Jokes can be fun when they’re harmless. But when they cross the line, they can do serious damage and even tear relationships apart.
One teen pulled a small birthday prank on her cousin, since their family had a tradition of doing that to one another. But the woman did not take it well. Wanting revenge, she went much further and called the teen one day claiming her mom had been in a fatal car crash.
Needless to say, no one found that funny, and now her cruelty may end up costing her everything. Read the full story below.
A teen pulled a harmless prank on her cousin for her birthday, but the woman did not take it well
Image credits: Getty Images / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Wanting revenge, she decided to joke that the girl’s mom had been in a fatal car crash
Image credits: mokhalad musavi / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Anon
A good prank can make people laugh and bring them closer
Image credits: A. C. / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Humans have probably been teasing one another through pranks, jokes, and playful tricks for as long as we have existed. It is such a natural part of social life that even animals like great apes and elephants have been observed doing similar things. And that makes sense. Life would be a lot duller without humor.
When a joke lands well, it can do more than just entertain. It can actually be good for everyone involved.
“A good laugh can reduce our stress level, increase our immune response and, some studies suggest, help us to live longer,” psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD, told Cleveland Clinic.
Humor also takes a surprising amount of thought. It relies on timing, awareness, and being able to read the room. According to Dr. Albers, that means it can stimulate the brain while also helping people build important social skills.
One of those skills is understanding social norms. To pull off a prank that catches someone off guard in a fun way, you need to have a good sense of the spoken and unspoken rules around you.
Empathy matters too. Being able to predict how someone might react to a joke is what helps keep things light instead of hurtful. “Empathy is like a muscle,” Dr. Albers says. “If you don’t use it regularly, or use it too much, it can atrophy. And we need empathy to be successful in all of our interactions—not just the funny ones.”
Playfulness can also help build confidence. It often takes courage to crack a joke or set up a prank, especially when you are hoping other people will laugh along with you. Humor can also make people more resilient, since laughter often helps us recover from stressful or awkward moments and move on more easily.
A cruel one can do the opposite and leave a lot more than a bad memory behind
Image credits: Pablo Merchán Montes / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
At the same time, pranks are a balancing act. Research has shown that people usually enjoy playing pranks more than being the target of them. That is why the quality of the joke matters so much. If it crosses a line, it stops being funny and starts becoming upsetting.
That is exactly what happened in this story. Calling someone and telling them their parent passed away, as the cousin did here, is not the kind of thing that can be brushed off as a joke. There is no real punchline to it, and no explanation afterward can undo the panic it causes.
“A well-done joke or prank isn’t about humiliating or hurting,” Dr. Albers told Cleveland Clinic. To pull one off successfully, you need to understand the person you are doing it to and the seriousness of the situation. For example, if a boss jokes that someone is being fired, that can easily go badly. Some pranks can even cross legal lines if they involve theft or other dangerous behavior.
A good prank also should not put anyone’s health or safety at risk. Watching someone slip on a banana peel might work in a movie, but in real life, physical jokes can have serious consequences.
It also should not be mean-spirited. The point is to bring people into the fun, not make them the butt of it. Laughing at someone else’s pain is not playful. It is cruel.
That does not mean all edgy or dark humor is automatically off limits. Some difficult topics can be joked about, but only when there is a clear understanding of the setting, the audience, and the intent behind it.
For instance, in an article for The Atlantic, Kieran Setiya recalls how comedian Jimmy Carr once performed at a cancer hospice alongside other comedians. He opened with, “C’mon, we haven’t got much time… well, I have” and followed it up by asking, “Is anyone here from last year?” He later said the room broke into laughter and the tension briefly lifted.
On paper, that kind of material sounds shocking. But there, it was delivered in a way that gave people a moment of relief and a sense of togetherness around something very heavy.
Nothing like that happened in this story. The prank call came out of nowhere and left the teen terrified and overwhelmed. It offered no relief and no shared laugh, only pain. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Readers were horrified by how far the cousin took it and reassured the author that her reaction was completely proportionate
