Pranking Paralytics: Morality

I like to blame “the man” for a lot of things. For example, I blame the paternalistic socialization I underwent as a child (where good girls don’t do gross, annoying, or overly rambunctious things) for my heightened sense of pranker’s guilt. Once I dumped a bag of Chex Mix in Tyler Jimmy’s bed (or under the carpet, can’t remember which – this was during the early days of the War!) and remember thinking about the bugs. Oh, the bugs were going to infest his room, and bother his poor roommate who had nothing to do with the pranking, and then these bugs would eat through his furniture and eventually bring the ceiling down because they’d turned their voracious appetite towards the Sondheim House infrastructure.

It didn’t really get that far. But you may have experienced similar, less paranoid feelings when pranking. In fact, such sentiments may have prevented you from pulling off a couple-o-good-ones. That’s why I call Morality a pranking paralytic.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for values and have a great many of them myself. But I believe that the world of pranking, like the worlds of fiction writing, professional wrestling and university, is a world where you must suspend your normal judgments in exchange for a new subjective set.

I encourage you to communicate with your pranking partner: What don’t you like? What makes you uncomfortable? What is too far? (This analogy has gone too far!) Set up boundaries. For example, off limit zones are: hair, underwear, musical instruments, electronics. And if it’s not off limits, go there! Screw it, I say -- you’re already pranking. And pranking is not nice!