# Pranking Pranking is the practice of playing practical jokes on unsuspecting targets for amusement, a tradition dating back over a century that jumped from novelty shops and prank call tapes to YouTube in the mid-2000s, spawning one of the platform's defining video genres. ## Origin The prank-goods industry started in 1904 when Soren Sorensen Adams discovered a chemical at his dye company that made workers sneeze, packaged it as sneezing powder, and built a novelty empire around gags like the joy buzzer, with documented press pranks including a 1933 April Fool's front-page image of the Wisconsin State Capitol collapsing and the BBC's 1957 spaghetti-tree hoax[4]. Harry Allen Wolfgang Smith's 1953 book The Complete Practical Joker codified how to run these gags at home. Recorded prank calls spread on cassette in the late 1970s, and The Jerky Boys turned the format into a commercial act by 1989, selling tapes and CDs of their crank calls to national audiences[4]. - **Platform:** Cassette tapes / YouTube (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2006 ## Overview Online pranks broke into a handful of recognizable formats. Hidden-camera setups place a rigged element in public space and film reactions, popularized by shows like Just For Laughs Gags[1]. Scare pranks stage a sudden shock with a partner or actor delivering the punchline, and prank call recordings, an inheritance from the 1980s Jerky Boys era, kept a foothold on YouTube through channels dedicated to phone gags. Relationship pranks between couples became their own category once PrankvsPrank launched in 2009[2]. By the early 2010s the format was so viral that ad agencies built entire campaigns around it. Stunt pranks staged by brands like Carlsberg and LG, plus studio-sponsored setups for horror films like The Last Exorcism and Carrie, collected tens of millions of views inside days[3]. The through line across all of these is the reveal moment, the beat where the mark realizes what is happening, which is what viewers actually rewind and share. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Pranking? Pranking is the act of playing practical jokes or mischievous tricks on other people for amusement, a practice that online is closely tied to hidden-camera clips and prank call recordings on YouTube[4]. ### Where did Pranking come from? The modern novelty-prank industry traces to 1904, when Soren Sorensen Adams sold sneezing powder and gag items like the joy buzzer[4], while the internet form took off with early streaming prank calls on Blackout's Box in 1995 and YouTube channels beginning in 2006[5]. ### What does Pranking mean? It means pulling a joke or hoax on someone without their knowledge, usually filmed for a reveal moment; online it covers everything from prank calls to elaborate hidden-camera setups like those on Just For Laughs Gags[1]. ### How do you use Pranking? A typical prank video stages a rigged situation, films the target's real reaction, then cuts to the reveal, a template used by PrankvsPrank[2] and by movie marketers like the Carrie coffee shop stunt[3]. ### Is Pranking still popular? Pranking is still a core YouTube genre, driven by legacy channels like LAHWF[6] and PrankvsPrank[2] whose libraries collectively pull hundreds of millions of views. ## References 1. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD5POmHtIjc]() 2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0XGKuC-ek]() 3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlOxlSOr3_M]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pranking]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYOABcboeco]() 6. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PKQE8FM2Uw]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/pranking Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library