While I'm on the Subject...

[Content Note: Pranks.]

Another thing about pranks is that, while there are certainly people who genuinely consider the individual preferences and needs and idiosyncrasies of the person or people whom they're pranking, a lot of pranksters calculate whether their target(s) will find pranks funny based on whether they personally would find them funny.

I don't know this because I'm a mind reader. I know this because I have heard eleventy-twelve people defend pranks with, "Well, I would have found it funny if someone did that to me!"

In fact, often people who try to get pranksters to empathize with the pranked-upon will ask, "How would you like it if someone did that to you?" and comes the inevitable indignant retort: "I would have loved it!" or "I wouldn't have minded!" or the always popular "I would have thought it was HILARIOUS!"

Which is maybe even true in 0-50% of cases.

But, as we all know, there are a lot of pranksters who say that sort of thing, but hate nothing more than to have a trick played on them.

And then there's this: A lot of people who say they wouldn't mind if someone played the same prank on them as they played on someone else are imagining exactly the same prank, rather than a prank of the same nature. By which I mean, if you're not, say, a guy who enters sweepstakes all the time with real and meaningful fantasies about winning, then being told you won as a prank might not have quite the same affect on you. But that's because it's not exploiting your individual and specific vulnerability. If someone played a prank that exploited your individual and specific vulnerability, you might really fucking hate it.

Anyway.

The point is: There's a lot of projection inherent to a lot of pranking. And imagining that what is safe and fun for you will definitely be safe and fun for someone else is never a good idea.

In conclusion: Fuck pranks.