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Pranking is increasingly becoming a means of sustenance for many YouTubers. Humour is after all, harmless and entertaining. But is it?

Maximum entertainment is derived from an interactive and intriguing piece of art. But the idea of entertainment is more than just an exciting piece of work. It is really about subjectivity. It is an impressing of ideals on the audience, as it also truly holds a mirror to the society. The content that we feel connected to most is the expression of an artist that we find most relatable. An increasing effect of pranks clouding over media-content is not very latent. Pranking is now an expression of humour.

Humour, again is not easy to classify as a term. It is subjective. The true concern then is the act of deciding when humour becomes more than just something to celebrate. Even in its subjectivity, the idea of humour is extremely broad in the sense that it deals with human values; and in that, it must hold some ethical ground. You might enjoy an offensive joke, but to someone else, it might be a humiliation. Logically, even in humorous banter, we need to practise certain restraint.

It is this restraint that is lacking in the YouTube pranksters’ fraternity. You will see thumbnails of blurred (and sometimes not even blurred) women being asked uncomfortable but “humorous” questions by a promising YouTube “artist” on your YouTube Trending List. Videos like “Would You Rather Slap Me or Kiss Me?” and others are extremely unacceptable. These videos are shot without the consent of the starring participants because the camera must record their authentic reactions.

Shooting around public places like parks and metro stations, these problematically curious adventurers cause discomfort and insecurity. A few days ago, four girls from Delhi University were captured on record sitting in the Central Park in Connaught Place. When they questioned an actor with the “hidden” cameraman– a part of the pranking troop– the actor mentioned that they were “shooting for a YouTube video for their channel”.

It is appalling how easily you can justify something like this borderline stalking act by using the hidden camera argument! There is no element of consent or respect that concerns this rancid humour. Does this impeach of people’s privacy by recording their actions deceptively has any healthy appeal to it? The sadly egregious reality is that such content actually finds an audience of millions on YouTube.

Disbelieving the actual existence of this creepy behaviour in our daily lives, Debopriya Bhattacharya, a Literature Major from Hindu College says, “So all this time I thought these were ‘fake’ videos but now that I know they are shot without consent, it gives me all the more reason to abhor them. I feel these videos are the cheapest forms of entertainment that are out there on the internet and what’s more surprising is that these videos have an active ‘audience’.”

It is difficult to defend the audience when that selfsame audience feeds on such sick content. These videos and experiments also make it difficult to challenge the everyday issues that disallow women to be an equal member in the social settings; as most of these videos capitalise on objectifying women. Humour cannot be allowed to be subjected to this festering of lowly “pranks”.

Pranking as an act is not the problem, however. Healthy humour is really the lifeblood of entertainment, but the important factor to be considered is active and informed participation of the people involved in the act.

Discomforting people and creepily stalking their footfall, to cater to your needs of providing the society with something to laugh about is not cool. Humiliation is not humorous as it is not the idea of entertainment. Period. It is time we start calling out such “pranksters” before they capitalise on YouTube views and subscriptions.

Feature Image Credits: The Daily Dot

Kartik Chauhan
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The modern spoken word in the form of poetry slam is fresh and beautiful and hence, we compiled a list of the best performances of the verse on YouTube.

Of all the beautiful things in life, poetry seems to bring people closer together than anything else on the list. The way words turn and twist under a spell of emotions; just reading a piece is pure intoxication! But more beautiful than the written word is the spoken one and this is where slam poetry comes to our rescue. Poetry since its birth has always been written to be performed but somewhere down the line, we forgot the magic of a poetry performance. Thanks to the new trend, performing is back in the form of slam poetry and we couldn’t be happier!

We bring you a list of five top poetry slam performance that will definitely feed your literary side, even if you thought you didn’t have one.

  • “When Love Arrives” – Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye

Their beautiful soft voices, their chemistry and coordination and their power to remind us of love – these are the reasons why this performance is exceptional. Warning: you might cry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdJ6aUB2K4g

 

  • “OCD” – Neil Hilborn

This beautiful poem about love, loss and psychological disorders is a must watch because of Hilborn’s magical performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKZ4pdSU-s

 

  • “Black College” – Denver Team

A moving performance about racial discrimination by two poets who want to be treated simply as humans and not as “blacks”.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcfigY6ZWL4

 

  • “Fantastic Breasts and Where to Find Them” – Brenna Twohy

This one is all about being in favour of our favourite thing – erotic Harry Potter fanfiction – and against our least favourite thing – the objectification of women in porn. Also, ten points to the poet for that amazing title.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXey2_i7GOA

 

  • “To the Boys Who May One Day Date My Daughter” – Jesse Parent

This poem brilliantly explains a father’s protective feelings towards his daughter in the most hilarious way!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcIwZ1Dth0c

Check out these pieces and dwell in the realm of the modern spoken word.

