best practical joke EVER

[grisham]

Some of my friends were talking about their senior pranks and practical jokes. The best was kidnapping a friend and dropping him off about 300 miles away with no cash no credit cards, no nothing just a map. I was wondering if the dopers out there have some better ones. Either senior pranks or practical jokes either one works.

[GorillaMan]

Added to the OP suggestion.....indicate a "You Are Here" on the map - except that it points at entirely the wrong place :D

[ShibbOleth]

Some of my friends were talking about their senior pranks and practical jokes. The best was kidnapping a friend and dropping him off about 300 miles away with no cash no credit cards, no nothing just a map. I was wondering if the dopers out there have some better ones. Either senior pranks or practical jokes either one works.

I've heard of a couple of variants on the one you mention. One was a bachelor party variant where they'd get the groom very drunk, then get him on a train, then take all of his money and id and clothes.

Another I recall (read in a story in Outside Magazine) about a bunch of guys (maybe Special Forces) where their leader liked to sneak off with their passports and all of their money just to see how they'd cope. Bastard!

There are some pretty amazing Silicon Valley practical jokes that I've read about, but it would take a lot of time and effort. Like moving one CEOs Porsche into his office while he was on vacation, including plastering back the wall they removed to get it in. Or sodding an office and turning it into a putting green. But those aren't really practical for your purposes.

[Weirddave]

I wired my mom's toilet so that a very, very loud siren went off when she sat down. That was all kinds of funny.

[KarmaComa]

Ah, the toilet siren. I have to remember that. That's classic. :D

Better do it before my parents get too old, too! They'd shit themselves.

[RAWDuke]

Some of my friends were talking about their senior pranks and practical jokes. The best was kidnapping a friend and dropping him off about 300 miles away with no cash no credit cards, no nothing just a map. I was wondering if the dopers out there have some better ones. Either senior pranks or practical jokes either one works.

Let me be the first of probably many to suggest that this is neither great, nor funny. A "friend" of ours a long time ago left several of us stranded after a night of partying. Less than 10 miles from home, and money wasn't a problem. There was no reason, other than being "funny" but we weren't friends after that.
Now, if you want to turn this into a game, with willing participants being stranded 300 miles away with a map, it sounds like fun to me.

A good practical joke (IMHO) would be one that the "victim" could laugh about afterwards

[Bruce_Daddy]

The best was kidnapping a friend and dropping him off about 300 miles away with no cash no credit cards, no nothing just a map.

Hate to be the spoilsport here, but I'm not getting this. I'm imagining my friends driving me to Roanoke, VA (http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?go=1&do=nw&cl=EN&un=m&ct=NA&1y=US&1a=&1c=Simpsonville&1s=SC&1z=&1ah=&2y=US&2a=&2c=Roanoke&2s=VA&2z=&2ah=&formtype1=address&formtype2=address&idx=0&id=40324645-0008a-0509d-cdbcf387&aid=40324645-0008b-0509d-cdbcf387) and leaving me alone. First of all, I don't see how they're going to get me out of the house, into a car for 5 hours while I just sit there quitely in the car musing about our destination or purpose. Secondly, believe it or not, my friends have better things to do on a Saturday than try to "kidnap" me and take me to Roanoke for a "Surprize Bruce! We're going to leave you here and drive all the way back home. Later!". Thirdly, it's really not that funny. If it is true, there are only two options. Maybe three. Get an instant job, cleaning gutters or windows or washing dishes until you have enough money for a bus ticket. Har Har!!! 2) Hitchhike. Whee!!! 3) Call someone to wire the money. That's comedy genious.

:dubious:

[Bruce_Daddy]

Let me be the first of probably many to suggest that this is neither great, nor funny. A "friend" of ours a long time ago left several of us stranded after a night of partying. Less than 10 miles from home, and money wasn't a problem. There was no reason, other than being "funny" but we weren't friends after that.
Now, if you want to turn this into a game, with willing participants being stranded 300 miles away with a map, it sounds like fun to me.

A good practical joke (IMHO) would be one that the "victim" could laugh about afterwards

I think I owe you a coke or something.

