"Harmless" jokes and their Repercussions

There have been times when all of us have lied or played a prank or two on someone else.

Most pranks are relatively harmless, but there are times when these so-called jokes do cross the line.

For example, two years ago, in my school, there was a really popular girl who also had a mean streak. There was a guy who was really shy, but also a bit weird and he had a huge crush on this girl.

She knew about his crush on her, but she ignored him mostly. On April Fools Day, she conspired with her friends to play a prank on this guy. She pretended to have an asthma attack right in front of him and couldn't find her inhaler.

Her friends weren't around, so this guy ran to the pharmacy across the road to get medicine for her. When he disappeared, they all began to laugh and quietly left the area. That night, there was a news broadcast about a young boy being hit by a car. It was that very same guy who was rushing back with medicine and he got hit - he was in the hospital for two weeks.

This is not a made-up story either - its real.

We see heroes in Comedies lying about their mothers dying to gain the heroine's sympathy; we even laugh at them.

But, in real life, do we even realize the repercussions of our actions? Would we even want our mothers to die? I dont know about you, but I certainly wouldn't even want to imagine such a thing, even if I'm really angry with my mother.

The question is: How far should a prank go? Are we justified in pretending death or a serious illness as a joke?

Is such a lie truly "harmless"?

Your views and opinions please!

Very good topic Mystica. I feel we should never cross the limit of jokes and especially with the Joke being about having a dreadful disease or dying etc. Life is too short for all this. And God forbid if the prank you play ever comes true and just the thought of leaving your family and friends in the grief will scare you.

 

Some people play such lame jokes to grab attention and get more friends and their sympathy but this all goes in drain when the friends find out that you played a joke with their emotions and that too on such an extent. Instead of getting friends you lose the ones you have and the ones you loved.

 

I would like to take a real life experience to prove what I said. One of my friends, pretended to be sick and just to grab everyone attention mentioned that she had a dreadful disease and also that she wont be able to recover from it and will leave us all her friends alone. This shattered me so much. I was so disturbed and all the night I just prayed oh God think of her mother who gave her birth ( what will she be going through to see her daughter like this ) , think of all her siblings ( who love her so much), and I wished nothing ever happens to her.

 

But then came the bombshell when we found she was perfectly fine and nothing happened to her and she was just pretending to get our attentions. This left all us friends shattered and in disbelief.

 

I forgave her for what she did , what she lied and it did hurt me real bad that whenever I see her I just see , that she is the one who can lie to an extent that I cant even imagine in a dream.

 

I have seen a huge loss in my life and I know how precious each and every one is. Each and every one of us are so precious to our parents and family and friends and before ever playing a dirty joke we should think of the consequences that it will have on our loved ones.

Good Topic Mysti! Thanx to Deeps for topic.

I really think there muxt be a line drawn to pranks. Everything in this world has limitation. Surely there must be a limit to play prank. Playing a prank or fooling someone is ok until and unless its harmless.

Lying abt having dreadful diseases only just to grab attention is very disgusting. If anyone lies so..then dont they think abt the aftermath. When friends get to know the truth they will be heart. Can anyone ever believe that person? Thinking this i remember a story which I used to listen when I was small. A cowboy who had went with cows for grazing he thought of playing prank and to grab ppl's attention. So he called ppl pretending that Wolf has come to eat him. He layed this many times. But when the wolf really came...he called for help no one came for help. Now who will believe such a prankster? Finally the wolf ate him.

This is just an example...i have seen people playing more seriopus pranks. See what happened with Mysti's friend. Is playing a prank more important that anyone's life? If we play a prank it must be just for fun sake and not playing with anyone's emotion. Near ones and dear one are hurt.

Whats use in fooling someone by hurting ur own ppl. I totally say no to such stupid pranks.

