Pranks. What are they good for? When the prank goes right, they’re good for laughing at the person being pranked, as long as you’ve got an evil enough sense of humor. But when pranks go horribly wrong, they’re funny for everyone because it’s so much sweeter to laugh at the prankster.
At the end of the day, we love justice. While sometimes justice can be served to some deserving jerk getting pranked, it’s always served when the prankster’s joke backfires. That’s because pranksters are inherently assholes. What kind of a human lives to f–k with other humans? Assholes, that’s who. Fortunately, these a-holes sometimes get their comeuppance, which is usually best served cold (and on YouTube).
The fact that so many pranksters exist on YouTube is really quite disturbing. The fact that such a niche position has been created on our internet watch should be of great concern to us all. Our clicks created these people. Remember that.
So it is with some dissatisfaction that I bring you this list of pranks that went horribly wrong. Not because it’s not a whole hootenanny of a good time when these vile pranksters finally get what’s coming. It’s just that they also get a click or two while they’re at it.
Pranks That Went Horribly Wrong
All Pranks Should End With a Roundhouse
For some reason, stealing things and filming people’s reactions is considered a prank, as opposed to just theft. Well, Jean Claude Van Damme and me don’t really see the difference.
Take That You Zombie Mother F-er
Context is completely unnecessary for this one. A couple idiots in cahoots obviously set it up so one would stage an interview right in front of the trash can where the much bigger idiot waited inside in zombie attire. Then, during the interview, the zombie would leap out of the trash can, scaring the snot out of the unsuspecting interviewee. But this badass interviewee has obviously seen The Walking Dead, because he knocks that zombie right the f–k out, and right the f–k back into the trash can he belongs in.
Boys Will Be Assholes
I don’t know who the Prank Boys are, nor do I really care. All I know is that their prank — asking people if they want to get poked (as in Facebook poked, apparently) — is mind-numbingly dumb. If it didn’t turn into them getting repeatedly beat down, it wouldn’t be entertaining at all. That said, these guys and their big mouths do get the crap kicked out of them in some pretty hilarious ways.
Hood Pranks Are a Thing
Apparently there are prank subgenres, and the hood prank is one of those. You have to have some kind of chutzpah, and no kind of intellect to be a practitioner of this genre, though. This video clearly shows that. Anytime you get shot at for playing a joke on someone, you should reevaluate where you’re joking around.
Also: Dude Pulls Off Epic Car Prank On His Sister That Will Go Down As One Of The Best Pranks
Kid Had It Coming
In case you missed it, kids are assholes. So I can totally understand why these kids thought it would be funny to throw water balloons at their friend below. Although I bet they didn’t think reconstructive surgery on said kid’s front teeth was nearly as funny.
More Like Prank Gone Right
At title level, this one is dubbed a prank gone wrong. But when you can get news trucks to come investigate a supposed electric fence because your acting job was convincing enough to appear to have been electrocuted, then you’ve done pranking right. Of course, the fire trucks had to come out, too, so technically you are really only costing taxpayers money. Technically, you’re still very much an asshole in that respect.
Two Fails in One
85 million views later, it appears we’re not the only ones happy that professional prankster Roman Atwood had one backfire on him. What’s great is that you get two failed pranks in one here. See, Roman’s girl saw him setting up the camera, so she was ready when he lied about having an affair — though you’d think she’d always be ready, considering she’s dating a pro pranker. Still, Roman seems genuinely distraught when she tells him she cheated, too. But the real backfire here is the reveal that she actually thought the camera was set up to catch Roman’s imminent proposal. Oh well, at least she got a good prank in. With virality like this, it will likely have longer shelf life than a marriage with a professional prankster anyways.
Failed to Jail
Wow, we couldn’t have seen this one coming. A black guy gets taken down violently by cops after dressing up like an escaped convict and walking around downtown Fullerton? No way! How did he expect people to react to his big orange prison suit? Did he think the good people of Fullerton wouldn’t immediately call the cops? Has he never seen Cops? Or the news?
Is Pistol Whipping Self Defense?
As I dive deeper and more insipidly into prankster culture, what I’m starting to realize is that a lot of these scumbags are trying to get beat up to improve their ratings — particularly the hood pranksters. So really, what is a failed prank at all? Would getting pistol whipped for dressing up like a creepy clown qualify? Not just any creepy clown, mind you, but one holding a saw and stepping to possible thugs? Well, it wasn’t a big enough fail to teach this prankster the valuable lesson that pranking is bad. Only that “people don’t really play with the clown stuff.”
