deep, you’re playing along.  When Alex, Fred and Leo were arrested in LA, it was 7am.   They had slept for 2 hours after a big night. The arresting officers mentioned vague allegations from 4am the previous night, and claimed the officers had already reviewed surveillance tapes, identified the accused as the likely suspects, and were here to arrest them.  Really?  How would they know the accused names?  Or which hotel they were staying at?  What about warrants?  And however they did this, they worked it out in 3 hours?  Even Jason Bourne isn’t hunted down so quickly.

A good prank also needs to reflect the intended victim’s relationship to risk.  The fact is that Alex Tulloch is an alpha male.  He’s charismatic, confident and going places.  He would have laughed off a boring prank and, here’s the kicker, he nearly laughed off ours.  On several occasions he says to the police, is this a prank?  Somewhere deep inside, he knew this was too crazy to be real.  In truth, I will admit it was too long, but only by about 5 minutes.  Because 10 minutes before we end the prank, Alex finally looks at the policeman and says, “This is really happening…”  And it is only at this moment the prank has even worked.  It is only at this moment we have provided him with that gasping, roller-coaster moment of genuine fear (while actually being completely safe), that pumping of adrenaline, that primal edge of life stuff that actually helps us appreciate living - as close to the 'elixir of life' we're ever going to find.

This is why I can’t actually ask you how you would react to this prank.  Because I didn’t play this prank on you, and if I did play a prank on you, I’d think of a different one!

Finally, a good prank has to come from a place of love.  It is a gift of the most shocking proportions.  Think about it.  When Alex, Leo and Fred realize it was a prank, they enjoy a flash of euphoria - I’ll wager one of the greatest of their lives.  Pranking requires forethought, planning and usually some type of expense.  How many times have you bought someone you love a gift with less than 5 minutes’ effort?  We all have.  And we all know it didn’t show our love and hoped the recipient didn’t notice.  But you can’t pull off a decent prank with 5 minutes’ effort.  Throughout the planning of this prank, one thing that was completely obvious was the love Ben has for his buddy.  He wanted to treat him to an experience of a lifetime, to produce the best prank in the history of pranks.

And I think we did.