The devil ringtone and notes prank

Ariel L. was a friend of Josh and Jared's who was very sweet, but also very religious.

As a prank, Josh and Jared recorded themselves growling, “666, Satan, the devil, God is dead, Lucifer, hell” in various patterns as a voice memo on Josh's phone. He set the recording as his ringtone. Then he walked over to Ariel and Jared called him.

It should be said here and now that the guys never intended to offend or make fun of anyone with these efforts. Ariel was a good friend of theirs! All of this was just for a bit of fun, and to garner a reaction — nothing more.

Unfortunately, every time the guys did this prank, they started laughing and had to abandon the operation before they could see the end result. It's unknown whether Ariel noticed or reacted to what they were doing at all.

Josh's fallback explanation was that it was a custom ringtone set just for his mom, with whom he had a contentious relationship — and that was completely true.

In a companion stunt, Josh would occasionally scrawl the same “evil” words on a piece of paper, crumple it up, and then toss it towards Ariel. With these, she did react. She'd pick up the note, read it, and turn around with a look of horror, only to see Josh also looking around for the culprit.

It's very much up in the air whether these pranks were actually successful. There was absolutely no point to them other than for the guys' own sick amusement.  ❒

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