海角大神

It鈥檚 all fun and games until someone gets hurt 鈥撀爋r until a minor league baseball player jeopardizes his career.

Stone Garrett, the Miami Marlins' Minor League Player of the Year in 2015,聽is 聽after his hand was cut by his roommate and teammate, Class A Greensboro Grasshoppers player Josh聽Naylor, during a prank that involved a knife, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

"Naylor has a reputation of being a bit of a prankster, but this one obviously went a little too far," Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill told the Sun-Sentinel. "Obviously, he's torn up about it. This is a good friend, his roommate. They came into pro ball together, so they're good friends."

Pranks are "a rite of passage," says Jonathan Wynn, a sociologist at University of Massachusetts 鈥撀燗mherst聽in a telephone interview.

It's not "just about sitting on a聽Whoopee Cushion聽anymore, now that social media has become a factor," he tells 海角大神.

"Pranks are fun and humorous, but they also set out to break down the traditional barriers of high-low, inside-outside roles in social groups," says Professor Wynn. "In this case, it seems like peer-to-peer bonding that just went wrong."

A prankster designation can be a status symbol, he says.

"There is power in jokes," says Wynn. "There鈥檚 a certain status for the joker, the trickster who goes against the rules."

Additionally, the "win" that comes from a successful prank can become socially addictive, he says.

"Certainly there鈥檚 a feedback loop of escalation and it鈥檚 a form of communication and bonding," Wynn explains.

Hoaxing icon聽, whose new documentary聽聽screens this week, says in a telephone interview that he has several prank criteria.

"I ask, 鈥榃hat is the intent, content and the meaning of the message,' " Mr. Skaggs says. "Does it have a life by itself, does it have a legacy?"

"What I have always done is art. I use the media like a medium, as a painter uses a canvas, to create fake realities," he explains. "My purpose it to reveal the underbelly."

Asked if the current presidential election cycle has inspired him to take action, he laughs, "Absolutely! I鈥檓 ready now to reveal that I鈥檓 the one behind the Donald Trump campaign. It鈥檚 my doing entirely."

On a more serious note, Skaggs says television,聽YouTube, and聽聽sites have helped make pranks聽"ubiquitous."

"The bar has been lowered," he says. "My aim is to raise the bar back to where it belongs."

Not everyone agrees that social media has changed pranking for the worse.

"Pranks have evolved from being simple gags on friends to being as complex as producing a flashmob of hundreds of people to shock random strangers on the street," writes聽Keith McElwain, president of聽, in an email to the Monitor.

In 2016, he writes, "Becoming a prankster isn't any different than becoming an attorney or doctor. There is a set of rules to ensure the safety of all parties involved and the compliance with the laws in your area."