I feel like some of these have to be faked. The kids immediately start freaking out without a moment of confusion.
By the time they were 7 or 8 our kids would never have fallen for it.
I was watching the latest video of the Jimmy Kimmel Halloween prank and my 4 year old son ran over to the computer see what I was watching. I explained to him the whole prank and he thought it was funny.
Now, the past couple days, we’ve made it our own little joke. I’ll say, “Danny, I’ve got something to tell you. He’ll smirk and say, “What?” Then I say, " I’m sorry, but I ate all your Halloween candy last night.” Then he’ll throw his hands in the air and yell, “You’ve ruined my life!” Well, as a 4 year old he actually says, “You wooned my wife!”
Then we laugh and laugh!!
Children are like life. Nasty, brutish, and short.
I did it to my nine-year old and he didn’t even turn away from the computer to look at me. He just dead-panned, “No you didn’t.”
+1. This isn’t funny. It’s just being an asshole.
If you tell kids that Santa isn’t coming or their pet died or you sold all their toys, they’ll cry. There’s nothing funny about the reaction because you already know exactly what will happen. There’s nothing clever or inventive or elaborate about the setup that makes it anything other than a dick move. And when you reveal the truth there’s no payoff for the kid - you’ve upset them and lied to them, and they get no reward. There’s nothing for them to laugh at.
They get humiliated on national television, that’s their reward.
I watched about half the video. Humiliating young children is humour?
Not in this home.
I don’t get it.
People are really outraged at this prank? Is it cruel? Damaging ? Wow, way to overreact…
Edited to add: putting it on tv is more questionable especially if you milk it to have a big drama. But the prank itself? Harmless.
If this damaged your child, they were already sitting on the edge waiting to snap. It’s not nice, but a great deal of elementary school is far worse. If they have siblings, they’re almost guaranteed to get worse.
And the parents didn’t have to let the prank go on very long for a lot of the kids. The ones that are slow are at the beginning of the clip. That last girl reacts probably the way I would have, and dad doesn’t finish the sentence before she lets him have it.
ETA: And parents don’t sit in some particularly trustworthy position for very long. Once they figure out there’s no Santa (or tooth fairy, or whatever it is in your house), they doubt you. It’s probably before then, but by then you’ve been proven other than %100 reliable.
WTF? Go grab a McRib dude. You need one.
You have to know your audience. My kids knew my sense of humor and would have just as likely reversed the prank on me.
It’s not what it’s doing to the children, that’s the problem. I think it endorses and encourages cruelty to children. I mean it IS torment, without a doubt. For amusement! That’s a screwed up thing to subject your kid to, in my opinion. Don’t think I could do it myself, but whatever.
Lots of parents already think it’s OK to hit their child, or bully them into compliance. It’s not right, but denying that it’s widespread is beyond silly, in my opinion.
So now a tv personality is somewhat opening the door to tormenting for amusement, as AOK.
If you don’t believe there are parents that will be influenced in a negative way, I think you’re denying just how many parents are already bad at what they do, and already bordering on being abusive.
Sets a terrible example, immunizes people from finding it misguided to torment children for amusement. "Gee, if JK thinks this is amusing, I could devise other things for my amusement along these lines!
I see it as kinda of encouraging/condoning the very last people who need it, borderline abusive parents.
All as schtick for late night comedy show ratings. Yuck!
I don’t watch JK anymore because it makes my skin crawl to watch shit like this for tv ratings. I find it terribly irresponsible, but leave others to draw their own conclusions.
You… you… you wife wooner! :mad:
Since this is more about opinions on child-rearing than the TV show, moved to IMHO (from Cafe Society).
It’s a dickish thing to do and I don’t think ‘would a reasonable person require therapy later to deal with this’ should be a standard by which we gauge the ethics of our actions.
I couldn’t watch the whole thing; it was horrible.
Is it damaging? I donno…to rephrase a post above, if you’re the type of person who would do this to a child (in order to get on the TV!!), you’re probably fucking them up pretty good already.
“I ate all your candy.”
“Yeah, well, I just ran your wallet through the garbage disposal. Who’s crying now?”
Feh.
After raising two kids and filling their lives full of petty pranks, I can tell you it’s fine. Kids that age throw a 50 kiloton fit over the smallest stuff. And while you and I know eating their Halloween candy is executing their worst fear, kids know how to take a joke. What’s more, they might not be so gullible next time someone tries to pull something on them. Scarred for life? Hardly.
IOW: it’s one of nature’s little life-lessons, you get a little peak in their psyche at that age, and happens to be funny as shit.
Though, I did sneak some of their Snickers bars. shhhhh!
Someone has done much more terrible terrible things to you than eat your Halloween candy.
Though I have a very good idea of what you dressed up as for Halloween.