Everyone loves a good joke, but nobody enjoys being subjected to the fun. Pranks are an especially childish form of delight, perhaps because they are the ultimate expression of prurient sadism, which we must disavow as civilized adults.

We, the same civilized adults who teach our beloved youth the art of warfare while stockpiling an obscene surplus of thermonuclear weapons. Now that is funny!

So, tease a guilty moment to titillate your secret sadist today. Giggling, it whispers. Of spoiled affluence and nothing better to do; of grotesque victimization that makes monsters from innocent children; of twisted perspectives that render terrible things laughable and of all the bent human beings that make life fun; of deliberate malefactors unknown and ne'er-do-well caretakers on duty; of social misfits tasked by god, and of clever young men directing hidden cameras; such twisted threads weave life's strange tapestry. Of pranks, here find countless examples, and of pranksters, eight.