Stop Pranking Your Husband Because TikTok Told You To Do It

Ah, TikTok. It’s the social media one stop shop for anything you could possibly want at any moment in time. Looking for a new cinnamon roll recipe? There’s about a billion TikToks with those. In the mood for a smokey eye makeup tutorial? With just a few taps and swipes, you’ll have an endless stream of those at your fingertips. Need to get caught up on the latest whirlwind of celebrity drama? TikTok has you covered. Been hunting for new books to read? Well, lucky for you, there’s such a thing as #BookTok.

Anyone who’s been on TikTok for more than a minute or two knows just how frighteningly accurate the TikTok algorithm is too. How did it find out that you’re a woman in your twenties living in the Midwest? How does it know that you’re a Taurus who loves deep cleaning videos and conspiracy theory deep dives? Who told it that you used to struggle with social anxiety in your teenage years (ahem, still struggle with it)? And before you know it, you’re scrolling through a feed that’s perfectly curated for you – your personality, your lifestyle, your beliefs, and your interests.

That being said, it’s no surprise that if you’re married, TikTok will find out – and quickly. Before you know it, you’ll be swiping through countless cute husband and wife videos that will make you think Yup, that’s exactly what it’s like being married. Maybe you’ll come across a couple doing a viral dance together. Or maybe you’ll find an adorable couple doing a date night vlog. Or maybe you’ll see a wife pull an elaborate prank on her husband, filled with thousands of “This is gold!” comments. You chuckle to yourself and swipe on, but just six TikToks later, you stumble upon another wife pulling the exact same prank on her husband – and this time, there are even more views and comments. You’ve spotted a trend.

And then, you get a little idea: What if you joined in on the trend? What if you pulled that prank on your husband? What if you got lucky and captured the perfect, most hilarious reaction from him that you couldn’t have written better? What if you became TikTok famous from one 20-second video? So you sneakily begin to plan out your prank, imagining all the different ways it could turn out, waiting for the right time to strike.

But here’s where we suggest that you pump the brakes and ask yourself if it’s such a wonderful idea to go through with this prank. Is it really just a silly little joke that he’ll have forgotten all about in an hour from now? Should wives really prank their husbands because TikTok told them to do it?

Here’s why we think the answer to that question might be no.

Let’s Be Honest: TikTok Doesn’t Have Your Best Interest at Heart

Sure, TikTok is good for a lot of things, but it’s definitely not good for everything. It might be filled with nifty hacks, cute trends, and amusing jokes, but it’s also brimming with bad advice, immature people, and toxic trends. As much as we can enjoy TikTok and the various things it has to offer, we have to recognize that TikTok does not have our best interests at heart.

TikTok is infamous for creating and fueling drama, hot takes that lack context, destructive comment wars, and fostering unrealistic standards and expectations. It’s not necessarily a place where you can go for truly insightful advice or thoughtful encouragement or deep wisdom. Ultimately, TikTok is filled with normal, flawed, biased, imperfect people who sometimes have something of worth to say, but often spew out uninformed opinions, nonsensical takes, false information, and faulty guidance. I say all of this as someone who enjoys a good TikTok scroll from time to time.

Some Pranks Are Harmless, but Others Aren’t

This isn’t to say that all TikTok pranks are created equal. Some pranks are actually pretty harmless, doing nothing more than causing the person on the receiving end to chuckle. A great example of a lighthearted prank is one where a group of women will get their boyfriends and husbands to all wear the exact same shirt to a gathering. No one’s feelings get hurt, no one is singled out, and everyone gets to be in on the joke. 

But other pranks aren’t so innocent and end up causing far more harm to the relationship than they do closeness or laughter. So it’s important to weigh whether the TikTok prank trend you’re considering hopping on will truly be harmless, or if there’s any possibility of there being hurt feelings.

Think About Things in Reverse

One good way to decipher whether or not this is a prank you should go through with? Challenging yourself to think about things in reverse. As simple as this exercise sounds, it’s surprising how often we don’t bother to stop and utilize it, and do our best to consider things from the other person’s perspective. 

Get totally honest with yourself, even if it makes you uncomfortable. How would you feel if your husband pulled this prank on you? Would you find it easy to laugh along, or would you potentially feel embarrassed, picked on, or disrespected? Of course, you know that your true intention isn’t to cause your husband to feel any of these things, but that won’t keep him from feeling them. Your intentions, in this case, don’t really matter – the outcome is what matters.

You might find from your reflection that the prank isn’t one that will breed lasting hurt, but you might end up discovering that it would’ve been unwise to go through with it – and you’ll be glad you chose to reverse the roles in your mind.

It’s Not Wise To Exploit Your Relationship for the Views

There’s nothing inherently wrong with couples who choose to be influencers, who have an understanding that they make a living being content creators and consistently filming TikToks, any of which can somehow be misinterpreted or taken out of context. But the key with these couples is that they have both consented to put their relationship, or at least a version of it, on the internet.

But if this isn’t a dynamic that has ever existed in your relationship or that both of you have consented to, this means that if you aren’t careful, you could end up exploiting your marriage for short-lived TikTok fame. So it’s important to ask: Is this really just a lighthearted prank that doesn’t mean anything, or will it make my husband feel like a prop that I used for views? Am I treating my marriage as a tool to serve my ambitions with no regard for how my actions are affecting my husband?

He Might Lose Trust in You

Marriage is a union in which both individuals should feel free to be fully known, with the assurance that they will be fully loved and fully cared for. We shouldn’t have to worry whether our spouse would intentionally embarrass us or make us feel like a fool or use us as the butt of a tasteless joke. We should be able to trust our spouse to make us feel safe, taken care of, looked after.

Pulling a prank that goes a little too far, though, is a quick way to completely destroy that trust – especially if it gets posted on the internet, for an unlimited number of utter strangers to jeer at. This could end up putting distance between you two, constantly causing him to wonder if he’s being recorded without his consent again.

He Could Feel Disrespected

Sure, it’s a good thing to be able to take a joke. We should all be able to laugh at ourselves and not take well-meaning jokes to heart, but if we’re honest, not every joke should be taken in stride. Some jokes are downright disrespectful, meant to make the person on the receiving end feel like an idiot. And to take them would be to deny ourselves basic dignity.

Feeling disrespected is difficult for everyone, but it’s incredibly hurtful for men – many of whom are highly competency-oriented. No man wants to feel like his wife’s personal court jester – even guys who genuinely enjoy making their woman laugh. Instead of taking these TikTok pranks in stride, he’ll feel emasculated, insulted, and humiliated by the woman he’s supposed to feel respected by.

Closing Thoughts

Not all pranks are created equal. Some TikTok pranks are nothing more than a harmless joke that shouldn’t cause any insecurity, but many of them aren’t. Instead, the outcome of some of these viral pranks is that men are left feeling embarrassed, disrespected, and exploited. So before you dive in head-first, carefully consider whether going through with this prank will be the best thing for your marriage.

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