Prank Dialectic

Perhaps you are aware of the current freeze craze, perhaps not. It's a victimless prank in which the participants enter a public space and then, spontaneously and in synch, freeze on cue. It started in New York (see the video here), and has spread all over the world. Just yesterday there were freezes in Brussels and Beijing.

There was a freeze planned in San Francisco at the end of last month, and the twist here is that there was a planned counter-prank (I was tipped off to this by my cousin). The saboteurs were going to infiltrate the freeze site with concealed feathers, and when the freeze began, would tickle the freezers until they broke. They'd then recruit the freezers to become ticklers; it was a very detailed plan. In the end, both prank and counterprank were metapranked by Mother Nature; they were rained out.

Of course cultural exchange is the oldest game in town, but specifically, the straight-up, direct response aesthetic has taken hold in a big way. And though this may have its roots in the salon tradition, its current resurgence should doubtless be credited to YouTube and its video response, uh, thingy. It is an exciting time when a crazy piece of video (from last year, I know, very old) is instantly put through the spoof gauntlet, sometimes poorly and sometimes not poorly. (There are about a hundred results when you search for "cadbury gorilla" on YouTube.)