Finally i would like to say is that play pranks but it must be within certain limit which will not hurt any person or cause damage to other person. And lying abt having diseases is very stupid prank n disgusting too.

hey mysti...nice topic and something which we see or might even be a part of in our life...

there is a thin dividing line between playing a harmless joke and playing a prank....any joke can be rendered harmless as long as we don't cross the limit.

well,this playing of pranks is becoming an increasing menance in school...and this is somethnig which happened to a very close friend of mine. Almost everyone knew she had a crush on a particular guy and one of her other frnd though of playing a  prank on her. She went to that guy and told him to ask my friend out on feb 14 and my frnd was elated and they started going out together. on her b'day the guy promised to say those 3 words to her and she was on 7 heaven...only on the day of her b'day did she realize tht those 3 words were :"we fooled you"...she was totally shattered and even tried taking her life....

so you see this prank exceeded limits....and would hv resulted in someone taking her life....personally speaking i don't like much of this prank playing even on april fools day b'coz the kind and quality of pranks that ppl play nowadays is seriously shocking....

just like cutereems said pranks hv to be played within limits and for heavens sake the person who has been made the target should be informed then and there and the prank must not be prolonged as this can have disastrous implications

Edited by crazyaboutpurab - 18 years ago

Nice topic for discussion... Like most of the examples given earlier, I have seen one such prank.. which almost turned ugly.

My friend in college likes this guy, who is really cool and had a girlfriend and stuff... He used to speak to my friend like all other girls in college...  This girl tried diff. tricks with this  guy to catch his attention  but all failed....  She was probably influenced by something that to catch this guys attention, she actually cut her wrists... She did not want to do it, but it was only an attention seeking trick...

She went to the college canteen during break and seeing that this guy was out playing in the ground, sits down, cuts her wrist and waits to be observed by the nearby crowd...   Unfortunately for her, people took time noticing her and by the time they did, a lot of blood had flown...  She even tried speaking to people, but for some reason, everyone had a diff. agenda and no one saw her...  Our group was busy with some project and we were away in one of the class rooms...  By the time someone saw, she fainted and there was no car to take her to a doc.  The only car available was of that guy and he refused to believe when all of them told him... Eventually, she had to be hospitalised for  a week.....  Her own stunt embarrased her so much that after she was discharged, she refused to come to college till the guy admitted that he liked her and the guy refused to do that... She tried to take her life again, as the whole thing had blown up in her face and she felt ridiculous.....

Jokes to some extent are something to make someone's day or to be laughed at but when that exceeds then its a pity. Some may find that to be ultra funny but on those who the joke is on is shattered so i would say we should know our limits and be careful as nobody would like it when the joke is at his or her expense.

 

Rifhat

i think there should be a limit to evrything we do.

 How far should a prank go? Are we justified in pretending death or a serious illness as a joke? ..nice topic

well i would say no its not justified...as one of my teacher said..he said a joke is funny till the other person takes it as a joke....it all depends on the reaction of the next person....If he/she finds it funny then ok..its not steppin on their toes...not hurtin them.... he said it our farewell...when the joke inone of the skits turned out to be a bit too much...things became ugly...the function had to be stopped...the skit involved the member of our class whom we repected the most...we all called her api..she is 3 yrs older thn us continued with her studies after 3 yrs of her marriage...but treated all of us like kids....she was also the president of our society...well her hubby was a special guest we had all invited...well the skit...showed her being really mean to her mother n father in law pushin them...n finally kickin them out....woh tou her hubby was really understandin but still..another skit showed another of my class fellow on the fone with his father...which was very rude....basically our whole function was spoilt..as our teacher pointed out out it was no streetshow..but our juniors later did give us an apology lunch

the point ..there is a limit to evry thin...Moderation is a key....a joke is joke as long as it is taken as one..and causes no harm..plus fakin illness n death is in no way justified as far as i m concerned

Opened and bumping on member's request. Looks interesting post to me, let me know if anyone has concerns, whatsoever. Thanks!

-raj5000

tanaz, i am so shocked reading the incident this is not done. i hope the guy is doing well now and whoever the girl is realized her mistake and apologized to him. jokes to some extent are ok but a joke that plays with a person sentiments is absolutely not right. people need to start differentiating between the two.