[Call me Frank]

I was talking on IM one evening, as I most usually am, and I got a message from someone who identifed themself as "Rachel White". I didn't recognize the name, but she seemed to know me a little bit, and she knew her name. I'm not a terribly outgoing fellow, so it's not wholly unusual for people to know who I am before I know who they are. So we continued talking for a while, all the while I was polling my other online buddies to see if anyone knew who she was. No one did. So eventually, I gave up on my subtler methods of identifying her and just asked her how she knew me. She said that she had dropped her books on the way out of a class and that I had picked them up for her on my way into that room and an acquaintance of mine had told her who I was. A plausible enough story, I just didn't remember the incident. So the conversation progresses and she appears to know more and more about me, about which I am getting increasingly curious. And then all of a sudden she messages me "Ha, you're so easy to screw with" and "Rachel" identified "herself" as a friend of mine, Tim. He then tells me that he's doing the same thing to another friend of mine - Don and that he's about to clue him into the mystery. I said "No wait! We can have some fun with this." So we plotted a little scheme and never told Don who "Rachel" was. The next day, "Rachel" got online again and talked to Don, but this time she knew more and more about the two of us (We told Don that Rachel was still talking to me as well). She started to know things about the insides of our houses! The prank progresses in that nature, outlining her as more and more of a stalker. Well, we knew that Don would ask his acquaintances if anyone knew this Rachel White, so we asked them to say yes and to make up little stories about her. For instance, how she was talking about him. So he would be walking down the halls and someone would say something like "Hey, Rachel White's in my Geometry class and she was asking all sorts of things about you!" It's now day five of this prank and I got a female friend of mine to write a little stalker note to be placed in his car. By now, something on the order of 20-30+ people knew about the prank and were doing their parts to help it along. There was also a girl I knew who could do this ridiculous hooker voice she called "Bunny", and someone pointed out this talent to me, so we had her call him and leave a message on his answering machine as "Rachel White" On day seven, however, Tim had to cut it loose because Don was sufficiently freaked out by his stalker to start getting upset.

In retrospect it did seem kinda cruel, but it was just a monumental prank that was done completely off the cuff. We all laugh about it now, even the guy who got pranked, though he was pissed as hell when he found out the truth.

[RAWDuke]

I think I owe you a coke or something.

Hah! You owe me a coke! You owe me a coke!

Jeez, that brings me back :cool:

[Smeghead]

Ah, the toilet siren. I have to remember that. That's classic. :D

Better do it before my parents get too old, too! They'd shit themselves.

Do I need to point out that at least they'd be in the right place for it?

[Call me Frank]

Do I need to point out that at least they'd be in the right place for it?

I realized that too...glad I wasn't the only one.

[SwimmingRiddles]

Hi, kids. Long time no post.

I was just discussing this very topic at work last night. Two instances come to mind, both car related:

A friend's upstairs neighbor was physically abusing his girlfriend. Eventually, my friend convinced the girlfriend to kick him out of the house. But my friend decided he wasn't really sorry enough. So she took a color copy of her own Vermont state licence plate, and PhotoShopped it to read an obscene word starting with C and ending in Face. She then made two high resolution copies, and had them laminated. She then went to where this jerk was staying and superglued her mocked-up licence plate OVER his real ones. As no one really checks their own licence plate, he was driving around for two weeks with women flipping him off left and right, honking everywhere. He had no idea why, until the cops pulled him over.
My sister was living in LA, and was working for a stock broker. He wasn't a very nice man, and he worked late into the night. He left the office one night and was halfway home when the smell of human feces invaded the car. Turns out he had kicked a homeless man's sleeping bag in the parking lot that morning, thus angering the homeless man, who waited until the cover of dark to hop on this guy's Lexus's hood, and take a great big steamer into his intake grill. As the car heated up, it melted into the air filter, and a number of other systems. The smell was horrid (not the best diet) and it was VERY costly to replace filters and stuff. Poo. Hah.


Those are my two favorites.

[The Mermaid]

A practical joke is best when it is cleaver but harmless.

I think this one is brilliant. (http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20040107/southsound/8191.shtml)

[Shirley Ujest]

This is not my story, but I love hearing it from our close personal friend Geoff, a practical joker. I am a little vague on some of the details, but you can figure it out.


He worked in an auto repair shop for years and the practical jokes he pulled on everyone were quite legendary. And he had a bunch done on him. It was the nature of the place.

One day, a mechanic that I'll call Joey, played a practical joke on Geoff that I forget what it was and frankly, as Geoff said, it was so lame that he nearly missed it. Joey, FTR, was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Likeable, but dense.

