There’s nothing wrong with a harmless prank. In fact, it can be highly amusing for all involved, even the pranked. But some pranks are just plain cruel and should never have been played in the first place, especially if it leads to physical or emotional harm.
One woman who was desperate to move out of her tiny place got her hopes up when her fiancé pranked her into believing he’d bought a beautiful house for them. She hasn’t stopped crying since and turned to the web to ask if she’s overreacting.
More info: Reddit
Pranks can be harmless fun, but this woman’s fiancé took his to a whole new level of cruelty
Image credits: frimages / Freepik (not the actual photo)
They were out looking at Christmas lights when her fiancé said he had a surprise for her and stopped outside a pretty house, asking her what she thought of it
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
He then asked her to take a look at the sign in the yard, which led her to believe the house might be theirs
Image credits: GroundbreakingTie602
When she asked her fiancé though, he just told her no, laughed and drove away, leaving her in tears and asking netizens if she's overreacting
OP begins her post by telling the community that she and her fiancé were out looking at Christmas lights a couple nights back when he said he had a surprise for her. She admits that he isn’t typically that great at surprises, so she was curious as to what it might be. After driving a while, he pulled up to a house.
She tells her readers that it was a beautiful house with a sign in the yard. Her fiancé then asked her what she thought of the house. OP says she’s been extremely eager to move out of her one-bedroom apartment, so at this point, she’d move into a medium-sized shack if she had the opportunity.
So, OP told him she thought the house was very pretty. Then he asked her what she saw in the yard, and, when she said a ‘for sale’ sign, he told her to look again. Upon closer inspection, OP says the sign read ‘under contract.’ With her hopes climbing to an all-time high, and her fiancé seeming to let it sink in, OP asked him if it was their house.
Well, her fiancé just laughed and said “nope” before driving away. OP says she’s been in tears ever since and asks if she’s overreacting, before adding that her fiancé’s prank is one of the worst things that’s ever been done to her by someone she loves and trusts.
We don’t know about you, but we’d say it seems OP’s fiancé took things a bit too far. There’s pranking and then there’s just plain old mean. If you’ve ever been pranked or pranked someone, it’s likely you’ll know the difference. But what's the psychology behind pranking? We went looking for answers.
Image credits: freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)
According to Embolden Psychology, psychologists have been studying pranks for years. Funny situations release the feel-good neurochemicals endorphins and oxytocin and practical jokes imply a sense of closeness or inside jokes, with pranks usually being played in good humor with the assumption that the victim can handle it.
The Integrative Psych website says that working out the harmlessness of a prank is not always simple. While certain pranks may be welcomed or shrugged off as amiable humor, others may have unintended effects that can lead to distress in the person/s being pranked.
Getting to grips with the boundaries of what counts as harmless fun is critical when making your way across the universe of practical jokes, something OP's fiancé clearly never managed to do. Perhaps he should have put himself in OP's shoes to see how well he would have reacted to someone doing the same to him.
On a lighter note, get a load of this collection of 30 ingeniously evil pranks people managed to pull off, and this Bored Panda list of 50 times adults played epic pranks on their parents. Still hungry for more? The TikTok pranks channel has 1.3B posts to tuck into.
It’s a crying shame OP had to be the victim of such a cruel prank, especially at the hands of someone she’s meant to feel safe with for the rest of her life. Perhaps she should tell him her saying yes to his marriage proposal was a prank too, as one of her readers suggested.
Do you think OP’s overreacting? What would you have done if you’d found yourself in her shoes? Let us know your opinion in the comments!
In the comments, readers slammed the fiancé for the cruelty of his prank and suggested the woman find someone less evil to get married to
Image credits: ArthurHidden / Freepik (not the actual photo)
