Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
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Notes -
I strongly suspect that some the low-tech equivalents of prank shows were existed in the 1940s and 1800s, whether that be individual groups of young people pulling pranks. Can't think of any examples off the top of my head though. Also pretty sure scams were widespread (although likely less than now, internet makes finding good marks easy and the current grant of anonymity to internet users (which could rescinded should a govt choose!) makes punishing scammers harder).
If humor is about exploring contrast or confusion, pranks serve the function of playing around with situations that are socially marginal or bad, informing individuals of what happens within them without actually causing the potential harm. So a prank where you steal a friend's trinket might help illuminate the routes by which an actual thief could steal something important. Obviously that literal prank serves no such function today, but you can imagine how something something evolution and how humor might serve that function in some ways today.
And that doesn't mean prank shows are good - it's still a simulacra of something that once had purpose but no longer does - but it's not really reducing trust as the thing it mimics normally builds trust, in the same way that fucking around with your friends builds trust.
Okay, a quick google found this. Which, after I googled, I noticed was in your OP! But wikipedia describes it as a popular TV show beginning in 1948. So, clearly, they did exist in the 1950s? "it often featured practical jokes" ... "The show involved concealed cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims were told the show's catchphrase, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera." The catchphrase became a song with music and lyrics by Sid Ramin."
I've also never been 'pranked' in a grocery store, or a job interview, and don't think many randomly-selected americans have been either. I haven't met anyone who has. I think in at least half of all pranks (e.g. on youtube or tiktok), the supposed victims are in on it, and the other half are infrequent enough that pranks themselves aren't an issue.
I had no idea that Candid Camera was that old!!! I’ve only seen episodes from like the 80s onward. That certainly does poke a significant hole in my theory.
It is certainly true that scammers were widespread in the 19th century and earlier, and even that fairly benign flim-flam artists and carnival barker sorts, like P.T. Barnum, were able to secure significant financial gain and celebrity even from people who acknowledged their dishonesty. Perhaps it’s just the ubiquity/saturation of “prank” content now, and the particularly grating and lowbrow aesthetics of the ones that seem popular, that have unjustly triggered my snobbish instincts.
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I highly recommend the candid camera movie spin off "What would you say to a naked lady" which I believe is still on Amazon prime. It's the basic premise, but the hidden camera just films people confronted with a naked young woman in various quotidian circumstance. Some laugh, some ogle, some try to cover her up or help her, some proposition.
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