Anagha Rakta
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Image Source: YouTube

I found and fell deep into the depths of YouTube a few months ago. Despite the sleepless nights because YouTubers always seem to upload videos at odd hours, I have nothing but good things to say about this new-found internet-generation interest which is proof that a person doesn’t need expensive equipment, fancy settings or even a lot of training to be able to make a difference in people’s lives. Here’s giving you a few reasons why you should make YouTubers the next thing to check out in your free time:

1. YouTubers are regular

… or so they claim! It’s true through. Unlike your favourite musicians or actors, you won’t have to wait ages for new content if you’re a fan of YouTubers. A lot of them upload weekly videos, if not more often than that. Connor Franta, one of the most beloved YouTubers out there and with 5 Million subscribers, still manages to follow his Frantastic Monday uploads pretty regularly despite travelling and keeping up with other commitments and generally being a lot more accomplished than any of us can hope to be at 23 years of age. Many YouTubers also daily vlog (that’s video blogging, to you guys) so you might just be blessed enough to get new things to squeal about every few days!

Connor Franta
Connor Franta (Image credits: cloudfront.net)

2. They like to stay connected to their fans

Staying connected for Youtubers means a lot more than just having social media accounts and posting all important updates about projects there. Almost all Youtubers I love and follow treat their fans like friends and follow them on twitter, reply to their tweets, fangirl over their fan-art and actually take their suggestions for what their next video should be about. Unlike other celebrities and people you follow, YouTubers are the most likely to value their fans and viewers a lot more because that’s their entire career and passion right there. Not staying in touch with what their viewers like could be potentially fatal.

Lilly Singh Supwerwoman
Lilly Singh Supwerwoman (Image credits: news.com.au)

 3. You’ll end up having a lot more than a sneak-peek into their lives

Not surprisingly, a lot of Youtubers’ families and friends also interact with viewers and fans, which makes for a pretty well rounded look into you favourite’s lives. Would you believe that Troye Sivan’s entire family is on Twitter and they all have around 50,000 followers? His dad, in particular, is a fan-favourite and gives us a dose of the dad jokes YouTube’s golden boy was brought up on.

Troye Sivan
Troye Sivan (Image credits: twitter.com)

4. YouTubers are into a lot of things other than YouTube

It’d be fair to say that Team Internet is made a diverse bunch of cool kids (they’re all giant nerds too, don’t worry). If you’re a fan of YouTubers, you’ll get exposure to music, books, movies and what not because your favourites will always be doing something or the other. Consider this: Troye Sivan is also an actor and a musician, and not just for the sake of it. He played a young Logan in ‘Wolverine, and his fourth EP WILD has been ruling charts and a lot of hearts recently. Connor Franta is a New York Times Bestselling Author, runs a record-label and is involved with a number of charities. Do you feel already feel as untalented as I do?

Troye Sivan WILD EP
Troye Sivan WILD EP (Image credits: pbs.twimg.com)

5. They’ll introduce you to your new obsessions!

The best thing about YouTubers? There’s no exclusivity! All of YouTube is a big happy family and they prove it time and again by collaborating with each other. That is also the reason why it is so easy to keep getting deeper and deeper into the fandom because once you’re a fan of one YouTuber, they’ll collaborate with lots of others, and soon you’d have subscribed to ALL of them and will be having marathons of all of their 100+ videos to catch up. The things they’ll add to your life are not just YouTubers either. They’re very open about their favourite books and music and share their recommendations freely on various social media platforms. I found a lot of my current favourite musicians through YouTuber recommendations!  

Dan and Phil and Connor
Dan and Phil and Connor (image credits: youtube.com)

 

Go and click that red icon to welcome new friends and interests into your life! Believe me when I say that your Mondays will be Frantastic, it’ll be worth all the Troye-ble and you’ll feel Amazing even if you’re not on fire (if you got those references, we’re friends now).

 

Shubham Kaushik

[email protected]

Featured Image: josephmur.files.wordpress.com