Let's talk pranks for a minute...

and not just that prank phone call that apparently resulted in the suicide of a nurse who was the one who answered the phone at a London hospital.

Apparently some commentators feel that the public and the English media is overreacting and that no one could have possibly expected this tragic result.  They are probably right to a degree.  That this woman would kill herself over this was probably not foreseeable.  But there were clearly potential consequences that a reasonable person might have expected.  For example, the woman might lose her job.  Is a prank phone call that generates laughs and publicity worth someone, anyone, losing their job because of it?  I don't think so. 

Radio is a battle for listeners and ratings.  The competition is tougher than ever today with the internet, satellite radio and so on.  So the talent and their producers are always trying to come up with things that will hold onto, and increase their audience.  Prank phone calls that generate a lot of laughs are very popular with audiences, as long as stuff like this doesn't happen.  When it does, suddenly everyone runs for cover.

But those aren't the worst pranks.  Those are the ones being done by idiots who pull fire alarms, or phone in phony reports of fires.  Those who are engaging in what is being referred to as "SWATTING", meaning reporting a problem at a Los Angeles area celebrity's home that results in the SWAT team responding.  Sooner or later someone is going to get hurt in one of those type of pranks.

I remember reading the memoir of a fireman a long time ago who included an anecdote about how one of his fellow firefighters died while they were responding to an alarm.  They were speeding to the address when the other fireman was hit in the chest by a piece of concrete.  It turned out there was no fire, it was a false alarm.  A man died because someone wanted to see the bright red lights of a fire engine and hear the sirens because they needed a little excitement on a boring evening.

I know there is nothing I can say that will stop these a-holes from doing this kind of thing.  Hopefully they grow out of it, although given the sophistication police are claiming is involved in how these SWATTER callers are hiding their identity, they may be adults already.  But I can point out that only true douchebag idiots would do this kind of thing.