Saturday, June 18, 2011

When A Prank Goes Too Far

Let me preface this post with some background. My teenage brother recently moved in with me and my husband. It has been interesting having him (6 years my junior) as a roommate, but overall it has been pretty cool. He cleans up after himself, doesn't hog the remote, and even cooks dinner 3 nights a week. However, he also has a pesky problem: he pranks me constantly.

To date, he has haunted me with annoying renditions of Europe's Final Countdown (you can reference: FINAL COUNTDOWN), switched my decorative crystals in the kitchen with other colors then periodically moves them or hides them to irritate me, tore out the last page of the last book in a 900 page trilogy I was reading-right before I left on a business trip and couldn't murder him, placed paper propped-up cutouts of Keanu Reeves sitting down eating a sandwich in random places like my desk, the dryer, the pantry, my shower...


He even got me by spiking my glass of water with pure mint extract-so much that my mouth was numb for hours. 
RE:


  • Valerie  Can you bring me my water?
    May 26 at 9:59pm · 

  • Daniel  hehe ya..ya sure ill ring you your "water"
    May 26 at 10:00pm · 

  • Daniel  bring*
    May 26 at 10:00pm · 

  • Valerie  Wait. why did you " " water? Please don't spit in it.
    May 26 at 10:00pm · 

  • Daniel  oh no c'mon im your brother, our spit is practically the same thing. what i am doing is much "better"
    May 26 at 10:01pm · 

  • Valerie  That just sounds dirty now.
    May 26 at 10:02pm · 

  • Daniel  oh dont worry its water all right but im not gonna tell you where i got it
    May 26 at 10:04pm · 

  • Valerie  i hate you
    May 26 at 10:04pm · 

  • Bryce  I'm adding this current chat me and Valerie have had to my list of dumb things "customers" say... I asked what she was using to listen to music and she gave me everything but...
    May 26 at 10:05pm · 

  • Bryce  Daniel's even dumber! Comes running into my office yelling... I WORK FROM HOME!
    May 26 at 10:07pm · 

  • Valerie  Daniel, my water tastes minty. WTF did you do?
    May 26 at 10:07pm ·  ·  1 person

  • Daniel  shut up bryce. for some reason i thought you were still on break
    May 26 at 10:08pm · 

  • Daniel  wait for it
    May 26 at 10:09pm · 

  • Valerie  I am dead serious! What did I just put in my mouth?
    May 26 at 10:09pm · 

  • Bryce  Um...
    May 26 at 10:10pm · 

  • Daniel  hey you just came down here and got your water yourself
    May 26 at 10:10pm · 

  • Valerie  he promised not to put anything in my water yet after one sip, my mouth is numb and tingly.
    May 26 at 10:10pm · 

  • Valerie  Daniel Brian! Tell me right now what you did.
    May 26 at 10:11pm · 

  • Daniel  hey hey hey i did not tamper with your water. its nothing but pure H2O . that i know of
    May 26 at 10:12pm · 

  • Valerie  Fine then. what did you do to the glass? And why does your hand smell funny?
    May 26 at 10:12pm · 

  • Daniel  does it still taste bad
    May 26 at 10:13pm · 

  • Valerie  NVM.I do NOT want to know.
    May 26 at 10:13pm · 

  • Daniel  haha its nothing that will kill you
    May 26 at 10:13pm · 

  • Daniel  wait what are you allergic too again?
    May 26 at 10:13pm · 

  • Valerie  There's lots of things that won't kill me, but I don't stick those in my mouth. It's unpleasant.
    May 26 at 10:14pm · 

  • Max  I must say that this is entertaining.
    May 26 at 10:15pm · 

  • Valerie  Daniel just ran up here to pour the water out. Is antifreeze minty? I think I may have been poisoned.
    May 26 at 10:19pm ·  ·  2 people

  • Daniel im just glad i stopped you, it was suck a stupid idea
    May 26 at 10:20pm · 

  • Daniel  such*
    May 26 at 10:20pm · 

  • Travis  That is the longest thread of all time......
    May 26 at 10:24pm · 

  • Valerie  Now that I've broken records, I'm going to bed.
    May 26 at 10:25pm ·  ·  1 person

