All is Fair in Love and War - Are Couple Pranks Going Too Far?

YouTube: Shammi & Sarah Reay-Young

Prank definition - A practical joke or mischievous act. 

Pranks can be done by pretty much anyone, at any place and at any setting for various reasons; like to be annoying or to get a laugh. In fact as a child  I indulged my self in a few rubbish ideas that inevitably either got ignored, so as not to encourage me, or got me in trouble. For those that are interested, I put wet cornflakes in peoples shoes and Lego under their sheets. I also got all of these ideas out of a practical joke book (inventive I know).

Pranks became increasingly popular with the introduction of shows such as Jackass. Although primarily a stunt show, the episodes are saturated with the cast and crew pulling disgusting and otherwise hilarious pranks on one another, that mainly involve either pain or bodily fluids. If you haven't watched the show, you're over 18 and you don't have a weak stomach then it's a classic and I highly recommend you watch it. Various examples of their pranks can also be found on YouTube if you don't want to watch the whole shebang.

Originally YouTube, although popular, wasn't as integral to our lives as it is now. So the wave of social media's popularity not only saw a surge in prank videos but a whole new kind of people doing them. The people who will do anything to get and keep subscribers and the people who use shock value to the max.

A particularly prevalent and favourite type of pranksters are the couple wars. Couples who take it in turns to scare, hurt or embarrass the other in as many ways as possible, as creatively as possible.

In terms of couple pranking history, Nikki and John, with a huge YouTube following of  1,385,374, along with Jesse and Jeana, who have racked up a following of 9,667,631, are ones for the books. Both starting their YouTube wars journey around 6 years ago. Both of these couples perform comedic pranks on each other such as putting the worlds hottest chili in food, drawing on each other's faces and scaring the proverbial crap out of one another. It probably creates a unique spark between them both and definitely keeps them on their toes.

Fast forward a few years to the introduction of Facebook's 'follow' button and the birth of a monster... monsters. These videos are now being shared around like a hot potato and attracting more and more of a following, with others also taking up the challenge and trying to out do one another.
The pranks have arguably gotten progressively more and more violent or emotionally hurtful and attracting all sorts of attention, be it positive or negative.

Two neo-famous couples. who I'd advise and ask you not to mimic are Australian 'Entertainer' (being Facebook famous is a career now) Shammi and his glamour model girlfriend Sarah Reay-Young.
Initially Shammi came under criticism for his aggressive behavior to his girlfriend; shoving her into a crowd of people, into a body of water, onto the ground (See picture) hitting her with various food items and tripping her up whilst she's on a running machine.

Doesn't this go against our usual morals of not hurting a girl? Especially your beau? Although shocking and really, distasteful to a degree it's now Sarah who is also partaking in eye wincing rebuttals. We see her actually smack Shammi round the face with an audible clap, repeatedly punch him in the face and body while wearing boxing gloves and clamping down on his crown jewels with a mouse trap.

Let me make one thing clear - just because it's now a female doing these pranks to a male, it certainly does not make this any less horrific. Violence really is a sensitive subject and although it's just a 'joke' it's still widely not acceptable. If they both did this for any other reason, or not on camera it would be considered domestic violence, it also promotes the ideology that it's okay, as long as it's funny.
While my earlier reference to Jackass also mentioned violence, it must be said that they are trained stunt professionals and do their bodily damage safely and as a career.

Brad from Southampton's video has also been making the rounds, in which he fake proposed to his girlfriend Jenny. The video is of him on one knee holding a box and telling her how much he loves her, she then proceed's to get teary eyed and finally enraged as it turns out he just ask's her to make a cup of tea.
Reactions to this video have not been pleasant, and claims have been made that it is perhaps the
"cruelest valentine's day prank ever."

Perhaps some of us take it personally simply because we know how much a proposal means, and how much of a fool we'd feel? Comments are made that people should 'lighten up'.

More likely, this is just yet another example of people warping a definition of a word and taking it to extremes because that's what society has always been hungry for.

Robyn Tillett

Robyn is a self-proclaimed book nerd/punk goddess. She has always had an adoration for writing and is hoping to find her feet in this creative and intrinsically exciting career path. She may only be an intern but don't underestimate this girl. Follow her @Songbird_Robyn

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