Both the beard and the hair-- I'm growing it out.

(dog barking) Marley hates it. See, he's mad.

Hey, guys!

So I'm gonna be talking about one of the biggest trends

that exist today: prank videos.

And I'm sure you guys already know, but right now,

prank videos are, like, the most watched videos that are online.

And I mean, I get why.

I personally always loved pranks.

Pranks are always gonna be a big thing.

But lately, I feel like

there's just so many prank videos out there.

Like, we've seen all the best pranks.

It's really hard to come up with a new funnier prank,

because there's so many funny pranks out there.

And because there's such an over-saturation of these pranks,

prankers are being forced to step their game up.

They're all trying to top each other.

And of course, not all of them, but I feel like

a lot of these prankers are just going way too far

to the point where they're not even pranks anymore.

They're just straight-up crimes.

Some prankers are going on the streets,

and they're calling out random guys to fight

or grabbing random girls' butts.

I've even seen a video of some guys

throwing fake bombs at people.

Because I guess terrorism and murder is so hilarious.

Like, that's not even funny. That's just shocking.

The only way that these so-called pranks are not crimes

are if they're staged or fake.

But that's, like, a whole 'nother story.

We'll talk about that later.

Anyway, it is getting ridiculous, and not in the good way.

Pranks used to be good, innocent fun.

Nobody got hurt or sexually assaulted or bombs thrown at them.

And I don't know, maybe I was just brought up differently,

but you just don't prank people that you don't know.

You prank your friends.

Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned

clean harmless pranks?

Like, when we were young,

we used to spray PAM on the floor

so that when somebody would walk on it, it'd be slippery.

Or the "pat someone on the back" prank,

where you're really actually putting a sign on them

that says something

that would probably be considered offensive today.

Or when one of your friends leave their phone

to go to the bathroom,

so you and your friends grab it and hide it

and then basically watch him freak out a little bit

and then give it back.

Or, like, what even happened to the most innocent,

harmless prank of all: the prank call?

(line rings)

- (on phone) Hello? - Hey.

I-is your refrigerator running?

Well, you better go catch it! - (on phone) Oh my god.

Oh my god, do you know something?

- I'm sorry, w-what?

- My son, he's been missing.

Have you seen him? Have you heard something?

- Wait, I'm s-- I don't understand.

- Please, he's a little white fridge

with A-B-C magnets tatted on his lower right door.

He doesn't even have a freezer yet. Please, we're so desperate.

- Well, no. I-I-I actually don't know anything about any fridge.

- (angrily) Then why would you call?

- It was just supposed to be a prank call.

I didn't-- - A prank?

My baby goes missing, and you think that's funny?

- (empathetically) No, I-I didn't know.

I'm sorry! - Is this some kind of sick joke?!

- I'm so sorry! I had no idea. - He's an only child.

He doesn't even know how to survive out there!

- (crying) I didn't know when I called!

- HOW DARE YOU?!

(both crying)

- You see? Good old-fashioned harmless pranks.

No one gets hurt.

Anyway, like I was saying,

pranks used to be innocent.

But because there's so many good pranks out there,

that now you just have to do something

completely crazy to stand out.

Those innocent pranks you just saw?

That's what pranks looked like five to ten years ago.

But those pranks would never get viewed today,

because they're not crazy enough.

Now, if those pranks came out today,

those pranks would look like this.

(excitedly) Hey, dude.

We should spray PAM on the floor,

but this time we add glass shards and a lemon,

so that when they slip and fall, they get cut by the glass shards

and then lemon juice goes inside of their cuts.

(laughter)

How's it going, Sean?

Working hard or hardly fireworking?

(laughs nervously) Working. Hardly working.

- I'll be right back.

- (giggles quietly)

Dude, look, he left his phone.

Hey, you know what we should do?

We should hide it.

But this time, let's not give it back.

- Yeah! And...

we'll take his wallet too! - Yeah!

And you know what?

We'll take his truck. (snickers)

- Yeah! All right, let's go.

- Wait.

We're taking his phone, his wallet, and his truck

and not giving it back.

Is this even funny?

♪ (somber music) ♪

Dude... we should take his mini-fridge.

- Yeah! Now, that-- that's a prank.

- (mini-fridge) What are you guys do--

Hey! Ma! Ma!

- This is the prank of the century, man. - (mini-fridge) Ma!

- This'll be so funny. (door slams)

- (gasps) Kevin!

- Sad part is I'm not even exaggerating that much.

These pranks probably already exist somewhere.

