The chances of a prank going horribly wrong are always fifty-fifty.
Even if you are certain that the person you are pranking will find whatever the prank is hilarious, they might find themselves in for a rude awakening when the prank actually happens.
Then too, pulling a prank that you are certain will just annoy or anger someone is just downright mean.
And sometimes come with severe consequences.
Redditor Illustrious_Expert33 enjoyed the odd prank every now and then.
However, the original poster (OP) was not remotely a fan of the pranks her boyfriend was pulling on her.
As they involved a certain food she simply couldn’t stand.
Unfortunately, the OP’s boyfriend ignored her many requests to stop pulling these pranks, resulting in her finally snapping at him.
After her boyfriend accused her of being “dramatic”, the OP took to the subReddit “Am I The A**hole” (AITA), where she asked fellow Redditors:
“AITA for ruining the banana prank?”
The OP explained why she had trouble finding the humor in her boyfriend’s pranks:
“I (30 F[emale]) don’t like bananas.”
“I think they’re gross.”
“I don’t like the flavor, the texture, the smell.”
“I would honestly love to never have to interact with one.”
“My boyfriend (31 M[ale]) knows this, he’s known since he met me 6 years ago.”
“He thinks it’s hilarious.”
“We met working in a restaurant where I was a server/bartender and he was a cook.”
“We both love food and the hospitality industry so he thinks it’s ridiculous for me to have such strong feelings of distaste for bananas when we literally work with food in the food industry.”
“Also I have eaten/touched bananas before (didn’t like them), it’s not like it’s a phobia or anything.”
“Anyway it’s not really an issue as we don’t ever buy bananas or have them in the house, but on the very rare occasion that he does buy bananas (once every 3 years? not even?) he always tries to f*ck with me with the banana in some way.”
“He’ll chase me around with the banana peel or leave the banana peel on my laptop or on the floor for me to slip on like Mario Kart.”
“To be clear, I love pranks.”
“LOVE them.”
“I was all about the smoking toilet prank, we prank each other all the time.”
“I just reeeeally hate being pranked with the bananas.”
“Today he went to eat a banana and I turned around and the peel was sitting on top of my laptop and I just lost it.”
“I insisted he throw it out, I did not want to touch it, or interact with it.”
“He was dying laughing, went and got ANOTHER banana, and ate that banana on the couch right next to my laptop, trying to get me to come over and give him a kiss (mouth full of banana my literal nightmare) or move the peel myself.”
“And I got upset and insisted he get rid of the banana and just kept telling him that this particular thing is not funny to me and I don’t like it.”
“He finally threw out the peel and said I’m being ridiculous and overly dramatic.”
“I just don’t want banana pranks with real bananas.”
“So AITA/overreacting about the bananas?”
Fellow Redditors weighed in on where they believed the OP fell in this particular situation, by declaring:
- NTA: Not the A**hole
- YTA: You’re the A**hole
- ESH: Everybody Sucks Here
- NAH: No A**holes Here
The Reddit community largely agreed that the OP was not the a**hole for telling her boyfriend to stop pranking her with bananas.
Just about everyone agreed that pranks are only funny if everyone is laughing, which the OP clearly wasn’t, with others pointing out that these pranks could have caused the OP bodily harm, which is no laughing matter:
“NTA.”
“It isn’t a joke unless everyone is laughing.”
“Sounds like your boyfriend just gets enjoyment out of causing you distress – which is concerning.”- 0biterdicta
“NTA.”
“If you’re not laughing it’s not funny.”
“I have the same reaction to a certain food.”
“The smell, the taste, the texture.”
“Unfortunately, everyone else in my family enjoys that certain food, so growing up, it was on the table a couple times a month, and it would make me lose my appetite every time.”
“Finally, on the nights I made that, she would set the table except for that dish, let me make my plate, and eat in the living room so I could at least have dinner.”
