I remember it was my 10th day of quarantine and I was getting bored and vibrators lonely.Out of nowhere my best friend from childhood, let’s call him John, texted me and said “Hey have you seen the internet today? Did Nintendo made dildos?!”.At first I was like “what the fuck!?!?” and had to ask if he was serious or just joking with me.It was then that I realized, maybe he heard about it from somewhere.
So, I decided I had to do a bit of research and try to get to the bottom of this. All I could find out was that the dildo was an April Fool’s prank pulled in 2018 on Patreon by a group of podcasters. Some of the photos even showed off a figurine of a character that
was popular among Nintendo fans, and the dildo was fashioned in the same style.Not only that, but all the symbols and logos that were around the suggestive device were also Nintendo-like, making it look as real as possible.
At first I was thinking “What the heck is wrong with some people?! Aren’t there better ways to joke around.?”.But then it hit me…This is one of the smartest pranks I have ever heard of. Not only did they almost make everyone believe that Nintendo created a dildo, they opened up a real conversation about sex and its various objects. Also, they managed to pierce an important topic – discussing sexism and misogyny in a way that made everybody raise their eyebrows.
It was a brilliant move by this podcast team to make people talk, and I believe that sometimes, even when it might look hectic at first, making people uncomfortable is a great way to make them face their fears and discuss topics that often are treated as a taboo.
I also found out that among all the jokes circulating on the internet, there was an article written by an actual lawyer, and all the mentions about Nintendo, the dildo and the manufacturer were all legally cleared.Which proves that even though the prank like this should not be taken lightly, there is also a responsible way to do it.
So then I thought to myself – Is this really wrong? What do you think? I can understand why some people might be angry about it. On the other hand, I personally believe it is and was a genius way of raising an important subject. Seeing the reactions of people, some people getting offended was expected, however other welcomed the discussion open-heartedly.It showed how an entertaining joke can spark real conversations on serious topics.