Sorry, not pranks. These are crimes.

There's so many pranks these days that are actually crimes

that people think it's okay.

So many people these days think that

just by saying the infamous line,

"It was just a prank,"

that they can get away with whatever they want.

And those people are absolutely right.

- (gasps) - What? It was just a prank.

- Oh. Okay then.

(whump) - (snickers)

- Dude, what the hell?

- It's just a prank, bro.

- Good one.

- It was just a prank. - Oh.

- Hey! - (Ryan) It's just a prank!

(loud gunshot) - (groans)

- What? It was just a prank, bro.

(rocket roars)

- Whoa, dude, too far. That's a rocket launcher.

- I'm sorry, man. I-I didn't realize I was going too far.

- You shot that way too far. I'm right here!

- (both) Ah!

- That was a good one, though, right? - Yeah, good one.

But what do you think's gonna happen to that rocket though?

(swoosh!)

- Hey! Where are you guys taking me?

Ma! Ma! - Keep it down.

- Mom!!! - Kevin!

- Mama! - Oh crap, we better hurry.

(grunting)

♪ (suspenseful music) ♪

(rocket zooming overhead)

- (worriedly) No. No.

NO!!!

(kaboom!) (sobs)

(mournfully) My baby. Oh, Kevin.

- Ehh, it was just a prank.

- No, I don't think it was.

- What do you mean?

- You just blew up two people and a fridge.

That's not a prank. - Oh.

- That's a social experiment!

- Ah! - Ah!

- Social experiment. - Right.

- Come on. Let's go shoot more things.

Before people get all defensive over their favorite prankers,

I'm not talking about all prankers.

I have a lot of close friends that make prank videos.

And they're still successful

without having to commit crimes in their pranks.

I'm just talking about the ones that would do whatever it takes

to top their last prank.

And I'm not gonna name names. They know who they are. We all do.

They're willing to either break the law

or stage their pranks in order to get views.

And yes, I said it earlier. Prankers fake pranks all the time.

Big surprise! This is not news.

I actually have no problem with staged pranks

if they're still entertaining.

What I do have a problem with

is when they lie and say that it's real,

when it's obviously not real.

Just own up to it. It's entertainment.

There's nothing wrong with that.

And if you're gonna fake a prank and pretend that it's real,

at least put in the effort to make it look real.

It blows my mind how many of these videos I've seen

that are so obviously fake.

And people in the comments don't seem to catch on.

I mean, it's pretty obvious when pranks are fake.

You just have to use common sense.

Here's some really quick tips to tell if a prank is fake or not.

For example, if somebody's committing a crime in a prank,

like grabbing random girls' butts on the street,

and they put it on social media for millions of people to see,

I'm sorry to spoil it,

but there's a very great chance that that prank is staged.

Because if not, that person would be in jail.

That's video evidence of sexual assault

that millions of people witnessed.

Another obvious sign of a fake prank:

if the camera's far away

but you can hear the pranker and the victim talking clearly,

chances are they're both miked up.

Or even the camera angles.

There are certain shots in some pranks,

where there's absolutely no way

that the cameraman could get that shot

without the victim noticing them.

So it's either staged or they film that part after the prank.

So basically, it could be real, but they shot it twice.

And probably the biggest giveaway is blurring faces.

Well, not blurring faces,

but getting permission from the victims to use them in the video.

Especially for big prankers.

All the popular prankers know that you have to get permission

from the people that you prank in order to use them in a video.

'Cause if you don't, that video's gonna get removed

or you're probably gonna get sued.

Just think about it for a second.

A lot of times, these victims,

they get extremely mad or upset by the pranker,

which is perfectly normal. They should be upset.

But the truth is, the fact that we can see their face on video

means that they gave consent to be on this video.

If somebody just pranked you or scared you

or hurt you in some way to make you that mad,

why would you consent to letting the world

look at you like an idiot?

Unless, of course, you are paid off,

or, more realistically, staged.

There's a lot more little ways to tell if a prank is fake,

but I'm just-- I'm getting off-topic.

Anyway, fake or not, pranks are going way too far.

And it's becoming a dangerous culture.

Let's stop escalating these pranks before it's too late

and somebody actually gets killed.

Let's just go back to the good old-fashioned

harmless innocent pranks, like PAM spray

or prank calls about your refrigerator running.

You know, the classics.

'Cause even though they're pranks,

in the end, everybody's still happy. Everybody still wins.

And most importantly, nobody ever gets hurt.

(swoosh!)