Here’s a linky to a little flash video on my bebo page… In it, a little kid is shown one of those “Screamer” videos, you know, an email that shows a serene image and then instantly changes into a ghastly face complete with, well, screaming. Guess what happens? The kids freaks the fuck out.
the whole thing is videoed by what I can only assume to be the kids mom, as it is a female we hear, and the kid goes running to her crying. Who the fuck would think its a good idea to show their kids something like this, then video it for amusement?? Christ, I’m 25 and when I got my first “Screamer” i reacted the same as the kid, more or less. My mom wasnt about at the time to calm me.
Anyway, have a look, like my page says if you laugh at this you are a heartless bastard. The face that appears is very blurry and distant, so you shouldnt get spooked, but the scream is quite loud. Also my homepage has an Alex Ross image of the Joker that scares a lot of people… Here you go.
Ditto. I froze up entirely, was in complete shock for the rest of the afternoon, and had nightmares for the next week or so. Those things can be deadly.
They are, incidentally, not safe for the SDMB, if the link contains one by example…
Really. My brother, the little… checks forum brat, sent it to me as a joke. For the next week or so I found it absolutely hilarious to thwack him upside the head as much as possible.
ETA, because I just realized how wrong that might have sounded: not too hard. He may be a brat, but we’re still friends after all this time, after all.
The first time I saw one of those I jumped backwards out of my chair, knocking it over, and threw my headphones at the computer monitor while screaming.
Just watched the video. Yeah, that’s about how I felt, and I was 20.
Man, I don’t even like kids, and even I think that’s just crazy. You don’t make a kid cry and then videotape it. I mean, okay, maybe she was taping because she thought he was going to scream and then laugh at the joke, but the second it becomes apparent that he’s actually upset it’s time to put the camera down.
It was bad enough that she showed it to him, then even worse that she was videotaping it, but then to KEEP recording him instead of putting the *&ing camera down and consoling him?!!
Poor little guy. I am really sad now and wish I hadn’t watched it.
And they put this online, too, so he can be embarrassed about it for years to come!
It’s like a series of bad moves that should have been stopped.
Don’t show your kid a scary video.
Okay, it’s too late - you’ve shown your kid a scary video. The least you could do is not videotape it.
Yeah, so it’s already taped. Oh, but now he’s crying! It’s time to put the camera down and comfort him.
What, you’re not going to bother to comfort him? Okay, at this point you’re just being mean. You really should erase the tape, and tell him it’s okay. Whatever you do, don’t put it on the internet so he can be embarrassed for years to come!
Why is this video online? Gah. You don’t belong on this planet.
On a related note, I pretty much wanted to kill the parents who brought their tiny little kids to see Slither (a gory horror-comedy), and wouldn’t take them out of the theater when they were obviously scared and not enjoying it. I was beyond being annoyed as a fellow movie-goer wanting to see the film in peace; I was annoyed as a witness to a really shitty parenting decision.
Sorry, I giggled like a little girl. That video would be an awesome memento for happy reflections later on in the kids life. If I were the mom I’d keep it.
When I was 4 or 5 I would often be a picky eater. My mom, knowing that I was rather afraid of the dark, would lock me in the bathroom and turn off the light for 5 min or so as punishment. I don’t recall it too well but according to my mom I went back and forth between howling and sobbing for the whole time, every time, sometimes clawing and pounding at the door. It’s sort of a stock amusing story that comes up at family gatherings and never fails to garner gales of laughter from the whole family. I’m sort of chuckling as I type this.
I have to admit my mom was a rather poor parent in many ways(not to mention a terrible cook), but I never held any of the bathroom stuff against her. I guess I would be kind of like Calvin’s irreverent dad from Calvin & Hobbes. (“Dad, Where do babies come from?” “From Sears, in self assemble kits.” " I came from Sears?" “No, your mom got you as a K-mart blue light special”) Raising kids are trouble enough, you have to have some fun with them once in a while.
It alternated with forcing me to jump in the deep end of the pool and washing out my mouth with soap (yes, it happened once). I love my parents, I really do.
It doesn’t surprise me at all. Here in the US, for about the past 20 years, we’ve had a television show called (most innacurately) America’s Funniest Home Videos. This show basically consists of videos shot by amateurs and sent in hoping to win a money prize. I’d say that at least half of the videos aired in each episode are this kind of thing, where a parent is taping their child getting really scared, or heading for an accident of some kind, or being attacked by wild animals, or something of that nature. When I was a kid, I thought it was a funny show, but even then I often asked why the hell the parents were TAPING the kid getting scared, hurt, attacked instead of trying to prevent it…
