[epdaws]

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WTF? In BBV, people make the conscious choice to gamble their money - and if they lose it, they lose it - and it is laughable.

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WTF? so when an alcoholic drinks himself into a stupor and drives his car into a telephone pole, that's laughable too?

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I know this thread is a couple of days old, but I had to leave mid-way through and I wanted to make a couple of comments. I appreciate all the responses.

Mike, I can't tell if you're trying to be a contrarian for contrarian's sake in this thread, but your analogies are off-the-map bad. What on Earth does making fun of people in BBV have to do with any of this? I can't believe I actually have to take the time to spell out the differences:

1) Most importantly, people know the acerbic nature of BBV and they choose to post their results there. You're asking for all kinds of pain in that environment. You're making it public by CHOICE.

2) No one is playing a joke on a gambler or poker player. They're making a conscious decision with their own money, and they have to live with the results.

3) The people making fun of pained posters in BBV likely do not know them personally, almost certainly are not blood-related, and did not cause the pain.

You also say that the money did not exist, and therefore it's less consequential in some way. Allow me to borrow from author Sam Harris for a moment. The key issue here is belief. If someone called you right now and told you that your mother had suffered a heart attack, as long as you gave the caller credibility, you would BELIEVE it to be true. You would experience genuine emotional anxiety. When you found out the heart attack never happened, and it was all a hoax, you might even be moved to the point of tears of happiness, simply out of relief. However, you're arguing that, upon finding out the heart attack was not real, you ought to shrug it off, emotion-free, and move along with your day. Good luck with that.

To help flesh out a little more background, there were family members in the gift exchange with far worse financial problems. My cousin was rolling the dice on who would receive the fake ticket.

Also, some have pointed out accurately that the receiver in this case received nothing but a false sense of elation, followed by deep disappointment. There was no bottle of wine or whatnot to accompany the gag gift.

One poster said that gag gifts are common in this type of exchange. They are. However, this was the spectrum of gifts otherwise presented:

-a 16-piece set of stemless wine glasses at the top end, and,

-a dancing hawaiian Santa doll on the bottom end.

I brought a bottle of wine, but the first thing opened was a home enema kit, complete with cartoon instructions on how to self-apply. We got a good laugh out of that.

I'm biased here, so it's clouded my judgement somewhat, but I just can't ever imagine taking joy in setting someone up for intense disappointment.

Thanks again for the thoughts, everyone.