As dumb as that is, it’s more what a prank looks like. What is the joke/prank of walking up to people with butcher knives and “faking” a robbery??
Yeah, scare “pranks” are often just sadism, I think.
There are several popular videos (tens, if not hundreds, of millions of views) of ”pranks” where guys go from standing still to suddenly going crazy and attacking some innocent person in an elevator. The fact that they intentionally miss with their punches and kicks doesn’t make it any less frightening for the victims who naturally are screaming and trying to escape. They are damn lucky no one had a gun.