Something that came to mind when reading about early cinematic gags and pie-and-chase is the wildly popular YouTube series of the early 2000s and 2010s, “Greatest Freakout Ever”. Although these videos are not necessarily funny to me nowadays, 15 years ago they were the peak of comedy. And I’m not alone in saying that – the channel has amassed millions upon millions of views. These videos are made by a younger brother, whose older brother has serious anger issues (or, more likely, is acting as though he has anger issues, because the videos are almost definitely staged).
The younger brother starts each video speaking into the camera, explaining what is going on with his older brother, Stephen, and why he is angry. Typically, the younger brother pulls some type of prank to egg Stephen on which makes him angrier, and each video culminates in a “freakout”, occasionally resulting in Stephen’s younger brother getting retaliated against for his mischief. The younger brother is letting us in on a secret, often speaking in hushed tones as he explains whatever prank he is about to pull on Stephen. This is reminiscent of the water-hose prank that Gunning talks about – the prankster is shown alone on screen, and then his “victim” (Stephen) experiencing the prank and then reacting to it. Gunning claims that: “In most cases, separate areas are needed for tricksters and victims (the tricksters occasionally leave the frame before the device is triggered, but more often they stick around to enjoy the fruits of their labor)” (Gunning 92). This is the case in the clip I selected, and most clips on the channel.
In this particular clip, Stephen’s brother keeps ringing the doorbell, and then ends up locking Stephen out of the house in the snow which sends him into a rage. The video ends when the brothers are caught by their mom who reprimands them both, and Stephen attacks his brother, causing the camera to fall and stop recording. In this sequence, we see the prankster, victim, and retaliation. These videos were widely circulated in my childhood, and were considered extremely hilarious every time, even though the format would typically stay the exact same every time (and there are 50+ videos on the channel). This format does not seem to bore viewers, but rather, they seemed to wait excitedly to see what pranks the kid would pull on his overactive and scarily intense brother next.
I didn’t know that this was a series until now, I had only seen the original “Greatest freakout ever”. I think that the insight Gunning provides about the voyeuristic nature of what he calls “comic views” is interesting to consider with early internet and home videos like this. Platforms like YouTube (at the time of the first “freakout” only 4 years old) still had some intimacy to them, and content was in large part valued because of this close distance between viewer and creator. I imagine much of this series’ success is due to how evocative it is to peer into (or be invited in, if these are staged) the room of a stranger.