Joey was quite pleased with himself and said, " I got you. Ha. Ha. I got you." And pretty much told everyone else that he got Geoff, the reigning King of Practical Jokes. Everyone else pretty much agreed it was a lame prank, but Joey was pleased.

So, after a while of dealing with this " I got you", Geoff plotted and clued in everybody, but Joey.

He was sitting working on the far side of the work bay working on a car. He took some super glue or some kind of epoxy and glued a broken nail ( or screw or rather menacing peice of sharp car part) to his forearm so that it looked as if it had peirced the underside of his forearm. He used a couple of blister packs of ketcup in his hand to look as if blood were streaming out from the wound.

About this time, the entire shop somehow went for a coffee break and everyone was gone, except Joey. Yet, they were all hidden in the office behind the venetian blinds.

Geoff proceeded to make a loud racket as if struggling with a part on a car and then fell back gasping and writhing in pain. Joey is there at his side nearly instantly and Geoff pulls off an Oscar winning performance of a man who just had a peice of shrapnel peirce his arm.

He pleads to Joey to take him to the hospital.

Joey is The Man Of The Hour, and he helps Geoff ( about 6'4) up and out to his camaro. Geoff slumps in the seat, Joey buckles him in, gets in and starts up the car giving Geoff encouraging words of " I'm there for you man, Joey will take care of you..."

You know, a bonding moment.

Meanwhile, the entire work place and all the fix it up muffler/quick lube shops in their little mall were all standing outside their bay areas watching this expectantly. It was quite a little neighborhood.

Geoff squeezes more ketchup out of his palm into a gushing flow for show as Joey fires up his camaro and backs up like ninety and Geoff knows he has to do his death scene now or never. In a weak voice, slumping more, Geoff stammers,
" You're a good friend...."

"Yeah, man ..so are you...You're going to be ok, I'm gonna take care of you.."

This went on for about ten seconds, Geoff leading him on in a weak voice, Joey being Da Man.

Finally, as they are about to pull out into the street, Geoff lets his head loll onto Joey's shoulder, in a near whisper, he says, " I ...I..I.."

"Don't talk, man, don't talk! " Joey pleads. "Save your energy!"
" No..it's important...stop the car...please.."

Joey does, looking at Geoff with a controlled sense of panic in his eyes.

Geoff wheezes in his ear, " I...got ...you...back..." And he sprang right up, unfolded his long legs from the car and sprung from the Camaro to stride right back to work.

The entire mall of repair shops gave him a standing ovation.

[Rilchiam]

What's so funny about crying wolf?

[alterego]

Isn't what's outlined in the OP hazing?

[bouv]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Bam. (http://www.rpi.edu/~bouvia/projects/door/)

[Draelin]

A friend of mine once gave me a key to her apartment so I could feed her cat while she was away. Three years later, I found myself still in possession of the key, and she was again out of town. I got some other friends, went into her apartment, and rearranged all her furniture.

I know, not very original.

[Anamorphic]

I don't think the prank in the OP is funny at all, just malicious, but my friend tells of when he was in college and pledging a frat, they did a variation of that one that I think actually IS pretty funny.

They start at the frat house, and blindfold my friend. Then they throw him in a car, and drive and drive and drive and drive and drive and drive some more -- literally, they're driving somewhere for like 2 hours. Then the car stops, they get out, pull him out, and they start walking. No one is saying anything, and anytime my friend tries to say anything, they tell him to shut up. They walk and walk and walk and walk and walk some more for like, another half hour. Making lefts here, rights there, lefts there... My friend, still blindfolded, is freaking -- where the hell are they taking him? Finally, after walking some more, they order him to stop. He's told to stand there, and to count to a million before he takes off his blindfold. He starts counting, and hears the other guys leaving. After he's sure they're gone, and having only counted to about 200, he says 'fuck it', and tears off the blindfold...

To find himself standing in the front yard of the frat house. On the steps are the frat guys who 'kidnapped' him, laughing at him. One of them welcomes him to the frat and tosses him a beer.

[cmkeller]

My all-time favorite was one that Jay Johnstone, a former baseball player, wrote of in one of his books (he wrote several).

He was in the Dodgers spring training facility, and as part of the routine physical, he had to give a urine sample. Rather than do so, he went to the cafeteria and filled the specimen cup with apple juice. He brought it back to the nurse, who commented, "Hmm...it's a bit dark."

Johnstone looked at it and said, "You're right. I'd better run it through again." and proceeded to drink it. The nurse almost fainted.

