Great article! I love the idea of pranks-as-gameplay... *wheels turning*

So do you believe in such a thing the serious prank? The persuasive prank? The edu-prank?

Seriously I've always found it interesting that Wasik admitting that Flash Mobs were in fact pranks ended up slightly offending several DeBord-ists (as you might call them).

Can one man's prank not double as another's serious statement?

I'm not sure I'd say Wasik concluded that they weren't serious, just that the prank wasn't directed at who people initially thought it was. People thought flash mobs were intended as some way of leveraging digital communication and crowds of people to cause surreal public scenes or even serious protest, when Wasik seems to have actually intended them as a way of poking fun at the sorts of people who would show up to a flash mob (hipsterish "must get on the next trend" sorts who revel in a sort of faux nonconformity).

So there was some real social commentary in there, and I'd say it was an interesting use of a prank to deliver a serious message. It's just that the people who thought they were carrying out the prank and delivering the message were actually the targets of the prank and the message.

@Dakota
I think Dada and the Situationists, discussed in the article, certainly saw their work as both prank and serious statement.

Do you think the Debordists you mention may have had more invested in the affectation of situationism more than the act?

So I should apologize for posting a 1/2 formulated thought and then not clarifying right away when it was rightfully called out... Also CMS stripped out some psuedo-code that was intended to make the first part of the comment a little more whimsical.

I think the irony of Josh Galloway's situation with the Debord estate highlights the point I was attempting to articulate.

Here and there I've encountered a few individuals whom were openly offend when Wasik aired his laundry in My Crowd. You might say that they reacted similarly to the way McGonigal did in Re: My Crowd, but to the Nth degree. For lack of a better way to classify this hardcore pretension, I filed these people away as "Debord-ists."

Now as you pointed out they seem to strive to maintain the aura of the situationism- which makes the act, more or less, ritual sacrament.

Now everyone I'm currently thinking of undeniable had/has a stick up their ass, but I'm starting to wonder if there might be some legitimacy to their stance.

Is nothing sacred? Why can't a prank be sacred- esp. if a prank is in the form of game and viewed through a Huizinga-esque lens?

...and the feedback loop of irony begins anew.