I subscribe to a comedy video uploader on YouTube but I was appalled at one of his recent videos.
Without giving him any publicity by naming him or his uncle, their videos are hidden camera pranks where they mess around with people in public places.
There are some that I don't find that funny.
The main ones they do are pranks where they have a fart machine and break wind beside people in order to catch their reaction. As an analogy, the best way I can describe these videos, is that it's a bit like the BBC 1 show - WipeOut - when you've seen it once is there any point watching it again?
It gets tedious.
The videos I find the most humour in is when him or his uncle are visiting supermarkets in the USA and they put items into other people's shopping trolleys claiming they 'don't need that' or taking things out of the carts saying 'I need that'.
The recent video went a step too far, however.
All of the previous videos featured a number of different people being pranked. The one from yesterday featured one old man.
The first skit showed the younger of the two comedians trying to take a 7-Up bottle from the man's trolley. The man, obviously frustrated, told the prankster to 'go away'.
It prompted more attacks from the two comedians throughout the video.
It made for uncomfortable viewing seeing this elderly person being treated in this manner. It got to the stage where they dumped a number of items into his trolley and the gentleman picked them out and threw them out at them.
I can't understand why they hounded the man. Decent people would have realised the joke had already gone too far.
A number of the comments on the site agreed with my stance on it. They too felt it had crossed the line and was bordering - if not landing right on - bullying and harassment.
My comment was immediately removed by the comedian along with all other messages that disgusted people had left. All that was left were appraisals from viewers who evidently don't know any better.
He removed the video later that day but there are still a lot of people posting messages on his channel page requesting him to repost it.
It's quite sickening to think there are people desperate to see this kind of stuff again.
Put-down humor and pranking are indicative of anti-social aggression, passively dismissed with a "just kidding" excuse. Frankly wrestling falls into the same category in my book. UFC's only saving grace is the application of some actual self defense techniques, but it is a blood sport pandering to sadism in the end.
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