Understanding ドッキリにかけられている


A guy confessed to a girl he likes and she accepted it but he asked her if she
is serious or not. His inner monologue went like this:

> こんなに疑心暗鬼になるのは実は「告白」にトラウマがあるからだ
>
> だから今の状況はドッキリにかけられているみたいで

I don't get the meaning of ドッキリにかけられている here. Perhaps it mean something like
"I am being put in a scary situation"?




ドッキリにかけられている = getting pranked.

ドッキリ here refers to a prank, especially rather elaborated one typically set up
as part of a TV program. It's not being used as the more general mimetic word.

The quoted sentence basically means that the speaker suspects it's a prank for
laugh, and not a genuine love confession.

The term is attributed to a TV program called
[元祖どっきりカメラ](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%85%83%E7%A5%96%E3%81%A9%E3%81%A3%E3%81%8D%E3%82%8A%E3%82%AB%E3%83%A1%E3%83%A9).

