I called someone up today and experienced a practical joke. Their voice message was recorded as if they were really answering the phone. It got me thinking once again about practical jokes and why I don't feel good about laughing at or playing practical jokes on people. Perhaps it just represents more evidence of my weak social skills -- you be the judge.
A practical joke is playing some kind of trick on someone to amuse others. To me this violates basic principles of truth. Here are some illustrations:
The example I gave above used deception to fool someone into some action.
Does anyone like being the butt of a joke? If you don't then playing a practical joke on someone violates the principle of treating others as we'd want to be treated.
Another reason why the above phone message violated the principle of treating people as we'd want to be treated is that it thoughtlessly wasted my time. I had to wait for a while to leave an important message for the person.
Some might say that laughing at a practical joke doesn't violate any principles, but I disagree. Laughter communicates to the joker and others within hearing that he did something worthy of admiration and imitation. In other words, it is encouraging people to violate correct principles.