I too saw this a while ago, and my first reaction was to think "What if some big motherfucker punches her lights out?"

Even with precautions like that, it would seem pretty dangerous to me to do a real prank in an elevator, where there is also a claustrophobia factor. And many people don't know they are claustrophobic until they are trap in a confined space.

Claustrophobia isn't dangerous though. Unsettling and torturous yes, but not dangerous. Especially not in a setting like the one in the clip, where the elevator doesn't really move, and the doors could be opened anytime.

Mildly related side note: The best way to cure someone from claustrophobia is to take that person into a confined space, and keep him there until the panic subsides. The person will _think_ he/she will die during the process, but won't. Therapists will still ask about existing heart conditions before doing this, just to be safe. But it's done regularly - not as often as it should though, because most claustrophobics simply never agree to this quick and intense form of therapy. They tend to choose slower, stepwise forms instead, which work as well, they just take 10 times longer.

It depends. Some people will just become anxious, some will suffocate, others can have a panic attack, become violent quite fast and hurt themselves (or the girl - I don't think I'd even realize she's there) before you can calm them.

People tend to think you'd get violent when frightened but from experience you'd never fight back, otherwise you wouldn't be scared, running or freezing with fear are natural reactions, that's how you know the guy punching the scary maze game is fake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTgCrkQJLLE

Fast forward to 1:12 for this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYtGOLXq9-c

One of the best pranks ever made. If that happened to me, I would've been scared shitless :D And when they would told me it was all a prank I would be all "Oh, you...!", but my pants would still be wet.

Quickness of reaction is a lifesaver. When that is in your mind, some pranks become dangerous and deadly. i've been in enough situations to wonder that if someone pranked me in close quarters in way which i feel threatened, that i might react in a violent destructive way. i've also yelped like a little girl when a big spider ran across this desk beelining towards my hand. So who knows ;)

I think "run motherfucker, run!" is usually the first reaction. "Fight for your life" kicks in only when you can't run.

Hehe, I've seen the first one before. Having seen that one, I expected the second one to be this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFtG0jcFzPU
You mean like when you're trapped in an elevator?

I mean like when you're endangered by something bigger than a screaming pale girl ;P

What I meant is that before "punch that muthafucka" kicks in, you should have enough time to realize that it's just a little girl and you shouldn't punch little girls. And nobody did. (unless it's fake, of course)

It works for most people. For example, your first reaction to a bear isn't "kick him in the balls" :P

And please man, develop some sense of humour...

This is actually a legitimate solution to a black bear attack, though it's usually better to just scream and yell at them. It doesn't work so great on other sorts of bears, though.

Really though, people who run haunted houses and stuff are fully aware that their employees are likely to occasionally get punched after a jump scare. It happens all the time, actually, because people's responses are unpredictable when they're scared, especially when they're scared and surprised at the same time. Now, if you're a customer going through a haunted house then you're actually expecting those sorts of scares, but in this video these people weren't even psychologically prepared for that sort of thing. So their reactions are even MORE unpredictable, and more dangerous.

Funny but, compared to the Just For Laughs guys, they're amateurs! :D

In case you guys don't know who Just For Laughs are, check out some of their elevator "works":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kv3aMaGMz8U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ourhoP_uKdw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plIwegXI69I - my favourite of these :D

Little girls don't appear out of nowhere and have ghost white skin.

1. It's carefully orchestrated to imitate all those Japanese horror movies featuring pale children. As such, people have been "trained" to find this scary as fuck, even though it's "just a little girl".

2. The fact that nobody did punch her in the video is no guarantee that noone ever would.

3. I've got plenty of humor, thanks. I even laughed my ass off over this video when I first saw it a couple of days ago. It is possible to find things funny, and still give thought to what could have gone wrong, you know.