Boyfriend’s ‘The Ring’ Prank on Girlfriend: Epic Dealbreaker

Couples' therapists note that feeling safe is one of the hallmarks of a successful long-term relationship. Guess James Williams didn't get that memo-or didn't care to read it. The British prankster (who is also known for such knee-slappers as sending old salmon sandwiches through the mail and filling a cupboard with hair clippings gathered from the local salon) spent what he describes as "weeks" building a puppet version of the super scary little girl from horror movie "The Ring" and fashioning a pulley system that would make it look like it was bursting out of his girlfriend's television while she slept. Then, he posted a video of her waking up in shock (accompanied by an ear-splitting audio of her genuinely terrified shrieks-if you have a dog or child present, better put it in another room), which is now going viral. "I worked on it every now and again when the missus was out," he wrote in his channel notes, "and hid it in the attic." (What, along with the decomposing bodies?) The week before his appointed fright night, he planted a creepy seed in her brain by saying he thought he saw "a woman standing at the end of our bed in the middle of the night." The result? In his words, "I had to stop her running out the house…I like the fact torch [flashlight] stayed standing upright the entire time. Even with all the kicking lol. I don't think I've ever seen a mouth open so wide screaming." Is this type of emotional destabilization a sign of the demise of committed relationships, or simply of humanity in general? In any case, if Williams's girlfriend decides that revenge is the way to go, couples' pranking is a robust Internet genre [hint: laxatives plus Kool-aid plus ice cream]. Or better yet, just dump him. Payback's a bitch.