You couldn't pay me any amount of money to go back to high school. But there's still a part of me, the part that will actually cop to liking Adam Sandler movies and fart jokes, that would kill to be a teenager today. Because the resources they have available to pull killer pranks are unbelievable.
Take these kids in Australia. They took the old "party at Joe's house, pass it on" joke and amplified it on Facebook. They hacked a kid's account and put up a faux party invite, set to open, so anyone could get in on the action.
Four thousand people responded. Got that? Four thousand people! It was serious enough that the police were called just in case people actually showed up, and of course the boy's parents were mad that his account was hacked. They immediately put up a warning on Facebook that it was cancelled. Which is better than what our parents could have done back in the day. When the word went out in a high school that there was a party at so-and-so's house, there was no central message board for parents to mount a counteract and nip it in the bud. They had to stand at the door of the house turning away teens ready to get their drink on.
That parental part of me is shaking my head and clucking my tongue, but that other part of me? Thinks it's awesome! Teenage pranks get a bad rap because kids can go overboard easily. They don't think out the consequences of their actions. But nothing frustrates me more than adults who can't take a joke. I cover graduation ceremonies annually for my local newspaper and am so tired of hearing cranky school officials lecturing the graduates on not throwing their mortarboards and not blowing up balloons and not doing this and not doing that.
There's nothing wrong with a little silliness when you're still a kid. Let kids be kids! Basically, those kids in Australia just upped the ante on the silly stuff we pulled, and as long as no one's hurt, I'm OK with that. Heck, I'm both amused by it and impressed by it! Not to mention a wee bit jealous.
Were you a prankster as a kid?
Image via RodrigoFavera/Flickr