Punk'd

Isn’t the English Language a wonderful, ever evolving thing? To illustrate this I’d like to share a new word I learned yesterday at my Monday Night Youth Group – Punk’d.

The context was as follows:-

The Group: Are we being Punk’d?

Me: Are you being what’d?

The Group: Punk’d.

Me: You’ll need to tell me what Punk’d means before I can tell you if you are or not.

The Group: You know, being played a trick on. (They snigger, realising that this silly adult doesn’t know the meaning of one of their words and consequently isn’t as with it as she would like them to believe she is).

The Group: Well are we being Punk’d?

Me: No you are definitely not being Punk’d.

The Group: Cool! (well at least that’s one word that hasn’t changed then.)

What I really wanted to know but was too afraid to ask for fear of further derision was how does Punk’d come to mean being played a trick on. Any enlightenment would be appreciated. When I were a lass Punk (without the ‘d) meant something entirely different. Admittedly it still does, allegedly, although the lyrics just aren’t the same nowadays. Anyway back to the point. Where does this term come from? Could it be from Johnny Rotten’s infamous words: "ever feel like you've been cheated?" Well I might not be Miss Cool, Hip and Down with the Kids but at least I know my music history.