[LabRat]

Somebody tricked me into putting pancake syrup on my nipples

[FilmGeek]

I've got a good one and a couple of bad ones.

The year before I started high school, my brother's senior class prank was very impressive. They took the famously good-humored art teacher's old VW bug, took it apart, transported to the roof of one of the campus buildings it by a complicated series of pulleys, put it back together (correctly!) and left it there with the engine running and lights on for everyone to see the next morning. It was beautiful.

One of the senior pranks for my senior year involved a bunch of kids kidnapping a FRESHMAN (big no no... one of the 'unwritten rules' is that senior pranks should involve only seniors) stripping him naked (it was only 40F or so), duct taping him to a flagpole and taping a huge sign over his head that said "Honk if you're gay like me". There were charges filed if I recall correctly.

Then, someone let 6000 crickets (and two white mice for some reason) loose in the halls of the liberal arts building. It was loud.

Then some people cut down the trees on campus and vandalized the gazebo that had been erected to remember those kids that had died while students there.

Finally, the cheerleading squad from our rival school across town spray painted and left handprints on the brick walls of two of the buildings. It cost several thousand dollars to get the paint off with sandblasting. The girls were caught when the principal checked everyone's hands at lunch the next day and theirs were stained. They had to pay the school for their vandalism and scandal ensued when they were allowed to hold a bikini car wash to raise the money rather than having to do any actual restitution.

They don't do senior pranks at my high school any more.

[Maastricht]

A senior prank at my highschool that I really liked was all the senior-kids going downtown and organizing a protestmarch, complete with banners, chants etc, against.....gravity.

I remember one of the banners: GRAVITY = OPPRESSION! :cool:

[emacularius]

We once knew a fellow that owned a tiny tiny Fiat..it was big enough for two people and two bowling balls. (One of the stories he told was driving UNDER the trailer part of an 18-wheeler, this thing was so small) One day while we were eating out, some of the guys went out, picked up this itty bitty car and turned it sideways 90 degrees in the parking lot.

[Lando Griffin]

One of the more brilliant senior prank ideas at my high school involved releasing pigs labeled 1, 2 and 4 in the hallways. ;)

Sadly, they were caught... :(

Another time, after the last final exam of the semester, I returned from the bathroom to find the door to my chemistry class duct-taped shut. End of the day, 30 students walk into a door that won't open. Hilarity ensues. :D

[Call me Frank]

One of the more brilliant senior prank ideas at my high school involved releasing pigs labeled 1, 2 and 4 in the hallways.

We thought about releasing greased pigs for our senior prank as well, but we didn't do it. It would have been really horrible to come in the next day and see all the janitors enjoying a bacon breakfast... :eek:

[Revedge]

My favorite took place back in high school.
One of the trombone players in the band had gotten a VW bug. (This was the 70's, it was really cool to have a bug.) It was old, used, so old that the gas gauge didnt' work. He just remembered how many miles it had been since he got gas, then filled up when he thought he was low. He used to brag about what great gas mileage it got. 25, 30 miles to gallon. (remember this was in the 70's when gas was 40 cents a gallon) Well, the rest of us in the band were getting a little tired of his bragging. So, during 6th period (last of the day, stage band class, band director was in on it too) one of us would go out and add gas to his tank. (Several of us carried small gas cans in our cars for mowers etc.) half gallon here, a gallon there, pretty soon his claims for his gas mileage started to get outrageous. 40, 50, even 60 mpg. After about a month and a half, we stopped putting gas in his car.

He ran out of gas three times before he figured out what happened. :D

It was my favorite prank, because we were just giving him gas. :cool:

[Zoe]

The disappearing room that bouv linked to was also done several years back at MIT. That particular time everyone on the floor was in on the gag and coached into pretending not to know the student when he returned from a weekend trip. They had to call it off when he began to freak.

About twenty-five years ago I was able to convince a friend who lived six hundred miles away that she was pregnant. I had a nurse friend here in Nashville contact one of her nurse friends who lived just south of Richmond. She pretended to work for one of the local pediatricians and called my friend to say that her tests had come back positive and that she would be calling in a prescription for vitamins and that she needed to schedule an appointment, etc. When my friend protested, the nurse turned loose with all sorts of private information including middle name, number of live births, birthday, etc. By the time my friend got off the phone, she was convinced that one of her doctors must have done a test that she was just getting the results on. (This was back when you had to wait a little for the rabbit to die or something.)