“I’ve had people who thought it was funny to make fun of me for it, and it’s so petty and rude.”
“Thankfully none of my partners ever thought to prank me about it.”- Purple_Bowling_Shoes
“NTA.”
“In any respectful relationship, the other person should allow you to ‘opt out’ of things.”
“Sometimes people will prank, or get annoying, or just put their foot in their mouth.”
“But you need to be able to tell them ‘Hey, that is not fun for me. I am not having fun. This isn’t mutually enjoyable’.”
“Doesn’t matter if it was a joke, or a nickname, or a way of touching you.”
“That is what keeps the balance, and allows annoying the piss out of each other to be a sustainable activity where you both still like each other afterwards.”
“Without that feeling of underlying respect and care, it starts to feel… just straight mean, instead.”
“What he’s essentially trying to say is that if he enjoys tormenting you in a certain way, you’re supposed to just let him.”
“He’s not supposed to have to hear and respect a ‘No’.”
“You can tell him one hundred times that you do not think it’s funny and don’t appreciate it, but you’re still supposed to be nice and gentle about it the hundred and first time he ignores you?”
“No.”
“You start gentle, and if someone does not take the hint it’s understandable to keep ratcheting up the consequences until they respect your boundary.”
“Necessary, even, if you don’t want to be miserable.”
“Hopefully he gets his head on straight after a bit, because I don’t really… trust people whose ego cannot handle being told ‘No’.”- FullMoonTwist
“NTA.”
“Not a prank if you’re not laughing, it is bullying.”
“My mom always had a similar aversion to bananas.”
“She ended up with high potassium problems, which led to kidney disease.”
“Although there is no medical research to support the supposition, the aversion could be your body’s way of not letting you eat something that isn’t good for you.”
“Make sure to get your potassium levels checked.”- Icy_Department_1423
“NTA and also, I once saw a twelve-year-old slip on a banana and it was super not funny.”
“Like he did the big slip and feet fly up like in a cartoon, but he came down on his elbow so hard his soul briefly left his body.”
“It was scary to watch, and I would not even do it to my enemies.”- remedialknitter
“NTA.”
“It’s not a prank – it sounds almost like harassment.”- PushkinMage
“NTA, but it might unironically be time to decide a safe word for pranks.”
“A ‘no seriously stop it now’ button that y’all can use when u need it.”
“If ur relationship has a lot of pranks in it, I can understand why he might have pushed to far without realizing it but it shouldn’t be happening,g and if it is then it’s worth finding a solution.”- Wolfelle
“NTA at all.”
“But one thing:”
“I don’t like the flavor, the texture, the smell.”
“It’s not like it’s a phobia or anything.”
“OK, that all seemed reasonable.”
“We like what we like, we don’t what we don’t.”
“Today he went to eat a banana, and I turned around, and the peel was sitting on top of my laptop, and I just lost it.”
“I insisted he throw it out, I did not want to touch it, or interact with it.”
“When most people complain about the texture of foods, they mean the mouthfeel.”
“Refusing to even touch a banana peel with your hands does make me wonder if this is more into phobia territory than you’d like to admit.”- StAlvis
“NTA.”
“Based on him knowing how you feel about it and ignoring those feelings.”
“That being said, if the two of you prank each other regularly then it likely set the precedent that pranks are ok so overreacting without a clear indication for him to stop may be a different story.”-Neglected8in
“NTA.”
“Pranks are supposed to be clever.”
“You didn’t ‘ruin the prank’, this prank is so lazy it ruins itself.”
“I’d be tempted to put a piece of garbage on his laptop to make a point about how that’s not what a prank is.”- Mobile_Sorbet4629
Generally speaking, people commit pranks for two reasons: to make someone laugh or to make someone angry.
The latter sort of pranks are usually reserved for people you don’t particularly like.
Assuming the OP wants to stay in this relationship, he should take note that these particular pranks are making the OP more than a little angry and change his methods.