Oh for gods' sakes

[serai]

Is there anyone around here besides me who still has a sense of humor about things like PUNKd?

It's a JOKE. Nobody GETS HURT. All that happens is some people THINK something happened that DIDN'T. And then they FIND OUT. That's it, people!


When I was a kid, there was a show called Candid Camera. It was essentially the same thing, except that the "victims" were ordinary people, not celebrities, and the show had a microscopic budget compared to PUNKd. There were no houses blowing up. Instead, what you got were people reacting to talking mailboxes, or choreographed crowds that wouldn't let them pass, or things like that. It was funny then, and it's funny now.

Christ in a sidecar. The world is getting grimmer and more horrid every day. Where's the harm in fooling somebody and then letting them know they've been fooled? It's incredible how thin-skinned people have gotten, and how unwilling to take a joke. Especially when it isn't even on them!!


*goes back to watch promo again* I sure hope somebody captures the whole segment. I'd really love to see this!

Comments

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

We all react differently to things, and I understand why people like those programs and find them funny. They bother me in a way I can't explain. Maybe it's truly because I don't have much of a sense of humor, but I wasn't trying to hurt anyone by saying that I don't find them funny. I was just stating my feelings. Maybe I am thin skinnned. It hurts a little that you're angry about something that is not meant to disrespect anyone's sense of humor, and I feel like I must have hurt you unintentionally. If so, I apologize and hope we can agree to disagree.

[serai1.livejournal.com]

Sweetheart, you're a nice person, but I feel I have to say this in order to clarify my position: that is exactly what I'm talking about. I'm not hurt. Know why? Because nothing about this situation could hurt me. What I am is exasperated.

Why has it become so common to assume woundedness and pain when it has not occurred? Why do so many people jump to conclusions about the effects of things like this, and why do those conclusions so often involve injury? It's humor. It's not meant to be taken seriously. Therefore, what's the point in getting upset about any of it?

I've seen this kind of thing happen in fandom before, and it's interesting that the reactions of the fans are so often much more negative and hand-wringing than that of the people involved. I'd bet a hefty sum that when Elijah found out he'd been punked, he didn't sit down and start crying about being hurt. He probably laughed his ass off.

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

You're probably right, and I'm glad to know we're okay. You know, I may be projecting my own personality on others when I assume they may be hurt by things I say. I'm too sensitive, and I've been told I'm overprotective. Some of that's my age, some of it comes from my uprbringing, some from my Cancerian personality, and some from the losses I've dealt with in the past few years. I find myself feeling much more for others than I ever did when I was younger, and wanting to be gentle with their feelings, and to try to protect everyone. I've always been a "mama," even when I was a little girl myself, and I still tend try to mother everyone. Just ask my 40 year old daughter, who laughs at me when I tell her to drive carefully, or to watch out for that car when we start to cross the street. I bet Elijha laughed his ass off too. He's got a great sense of humor.

[elderberrywine.livejournal.com]

What with the who and the why? Elwood got punk'd?

(And the talking mailbox killed me every time. I loved how some people really got into a conversation with it.)

[trilliah.livejournal.com]

There are different kinds of "hurt," Serai. Sure, no one gets physically injured, but humiliation is a psychological hurt of its own. Candid Camera was funny--one of my personal favorites was when a large group of people stood on a city sidewalk and stared up into the sky, trying to see how many passersby would pause and stare too. (In fact, that might have been a psychological study about imitation...). Talking mailboxes, people acting bizarrely, practical jokes meant to be amusing or mildly startling--they're one thing. But they can be taken too far.

I've never seen this show. I don't know what it's about, how far the jokes go, or what they do. But I can completely sympathize with people who don't find it funny to watch someone else's humiliation. Thin-skinned? Maybe. Or maybe just empathetic. Some just don't find the same kinds of things funny, just as some don't find the same sorts of things scary or sad or romantic. And frankly, some of these so-called harmless "pranks" can get down-right cruel--even if no one is physically hurt.

[trilliah.livejournal.com]

I'll add I had no idea it was Elijah we were talking about here, so this isn't some kind of overly-protective fan-girling flailing I'm doing here--I'm speaking in generalities. In this particular case, you're probably right: he probably DID laugh. Just the way he reacted to Dom's faux-interview would predict that.

I'll also add that celebrities are probably more equipped than the average Joe to deal with that sort of embarrassment--they're more used to the spotlight, after all. But I hold to what I said about some of these things being taken too far. It can happen, and it can hurt, no matter that it was done in good fun. *shrugs*

[ladysunrope.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with trilliah on this one -and I'm no protective fangirl either. I love to see practical jokes based on foibles that people have so personally I felt the original Candid Camera was fun. I remember the UK one having a gag where an amount of money was glued to the pavement underneath a ladder and it was hilarious watching people try to reach it without walking under the ladder. You could see the mental fight they had between the urge for the money and the superstition most of them felt. The audience often felt some sort of connection with what was going on -they could think that they too might react that way given those circumstances and there was some sympathy towards the victim. Ok, maybe the UK version was a kinder, gentler one than the US version, I don't know.

Then somehow along the way of these things, the humour became crueller. It is more based on making a situation so real that people believe implicitly because they trust the figures involved, or what they see or the friends that have so kindly set them up. The audience is encouraged to see their trust as somehow flawed and to see their genuine reactions of the moment as something amusing. I don't find a genuine belief in something so apparently real and often distressing as amusing even if I know its a set up. I'm not wired that way to see it as amusing. Others are and that's ok as long as the person being set up is agreeable to it being shown. Elijah was, so fine. All I know is, I won't be watching it because it doesn't float my boat, no matter who it is. It's no reflection on my own sense of humour or yours either because we all have our different responses to what makes us laugh.