Spanking is never okay.
Just because you are too stupid to see other ways to handle a literal child does not make it okay to hit said child.
Yes, even if you are referring to yourself as the child.
And please just for a second think about the fact, that you only stated other forms of punishment as not working on you and didn't even consider actual forms of pedagogical parenting, before you black out in anger that I called you stupid.
I didn't even read the article as there are countless studies out already that comprehensively show that hitting children is always harmful and never useful.
No, some people just straight up don't enjoy being negatively surprised.
I personally even dislike well done jumpscares, but it is made worse that in many horror flicks there isn't really a good buildup to them because they want to "get" you when you don't expect them.
To come back to comedy, people don't want the punchline of a joke to be something they loathe, they want to look forward to it.
People want to be scared, they don't want to be shocked or surprised (talking about people that don't like jumpscares, off course those who do also have every right to enjoy them).