The family marvelled at the news that night and told the children what had happened. One of their kids reminded them the next morning that they were due for a practical joke from my husband and me. So they called to find out whether or not they were with child.. They were happy to hear that they were off the hook that time.

[DocCathode]

A practical joke is best when it is cleaver but harmless.

I think this one is brilliant. (http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20040107/southsound/8191.shtml)


Pure, unadulterated genius.

I have a large model of the dogburster from Alien 3, mounted on my ceiling as though it were crawling there. The comedy comes from it being hidden behind a heating pipe. Guests tend not to notice the alien until they're standing directly underneath it. Then, they catch something out of the corner of their eye, look up, and scream.

I also have a Weekly World News Article "Haunted Toilet Claims Third Plumber In Eight Years!" mounted on the door to my bathroom.

There was a brief but wonderful period when a valve problem with my toilet made a remarkable likeness of a scream when flushed.


I also taught a friend's son to say "I see dead people."

[CrazyCatLady]

Well, I assisted in stealing a friend's car at her wedding. We decorated it, then moved it to the bottom of the hill, so when they came out to leave, there was no car. The look on her face was priceless. It took less than five minutes for the groom to go get the car, bring it up, and get her and the dress loaded in, so there was no real harm done. She still grumps about it, but her husband just snickers (very quietly, so he won't get in trouble for encouraging us.)

When my brother got married, his friends wrapped his car in an entire case of Saran-wrap. I thought he was never going to get the doors open.

When another of our friends got married, Dr.J got into his luggage and stole the underwear he'd packed for the honeymoon. Then he mailed it to the hotel. A pair a day. It was hilarious.

[t-bonham@scc.net]

Some of my friends were talking about their senior pranks and practical jokes. The best was kidnapping a friend and dropping him off about 300 miles away with no cash no credit cards, no nothing just a map. That is indeed kidnapping. It's a Federal crime. Penalties from 20 years to life in federal prison, or the death penalty.

I don't see the "joke" part of this at all.

[Coulbean]

A friend of mine in high school wanted to march a couple cows up to the third floor of the Main building on our campus. His reasoning was that cows can walk up stairs, but not down. (I never verified this.) And that they would have to be lifted out by helicopter or butchered right there. The hallways up there were really narrow, which would complicate things further. He never did it, but it was a good idea.

[Rilchiam]

That is indeed kidnapping. It's a Federal crime. Penalties from 20 years to life in federal prison, or the death penalty.


Not to mention the consequences if the "mark" is injured, assaulted or killed while trying to get back home.

[Mycroft Holmes]

For a collection of some of the best pranks ever take a look at the Interesting Hacks to Fascinate People (http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/) from MIT. The latest was placing a Wright Brother's flyer on the Great Dome.

[Mr. Miskatonic]

Some Senior Pranks:

The local highway near my school was rerouted one morning through our rather large campus. Much chagrin was had by the commuters.

A bunch of life-size colorful animal statues, presumably from some minature golf course, made their way into the hallways of the school one morning.

I once saw a car in my neighborhood that had been competely filled with Styrafoam peanuts. Cute.

A quick and dirty prank is, on a rainy day, empty your hole puncher into a co-worker's umbrella. Harmless fun!

[Larry Mudd]

A friend of mine had stacks (stacks!) of papers from Brian Mulroney's landslide victory in 1984. (Her folks were disillusioned PC'ers.) Nine years later, she rustled up 10 co-conspirators, and the morning after a party at her place, we all got on a Granville Street bus heading downtown. Individuals got off at randomly-spaced intervals, and waited to board the next bus.

So, on the day that Jean Chretien was sworn in as PM, all these people were getting on the bus and sitting down to read (or simply carrying) various decade-old papers from the the beginning of the Mulroney era. Time warp!

[xayoz306]

2 of them here:

First one isn't a prank per se, but while my wife was recuperating from childbirth, she was in the mother-baby unit. Now my wife kept her maiden name after marriage. However, there was a patient in the Cardiac Care Unit in the same hopsital, who has my wife's first name, and my last name. So when various friends came to see her, and inquired at the Information desk to find out which room she was in, imagine the look in their eyes when they found out that "André Wilson" had passed away earlier that day.

Second one was from my days playing highschool baseball. We were playing our literal next door rivals. It was an exhibition game, so we decided we would have a little bit of phone. We took an orange, let it ripen for a few days, and painted it white. Imagine the batter's surprise when he gets a nice "juicy" fastball right down the centre of the plate, and when he connects, it splatters all over the place. Much hilarity ensued.

