You know the stuff: Candid Camera. The Jerky Boys. Punk’d. Tom Green. Improv Everywhere. Ali G. I could go on. I’m talking about comedy where the butt of the joke isn’t in on it, and they either find out at the end (Punk’d), next time they watch The Soup (Boiling Point) or at the theatrical release (Borat) that the joke was on them.
Am I the only one who can’t stand to watch it? I don’t mean because it isn’t funny (occasionally it is; more often it isn’t), but just because it’s uncomfortable? Back in the 90s when everyone seemed to think the Jerky Boys and Tom Green were so funny, I just couldn’t bear to listen/watch. It makes me squirm.
Count me in as someone who does find that it makes me uncomfortable. I always feel embarrassed on behalf of the being that are being pranked. Doesn’t keep me from watching it though, I love Ali G. Respek!
Me four. I’d never sign the releases, and I’d be hard pressed not to have decked Alan Funt or Aston Kutchner (who’d I’d deck just on general purpose if he passed me on the street).
It’s just like any other practical joke. It can be a something funny that will boggle your friend for a minute and you’ll all laugh or it can be a “joke” that’s more mean than funny. Unfortunately the TV versions tend heavily towards the mean-spirited and I don’t like many of them.
I can’t stand it either - I get the same discomfort and I feel sorry for the victim.
The random stranger ones, such as Candid Camera seem a little more goofy than malicious, and also there are not loved ones and friends of the victim in on the joke, which bugs me even more.
But I also don’t get the purpose of a practical joke - to me it all seems disrespectful for the victim.
Those shows are intentionally trying to embarrass another person for the pleasure of others and the best a victim can do is be a “good sport” and pretend to laugh it off, and enjoy it.
Does anyone truly ever met someone who enjoys being embarrassed and enjoys being the brunt of another person’s joke?
Personally I don’t understand it, if a friend pulled a stunt, or got Ashton to pull that sort of stunt on me, I’d erase their names from my life, because any person who enjoys causing distress and/or embarrassment to another person does not share my value systems.
I think it’s an empathy thing. If you can imagine yourself in the position of the person being humiliated, you’ll feel uncomfortable and awkward watching their embarassment.
If you’re a sociopath, OTOH, it’s all fun and games
(I just know this comment is gonna get some feathers ruffled).
Oh, not at all. I find it makes me squirm. Then again, I hate practical jokes unless they’re the most clever ones possible. Just not my idea of funny at all.
I never got that impression of them, and I agree I generally hate ambush comedy/practical jokes (thanks to my Dad).
Mostly it seemed like they were taking themselves not so seriously and just having fun and laughing at themselves (or making others laugh at them)… without the intention to laugh at others and make them squirm as the ambush comedy is wont to do. Not that that might not happen (and the Best Buy one I’d say would be the closest to pushing that, unless there is something pushing it even more since I last went to their site which was a few months ago).
I find that stuff to be both very uncomfortable, and roaringly funny. Usually the discomfort wins out, so I don’t watch, but I can’t deny that I laugh my ass off when I see it.
I confess that I used to like Candid Camera. But their jokes seemed more innocent - at least the early ones did. Some of the Punk’d ones weren’t too bad, although I didn’t watch it too much.
I don’t like most of the other ones. They seem to be much more mean-spirited. I really don’t like Borat and his like.
It depends on who’s being victimized and why. I don’t feel sorry for the fratboys or the rednecks who got caught spewing racist crap in the Borat movie. I DO get annoyed by mean-spirited pranks played on well meaning people or people in service industries. It’s funny to see Ali G. mess with the heads of creationists or politicians. It’s not funny to hear the owner of Chinese restauraunt get harrassed in mock pidgen English by a couple of radio jack-offs.
I especially don’t like pranks that play on the good will of the targets. For instance, the Jackass prank which involved a driver pretending to forget a baby seat on the roof of a car and starting to drive away. This prompted bystanders to panic and run to stop the car, mistakenly believing that a baby was in danger. Why that was supposed to be funny, I have no idea. I like Jackass for the most part. I think the movies are hilarious. They have occasional pranks like that, though, which I find really distasteful. That baby seat prank is more offensive than all their semen, poop, urine and genitalia based stunts put together.
Agree with Rysdad, it doesn’t offend me it’s just completely unfunny and I imagine infuriating also.
Because…
example,
The Setup
Two actors pretending to be married couple, sitting down at a table outside a cafe, they start arguing, Ordinary Members Of Public whilst also sitting down at surrounding tables /ignore/are indifferent/watch. At the end of this argument actress (married woman) storms off, passes an OMOP’s table and throws her wedding ring in the OMOP’s drink.
At least the Jackass guys mostly embarass and injure themselves and each other (and Bam’s parents). With my temper, I would be hard pressed not to take a swing at someone if I was on a ambush comedy show.
I remember one episode of Tom Green where a guy came after him with a hammer. I’m surprised that doesn’t happen more often.
Unfortunately, I can’t find the original version of it anywhere (all the versions on YouTube have been edited by the same moron), but I laughed my ass off when I saw this hidden camera joke gone wrong for the first time. Honestly, I wish it would happen more often, then maybe these shows might end.
Nobody actually gets killed. Despite the Russian text at the opening, it’s actually an ad for a printing company in Argentina. The original had the punchline at the end “we know you don’t like surprises”, rather than the “in memory” crap that’s been tacked on.
Count me as another one who doesn’t like it. Very rarely, done properly, to deserving targets (Chris Morris’s celebrity dupes in Brass Eye for instance), it can be funny. More often, it’s just nasty.
I’ve seen Just for Laughs a couple of times. Didn’t laugh once.