I would definitely attack the girl, perhaps, as being a stupid person I am. But why? Why no one attacked her?
You attack little girls when you get scared?
taskmgr.exe sighs deeply. 
Why would you? It wouldn’t occur to me. I’d try to make sense of the situation before lashing out like that.
Also, you’d have to be pretty psychopathic to attack a small girl with a doll who’s not threatening you, scary though her unexpected arrival undoubtedly would be.
Holy crap, though, that vid goes ON and ON. After the first couple I think we’d pretty much gotten the idea.
OK. I exaggerated but I might have kicked the girl. But, what if someone had a heart attack because of the joke?
Why on earth would you attack her?
I see.
Attacking what appeared to be an ill girl would have prevented anyone from having a heart attack? :dubious:
Meeting a confusing, non-violent situation with violence is not recommended.
I’m not seeing a threat. At most, I’m seeing a ghost. An annoying one, sure, but hardly threatening.
That’s the thing about ghosts: even if there IS a ghosty little girl screaming, wtf are you supposed to do about it?
I’d definitely be trying for some hands-on-shoulders thing, just to calm the little shit down, but it happened so fast who knows.
No. I meant the joke could cause someone to die of heart attack. I agree on Meeting a confusing, non-violent situation with violence is not recommended.
Actually, I was angry at the joke so I made a little too exaggerated statement. Next time I’ll try not to be that stupid to make such a stupid statement.
To be honest, I think it is fake.
- Too high a risk that someone would attack the girl.
- Too high a risk that you’d give someone a heart attack.
Very easy to fake for a cheap TV show.
There’s a whole wealth of SURPRISE! comedy out there, and it’s been going on forever. Look for Candid Camera on youtube, I’m sure you’ll find plenty. The stuff intended to really scare people has been going on just as long. It’s used at haunted houses and such, and - guess what? - occasionally, people do get violent. There’s a Funniest Homes Video clip of some guy popping out of a trash can to scare another, and the “victim” punches him like a trained boxer. The prankster was out like a light.
That being said, most people don’t respond violently when they’re surprised/scared like that, and it’s mostly because they are exactly that surprised. They freeze, and they don’t unfreeze for at least a couple of seconds, and by then, their brain has usually informed them that a) it’s a little girl, b) she’s not actively trying to hurt them, and c) punching little girls is frowned upon. It actually takes a good amount of training, preparation, and reflexes to respond to a surprise like that with any effective martial skills.
The video does look like a setup, though. First, almost anyone can tell that the “elevator” hasn’t moved, even though the display is counting up. Second, the lights going out and then the girl appearing? Dead giveaway. My guess is that the participants were told something would happen, but not what. So, while they were startled, maybe even scared, they probably never felt threatened.
I saw the video last night. The whole point of the prank is to evoke the horror trope of lights going out and the creepy little girl ghost. Even if I did think I was seeing a ghost, it would never occur to me to respond violently. What good would attacking a ghost do? Having watched the whole video, every person who responded had the fight-or-flight response and went with the latter. Besides, I think most people are conditioned from a young age not to respond with violence unless absolutely necessary, and it looks like they were probably choosing targets they thought would be particularly safe and likely to give good responses, like mostly older people.
And, sure, it looks fake, with the elevator not moving, but that’s with foreknowledge of what’s going on. Some elevators accelerate slowly, so it’s not that noticable, and chances are if you’re not looking for it, it’s not going to stick out. Instead, you’ll focus more on the lights going out, probably with immediate frustration, which will help you not notice either.
Maybe the specific scenario the OP presented isn’t a good one, but I’ve often wondered about those “scare” type pranks too. My conclusion is that they are staged, or they just don’t show the ones where the prankee lashes out.
I’d laugh.
I mean… there’s no such thing as ghosts, so prank immediately jumps to mind. I might be startled, given that it was just pitch black and suddenly a girl is next to me.
So no, I wouldn’t have attacked her. I would have smiled, and probably said something along the lines of “good one! How many have you freaked out today?”.
Now, tell me that there’s a bug under the bed, and have something jump at me while I investigate, and see me running and screaming like a little girl - or put a fake rat in the bathtub while I’m showering, and you’re going to heck one heck of a peepshow as I streak through the house naked (my cousins never let me live that one down).
I’ve startled quite a few people out of their wits just by approaching them unnoticed out in the open and waiting for them to see me; people can be remarkably oblivious. In my experience, most don’t lash out in reaction to a simple shock. Freezing or jumping away are the most common reactions I’ve seen. What can get you clobbered is combining that shock with a threat display–lunging toward the mark is a big one, and so is touching/grabbing at them. That’s the kind of thing that haunters get punched or kicked for. Holding something that looks like a weapon is also likely to provoke stronger responses, but leans more toward flight than fight (though a confined space can change that).
In this case, the haunter was standing still in a non-threatening posture, smaller than the marks, with her hands occupied with something harmless-looking. She didn’t take any action at all until the marks had a chance to register “little girl”. That’s pretty much ideal for minimizing the chance of a violent response. It’s supposed to be a creepy scare, not a dangerous scare.
I dunno, this is Brazil we’re talking about. It wouldn’t fly in the US, but I have no doubt that they could do something like this down there
I think there’s a stronger connection to spirituality and ghosts and stuff in Latin American cultures. I know there sure is on my wife’s side of the family.
You don’t need to fake these videos necessarily. You just shoot enough footage until you have what you need for a good gag reel. The people who responded to the elevator going out by hitting their cell phone for light or times the girl was clumsy with the panel or people who just said “Is this a joke?” don’t make the final product.
You think that one’s scary! Hee hee.
I went out for a night run in my neighborhood last month. When I turned a corner there was someone standing motionless by the curb looking right at me in a puffed up posture. I didn’t have time to register more than that before my shock turned to anger and I immediately altered my course a bit and started running right at this threat. I had no idea what I was going to do when I got there. Flying tackle maybe? It turned out to be a scarecrow Halloween decoration :smack:. All this happened in about three seconds, but it was interesting to me after how quickly my brain made the fight/flight decision. I think the fact that I was already in motion had a lot to do with it. I’m just glad I didn’t have to explain how I broke my collarbone tackling a yard ornament that scared me.