Far from the gags of involuntary falls, the "pranks", these hoaxes that have become YouTube classics, are often based on intolerable humiliation mechanisms. And can go so far as to kill.
YouTube is full of them: "pranks" have become a classic in web humor. Translation of the schoolboy joke on the networks, they sometimes turn into filthy hazing, even drama. This weekend, a Russian YouTuber, already known for his supposedly humorous videos, in which he sprayed his girlfriend with pepper spray at the behest of his pack of followers, did something irreparable. Always at the request of his followers, he locked his pregnant girlfriend live on the balcony, in his underwear and in the middle of the Russian winter. She ended up freezing to death live, the young man not even stopping his live when he discovered that the young woman had no more pulse, probably due to hypothermia. An investigation is currently underway.
This appalling news item questions the mechanics at work in these alleged hoaxes: what are we laughing at? The recurring pattern is this: a young boy traps a young girl and sometimes hurts her "for the joke", but followers clap and likes fall in droves. The main protagonist then more or less apologizes. convincing… to better start over on a next video.
You will be a pranker, my son
There are many types of hoax videos, and women can sometimes turn the tables, for example by making their boyfriends believe they are pregnant. But more often than not, we find that the mechanics of these videos are sexist, or based on humiliation: we laugh while cutting the girls' hair for petty pleasure, by scaring them, by pretending to leave them, by their shaming, by showing that they are only interested in money (the classic "gold digger prank", supposed to denounce women and their venality) …
These videos are made all over the world by boys who are typically between the ages of 15 and 30, followed mostly by peers of the same age. And if these videos are so successful, it is thanks to the platforms that host them. Indeed, they are favored by algorithms because they are watched to the end (to know the end of the story) and generate interaction due to their hyper emotional nature.
Sexist behavior encouraged from childhood
But where did this idea come from that boys can mistake their girlfriends for objects and find it hilarious? First of all, from a very old socialization, where we repeat to girls from school that if boys annoy them, it is because they "like them", and boys, that we must move away from romantic feelings to assert his virility. This is well explained by the sociologist Kevin Diter, interviewed by Victoire Tuaillon in her podcast Les Couilles sur la Table, devoted to masculinities.
To humiliate his girlfriend would therefore be the ideal way not to pass for a duck, supreme insult, and even better, to secure the friendship of other men. Another possible explanation: the hoaxes which aim to humiliate girls very much appeal to these boys who feel rejected by them, establishing a form of punishment and symbolic revenge. Asked by the magazine Neon on the phenomenon, the American academic Renee Hobbs deciphers it as follows: "When a man who has trouble pleasing women sees that, he feels like he's being avenged." As to why these young boys do it on their girlfriend, she explains: "In exploiting your spouse for audience, there is also the idea that the number of views is more important than a human relationship." Because whether it amuses the viewer or not, the views generated mean profit for the platform and the creator of that content. To put an end to the fashion for "pranks", let's stop looking at them to cut the euros under the feet of their authors. And let's click on some cute kitten videos instead.