I was going to say that the kids should just stop reacting to anything, quit feeding it and it won't be worth the effort.
But that's the kind of thing their father should be teaching them. And if they stopped reacting I have a feeling he'd just ramp up the beatings.
I'm sad now.
Problem is they've been conditioned to do it. Imagine it like this: "Tolerate our shit and you'll get an Xbox/Ipad/whatever you want" Suddenly stop reacting? "Don't tolerate it and we'll keep doing this anyway and you won't get anything out of it." The only reason they haven't stopped is probably because they are getting things out of it. Not to mention all the sugar coating and promises they placate the kids with before they yank it all away again.
jfc "Cody is gonna be an actor!" despite saying some of his reactions are actually him being genuinely terrified (though really all of them are probably real to the poor kid.) I want to punch the mom so hard.
That's not acting. That kid is legit tired of all this shit and now all of this, every single embarrassing event is there forever. If this shit was done to you as a kid even 10 years ago, it wouldn't follow you around. Now, its there forever. And it isn't even your fault, its your parents. The kid is too young to understand this. Every relationship, every job, every school will be able to see the most embarrassing, vulnerable points to your life.
If, by some miracle, Cody and the others move past it and don't murder their parents, these parents are going to experience it a reckoning. They're profiting now, but once their kids move on and grown, any health problem, any problem with money, they are going to get an awakening. These people don't seem the best with money, so it won't last. Guess what the kids will do, they'll get power of attorney, strip everything from the parents and leave them to rot in poverty.
They've been taught this. To exploit weak people and take what you can get, because that's all that matters. Hope the kids turn out ok. Hope the parents do too. Because when they're old, when they're vulnerable, when they are weak, they will reap what they've sowed. And there won't be these 'cute' 'prank' videos. Just the cold brutality of what they've taught, coming back at them at the weakest point in their lives.