  • Daniel  i hope you wake up in the morning
    May 26 at 10:25pm · 

  • Valerie  Me too. It's Friday! Next time, poison me on a Sunday.Ii always have the worst Mondays...
    May 26 at 10:26pm · 

  • Daniel  will do
    May 26 at 10:27pm · 

  • Valerie  And it was only a sip.
    May 26 at 10:28pm · 

  • Daniel  
    May 26 at 10:29pm · 

  • Valerie  crap.
    May 26 at 10:29pm · 

  • Daniel  yes, probably in about 16minutes if the computer calculations are correct
    May 26 at 10:30pm · 

  • Valerie  huh?
    May 26 at 10:31pm · 

  • Daniel  
    May 26 at 10:32pm · 

  • Valerie  Are you fucking serious?
    May 26 at 10:32pm · 

  • Daniel  you will never know
    May 26 at 10:32pm · 

  • Valerie  My lips are still numb, you know.
    May 26 at 10:33pm · 

  • Daniel  look at my profile
    May 26 at 10:33pm · 

  • Valerie  I wouldn't put it past you to poison me, but all the same, I;m glad you didn't. However, my lips really are still numb and that water tasted minty, so I think I'll be preparing my own food and drink from now on.
    May 26 at 10:34pm · 

  • Daniel  it was just a little bit of mint extract. i put it in the brim so even if you poured it out and refilled it, it would still be minty lol
    May 26 at 10:36pm · 

  • Valerie LOL. Ok, that's pretty damn good. I didn't realize that much pure mint would temporarily paralyze someone!
    May 26 at 10:37pm · 

  • Daniel haha neither did i. i just opened the pantry looking for food dye but then i saw the extract
    May 26 at 10:38pm ·  ·  1 person

  • Daniel and btw i tried it on my self first, my lips are still numb too and everytime i breathe in it get all cold
    May 26 at 10:38pm · 


BTW the full length of this thread was 112 posts long. And yes, it is sad and pathetic that I was upstairs, my husband one room over in the office and Daniel downstairs.

Thus far, the pranks have been harmless, albeit annoying. But I ask you: When has a prank gone too far?

Several weeks ago, my brother and husband went out to the middle of the desert at night to drive around my brother's redneck truck and shoot guns. The next day they bring me lunch at work and tell me all about their adventure, including a tall tale of being surprised by a cougar who wandered up to them. I'm not buying what their selling. I implore them to prove it. Then my husband tells me he was able to snap a picture of my brother scaring the mountain lion off with a shovel and homemade torch (they were playing "Lost"-Desert Style, don't ask). When I asked why only one photo was taken, he said the flash drew the curious cat's attention and they didn't want to push their luck, so he put down the camera and grabbed the gun. I still didn't believe them until I saw the photo myself and my brother put it up as his FB profile pic.


The picture heard 'round the world:


If a photo is worth a thousand words, this one said it all. It solidified their story and made them heroes. I told my friends, family and co-workers about it.

Now, 3 weeks later, I was notified it was a hoax. The image above was "Photo-shopped." I am more than a little peeved. Not that I had been fooled and played into it, but for the sheer fact that they lied to me for so long. They let me believe their story and use my reputation to share the harrowing tale with others. Moreover, I only discovered the truth through my grandpa. Daniel's picture on FB sparked interest from other family members, so the photo was emailed to poor, unsuspecting grandparents who then blasted all their friends and family. I don't know how the truth came to light, but needless to say, the G'rents are not happy.

So when does a prank become something more? I hold that this prank may have started funny, but ended cruelly when it lasted longer than showing the initial picture. How long can you let a prank like this go before it just turns into a massive lie?

Pranking someone leaves a trusting person feeling like a fool for the amusement of others. It's a lot easier to forgive when only a few people are aware you have been duped. The longer it goes on and the more witnesses adds to the humiliations and that's when the prank turns cruel. At what point would you have told the truth? If my grandpa didn't discover the truth, I may have never known.

Who should be more ashamed? The prankster or the pranked?

2 comments:

  1. I love your writing - I am working on an upcoming television show - I hate to reach out via a post, but is there a way I could send a private message on what we are looking for? Thanks,
    Sara

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can email me at SexyBookwormBlogger@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete