ABSTRACT
Starting in 2014, a specific type of journalism appeared in the Russian mass media discourse, namely prank journalism, associated primarily with the playful names of Vovan (Vladimir Kuznetsov) and Lexus (Alexey Stolyarov). Their actions include a special kind of humorous verbal activity – a telephone prank, a disruptive behaviour, the purpose of which is to provoke the “victim” to expose their real attitudes and feelings. The political pranks performed by Vovan and Lexus, which reveal the deceitfulness and double-speak of certain anti-Russian politicians, elicit a wide public reaction in Russia. This chapter focuses on two cases, the deontic discourse of which is based on online pranks. A prank is based on a practical joke that creates a humorous situation in which one of the most important rules developed by the world culture for humorous behaviour is ignored – “to make someone laugh, do not cheat”. The analysis of cases in this chapter follows the sequence ofthe proto-situation of a prank, ways of creating humorous effects that help expose the victim in the mass media narrative about the prank, and the evaluation of the ethical qualities of the prank in the user comments.
