"It's just a prank bro."

"It's just a prank bro."


I recently watched this video (about prank videos) by h3h3 productions. In this video, he comments on a 'social experiment' by two Youtubers called MoeandET who, in this video, convince a woman that she is going to be assaulted by a group of men in balaclavas so that they can 'teach people' about the dangers of meeting someone from Craigslist. This is a recent trend by Youtube pranksters to do increasingly awful things to people by putting it in the guise of a 'social experiment' that is apparently supposed to exist for the purpose of educating people. By pointing a camera phone at someone and claiming "it's just a prank bro" or "this was a social experiment" they justify to themselves and their fan base that worrying levels of harassment are completely fine. Lots of the pranks are staged but many aren't. 

 
Examples of things that Youtubers have considered it okay to do because "it's just a prank bro" include: this video where Sam Pepper gropes the bums of random women. This video in which Joseph Costello mocks a homeless woman and this video where Roman Atwood 'tricks' black people into thinking he has said a hugely offensive word. I should point out that many white 'pranksters' specifically target black people in their videos, I guess having a camera also excuses them of racism. 

 
The only thing I hope to see from prank videos in the future is when karma prevails and these people get a little taste of their own medicine, isn't that right Jack Jones?

 

5 games that taught me something as a child (kind of).

5 games that taught me something as a child (kind of)

As a teacher, it can be a bit worrying when primary school aged children regularly tell you about how they've been playing Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto V. However, video games and board games can also be incredibly beneficial in helping to teach children. This can be shown through the creativity of a game like Minecraft or Tim Rylands using Myst to help children with their writing. Here are a few games that I think taught me something (some unexpectedly) when I was a child. 

Risk - Geography

Obviously, Risk misses out a fair few countries and also uses old and now redundant names for a lot of the countries. However, as a basic tool for teaching me the layout of the different continents I feel that Risk did actually teach me something. 

 

Civilization II - History

I remember my teacher being genuinely impressed at my knowledge of Roman military, town names, technology and leaders when we started our Roman topic at school. Little did she know that the vast majority of this knowledge had come from obsessively playing Civilization. 

 

Theme Hospital - Maths

There were a few games I played that involved some level of money management but this is the main one that sticks out. You are constantly having to make calculations based on how much money you need to make and how your financial decisions are going to impact you getting there.

 

Spider-Man Cartoon Maker - English

A game where you have to make your own Spider-Man cartoons? I can't think of many better ways to have gotten a young me interested in writing my own story lines and dialogue for different characters. Granted, most my cartoons did end in an unimaginative plethora of explosions; I was basically a young Michael Bay. 

 

Music - Music 

The imaginatively titled, Music, for the PS1 was surprisingly versatile in allowing my twelve-year-old self to create different tracks. Even my bowl haircut and complete lack of musical ability couldn't stop me from briefly thinking I was going to be the next Fatboy Slim.