The Shadow of a Mushroom Cloud

Sometimes you can offend the wrong people...

Just to point out, I love my mother dearly. But sometimes, I see things online sometimes that I get curious about. And one particular prank caught my imagination to remodify into a short experiment. This was:

THE NUCLEAR WAR PRANK

The idea of the prank is simple and can be done in 1 of 2 ways. Manipulate a video/news report that claims a nuclear war has started and play it on your TV. Or you can find a mock Emergency Broadcast and follow suit.

Watching these pranks online; the parents tend to freak out. However, the majority of these videos happen in the US. My assumption was, being in the UK, mum wouldnt have the same effect. I was both right and wrong.

Most people film their parents reactions but, as I didnt want to do the full prank because it was purely for experimental purposes and not for entertainment, I merely showed the video to her. Here's how the experiment went down.

I had my laptop hooked up to the TV via HDMI cable and, while mum was upstairs, I put a video I found yesterday on YouTube on and increased the volume so she could hear it.

The video is a fake BBC breaking news report which claims that North Korea have fired nuclear missiles at New York City, killing thousands. It features ambiguous statements from Barack Obama and David Cameron before going into a emergency service broadcast.

Now, mum didnt actually see the "news report", but she arrived in the room just as the emergency broadcast kicked in. Mum asked what was going on and I told her I'd turned back onto BBC One and that this was what it was on. I then went on to tell her the North Koreans had attacked America snd the US were planning to retaliate from bases in Wales and Scotland. Now, from the off, Mum didnt believe it and knew it was fake. However, I kept up the act just to see how far we could go.

At this point, mum started looking up the report on her tablet and I knew I was about to be in a lot of trouble. So I broke character and came clean. Told her it was fake and proved it was on YouTube.

Mum's reaction was thus:

• Firstly, I got a very disapproving look. Understandably.
• Secondly, after I said it was a well made video, mum said it was sick. I wasnt expecting this reaction, despite agreeing, so was confused.
• Mum didnt bat an eyelid once. The only time she even showed anything close to panic was when she reached for her tablet.

So, why did I do this?

1. I was curious as to how Mum would react.
2. Given that Putin has admitted to nearly using nukes against the UK over the Ukraine Crisis, I wanted to see how mum would react in the eventuality of a nuclear conflict reported in modern times.
3. Despite the whole prank bring really insensitive, I was curious to see whether the reaction in the UK would be the same as in the US. It wasn't.
4. With the threat of nuclear war ever-present, I wanted to see how the dynamics in this household would change, given we have no basement or anything that resembles a bunker, options for us would be alarmingly limited. I was curious to see what suggestions could be made.

But theres one thing I didnt factor into my hypothesis. Something which I can now safely assume the countless others on YouTube didnt either with their parents.

My mum grew up during the Cold War where tensions were high and the world faced nuclear armageddon more than once. Having grown up in this period, mum took part in a number of drills at school and read all of literature dispensed at that time. Living in the shadow of a mushroom cloud could be nothing less than terrifying. So, upon the revelation that the video was fake, Mum's reaction of "that's sick" comes solely from the fact she grew up in a time where the only time you saw the emergency broadcast was if it all kicked off.

So here's what I've found during this short experiment.

1. Don't show videos like that to mum again.
2. Should this happen for real, I know my mum will be strangely calm and collected. Down to experience.
3. Given that the threat of nuclear war is still very real, drills in UK schools should be brought back. Even if only once a year. Especially for schools in and around major cities. (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Southampton etc). Some may call that reactionary and paranoid but better safe than sorry, no? (And hiding under a table does jack all by the way).
4. Im slightly worried at the fact my mum was cool and collected. If it happens for real, I'll be a wreck. If mum could be a wreck with me too Id very much appreciate it. Its nice to have company.

So thats what Ive learnt today. I wouldnt try this at home as some parents may not react the same way mine did. I was lucky with mums reactions but its not uniform. 

Dont go getting nightmares, guys...

Side note: I rarely do things like this to mum. I think I did something similar once before many years ago. So please dont think im unnessarily cruel to my lovely mother.