Jet Ski Gang, clay hardened by heat, fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion. Size: XS. 2022.

 

 

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(the whole gang)

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My older son is quite the prankster, or rather a prank enthusiast, as he has not so much begun to conduct pranks of his own. He really likes to watch pranks on YouTube, and perhaps it all started with us gathering around streaming America’s Funniest Videos. There is something about the ones he watches on YouTube, though, that I feel are typically mean spirited. Some are harmless, and perhaps they are all in good fun, but some are just plain mean, and I wonder how a cruel prank victim in the end feels about it all. I wonder, too, if laughing at them is perpetuating, what feels like, bully behavior.

I decided to conduct a prank of my own, targeting my very son who is a beloved fan of such jokes. Tough Love. The setup was fake dog poop on his bed. It had been nearly two months since we, as a family, adopted our black, wiener dog mix, “Lili”. Roughly about a year old, she has been such a sweetheart, and luckily was house trained before we got her. She has not once gone poop or pee in our home. The poopoo prank prop was constructed from a portion of my younger son’s PlayDoh. Once dried a few days later, a quick splash of glossy acrylic paint created an effect of fresh, moistened  excrement.

The fake poop was placed atop my older son’s bed, awaiting him to lay down for the night after washing up. Coincidentally, Lili, laid on his bed, as usual, waiting for him to be tucked in and kissed goodnight. As soon as he entered the room, he quickly exited. His eyes wide-open, eyebrows arched unlike ever before, and his hands barely able to cover his jaw dropping to the floor. My wife was in on it and played along, acting in disbelief that our dog could do such a thing. Our son, still in shock, started to pace along the hallway, eventually and slowly descending the stairs — probably, afraid we were going to get him to remove it. Meanwhile, our youngest son, had come into his brother’s room, now, too, in a state of disbelief, but my wife and I shared with him that it was a trick, that it was fake. He quickly grabbed the poop, ran down the hall, screaming for his brother to witness him holding it, then placing it in his mouth. You can imagine how even more shocked his big bro became until the little one screamed enthusiastically, “It’s fake!”.