Bugging Out uses everyday technology to prank people
|||Munya Vomo
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, MTV has another prank show on the horizon.
Bugging Out, a show fronted by Rob Anderson (pictured), takes advantage of the technology we use on a daily basis. This is an ingenious idea because we are indeed in the tech era and can’t live without technology.
The first thing most of us do when we wake up is check our cellphones. You might want to justify that it’s for the purposes of time or an alarm, but you know more happens when you check the phone. Soon it’s social media updates and then instant messages. Then coffee addicts go to the coffee machine with the TV remote in one hand, trying to find out what is going on in the world. All this is mundane at first glance, but if you were from the Medieval period, you would realise that a lot has changed since then. In fact, since the invention of the light bulb, we keep progressing toward a future when technology will become so integral to our lives that it won’t be a luxury, but a necessity.
So Bugging Out does not really have to look far when it comes to what to use on the show.
Imagine you wake up to the usual cellphone routine and your phone tells you that the time is two or so hours after your usual “check-in” time. You then try to verify the time with the wall clock that your mother insisted you hang up, but it corresponds with the phone. You rush to the shower, but change direction when you hear your phone ring. It’s from the office!
Your irate boss barks a question as to your whereabouts because, of all days, you have to do a presentation to the shareholders first thing today. As you fumble over your words, you realise no lie can save you.
The pranksters then decide how long this prank can last, depending on how you react. Then, of course, you will find out that the whole thing was a set-up, courtesy of the fact that you depend on the gadgets in your home.
If you were from the Medieval times, however, you would probably know what time it is by looking at the sun.
Anderson takes the entire video of the prank and makes fun of it to the delight of a live audience. If PUNK’d and Ridiculousness had a child, Bugging Out would be it.
Bugging Out airs on MTV (DStv channel 130), at 8.50pm every Wednesday.