Usually spelled with a ‘w.’ I detest pranksters. They are the kind of people who find amusement in hurting or humiliating others and if the butt of their jokes doesn’t like it, they are accused of not having a sense of humour. I didn’t find Candid Camera amusing, likewise, I found Jeremey Beadle’s show just plain spiteful. But this takes it to a whole new level.
An internet ‘prankster’ who, dressed as Spider-Man, kicked and punched a supermarket worker unconscious can today be unmasked as a martial arts champion.
Thug Josh McDonald, 33, sickened hundreds of thousands online when a video emerged of his violent assault during a fancy-dress invasion of an Asda by self-proclaimed ‘influencers’ in July 2021.
McDonald was part of a group of now-disgraced superheroes that also included Ali-G, Batman, Little Red Riding Hood and an one-legged amateur boxer first dressed as Matt Lucas’ faux-disabled Andy from TV show Little Britain – complete with ‘bald-wig’ – although at some point he switched it for Goldilocks plaits in the chaos.
The only thing that can be said in favour of these arseholes is that they have pleaded guilty. Given the evidence, I don’t think they had much choice. There is a clear difference between a prank and kicking someone to the ground, rendering them unconscious, just for doing her day job. That is violent assault and the pranksters need to spend a long time in jail for this.
I’m afraid that when I see nonsense like this, my immediate reaction is ‘Bring back the lash.’
And the stocks.
Well one good thing seems to be that none of them will compete again. One of them was hoping to compete internationally. Martial arts organisations take a dim view of people who misuse those skills. I remember that from my time practicing judo back in the seventies.
A youtube pranker in the USA ended up dead because of his idiocy. The idiot faked a robbery for a prank only to find that a member of the public quite rightly believed that the prank was a real robbery and shot the wanky pranker dead. As the social commentator RuinedLeon says in his recent video on the subject ‘if you play stupid games then you win stupid prizes’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXwYoauGuPs
Good outcome, frankly.
Agree there. Quite correctly the citizen who shot who he saw as a robber is not being charged.