I don’t spend a lot of time doing dumb stuff. Seriously. But if I ever want to just brainlessly, mindlessly kill some time and laugh a lot, I LOVE to watch YouTube video pranks. I have favorite channels and pranksters that include Roman Atwood, Jack Vale, VitalyzdTV, the Riceman, and lots more. I subscribe to at least a dozen prank channels. The dumber the prank, the more I like it. However….
There’s a troubling trend that’s been going on in commercial pranking (and I call it “commercial pranking” because the YouTube partners who own these channels make a lot of money) for a long time. The trend is goofy guys going into predominantly black neighborhoods doing dumb stuff to try to get the maximum reaction from people.
One popular prankster is VitalyzdTV, who calls himself the “Russian Dude With A Camera and Some Wonderful Ideas.” He’s the creator of the hugely popular Zombie prank. Watch below.
In an interview, VitalyzdTV was asked if he deliberately targeted black people for his video. He and his partner explain:
“To clear it up, we did it to everybody, but as we were going through, black people give the best reactions, so you know what we did We took it an extra mile. We took it to the hood.”
Again, I love prank videos, but I think this trend is dangerous for two reasons, besides the obvious one that these pranksters could get hurt or killed.
1. While filming the zombie video, a man actually pulled a gun on the pranksters. Vitaly and his partner mention that, but the problem with that is that all of the concern was for their own safety and how closely they came to being harmed. The reality is that their prank would have ruined a young man’s life had he shot them.
2. These videos are giving the world a really negative perception of people “in the hood.”
Yes, in most of these videos, it’s true. In these videos, black people do seem to give stronger reactions in many cases. But what’s not often enough shown is the number of people that they have to actually film before they get that marketable strong reaction.
Scroll down to read more.
Do these videos “prove” that black people are “violent” and “reactionary”? Another popular prankster, the Riceman, decided to debunk all of the “black people get crazy violent when pranked” videos. He has the same concerns that I’ve mentioned above and he set out to film a prank video and NOT delete the scenes that aren’t reactionary. Watch below.
Zero violent reactions in the uncut video. At the end of his video, Riceman added this:
To other pranksters: instead of showing violent and negative reactions from people in poorer areas, why not show the positive reactions as well? Why not use our influences to spread positivity? I hope this video gave you a different perspective. Let’s not judge others.
It’s really not funny to provoke vulnerable people into a reaction. It’s actually dangerous for them and I very much appreciate Riceman for debunking the myth that all black people are going to react violently to pranks.