[Larry Mudd]

...we decided we would have a little bit of phone.Hmmm... Homofunny.

[mdf]

I read this one in a book of practical jokes - can't say if it's true or not, but I desparately want it to be...

It seems that a couple of summer employees at Yellowstone wanted to have some fun with the tourists, so one day a few minutes before Old Faithful woke up they walk purposefully out toward the geyser, carrying a T-shaped chunk of pipe. They stop some distance away from, but well within sight of the people gathered for the show, and begin to search for something on the ground. With seconds to go, (this being when the geyser was a little more predictable) one calls out "Here it is", and his buddy inserts the long leg of the T into the ground at the indicated spot. As he begins to turn the handle, the anticipated steam erupts from the geyser, and continues until the pranksters 'close the valve', remove the handle and return calmly to their regular duties. As I recall there was quite an uproar, and near loss of employment.

I seem to remember the book was written by Art Buchwald, and I got it from the public library more than 30 years ago. Anyone else remember the story or the book?

-mdf

[gotpasswords]

My prize-winning joke (I actually won a Straight Dope book for it a few years back) was to label one side of an electric outlet "cold" and the other side "hot" Pretty much all of the outlets in the office were labeled "P2 CKT 14" or similar, presumably identifying which circuit breaker in which panel controlled it. My joke lableling was done with the same "p-touch" tape so it looked official.

Said outlet was in the office break room. The office manager wasn't exactly a sharp pencil, and had a policy of unplugging the coffee maker at night. After I labeled the outlet, the nex morning, he's plugging in the coffee maker and I just happen to be there. "No, Bob, you've plugged it into cold electricity for the fridge! You gotta use the hot electricity!" He looks at the outlet and plugs into the "hot" side without question. I left the company before Bob ever figured it out. If he ever figured it out.

[gotpasswords]

Another one I forgot about, and I did this just thes past Saturday. I must be getting old. :smack:

Three of us were chatting at a charity banquet. We were roughly midway between the restroom door and a cheese table, and not terribly close to either. People would approach, look at the restroom door fifteen feet away from us, then look at us and ask "Is there a line?" or "Are you in line?" We'd say "Yes" and they'd stand next to us. A moment later, we'd say "but we're not in line for the restroom." They'd say "Oh" and scurry off to do their business.

Just pure harmless silliness. We misled nobody. Not one of these people asked if we were waiting to use the restroom. They simply asked if there was a line and we answered truthfully, if not helpfully.

[Chefguy]

This one will have the boohoo crowd after me, but it was fun at the time (still makes me laugh).

Every military outfit has a misfit; the guy who won't do his share of the work, screws up every job, etc. This guy was a misfit's misfit; a complete waste of skin.

So one day I stashed a defused frag grenade in the glovebox of the job truck. We piled in and I made sure Mike was in the middle. As we went down the road, I pretended to find the grenade. The driver was in on the joke and started acting nervous. I fussed around with the thing and pulled the pin.

The driver starts yelling at me to "put the fuckin' pin back in!". So I fuss some more and "fumble the ball", dropping said pineapple in Mike's lap. The spoon flies off and he pisses himself while damn near killing me trying to climb over me to jump out the window. Ah, the good old days....


Go ahead...pile on...but please remember that we were 19 years old and that no contrition will be forthcoming.

[Roadwalker]

My friend did a quick number on his teacher's car and wired her horn to her brakes.

I heard about a Fraternity prank where they sent a box of doughnuts to a popular Sorority. The next day when they were sure the doughnuts had been eaten they sent photos of the Fraternity boys wearing the same doughnuts.

[Martha Medea]

Reminded me of the urban myth where the victims' hotel room is broken into and messed up, but nothing stolen, and only when they develop their holiday photos after getting back home do they find snaps of the two thieves with their toothbrushes up their arses!

[Superdude]

I've pulled a few pranks in my day.

One of my favorites was when I was a senior in high school. A friend and I decided to paper another friend's car. With Post-It notes. We went through about 45 packs of the damn things, covering her windshields, doors, hood, roof, and trunk. While she was at school.

We didn't see her after school, but the next day, she came in, and she was PISSED. She had decided to drive home with the Post-Its on the car (minus the windshields). The wind resistance started blowing the Post-Its off of the car, and she was pulled over. And ticketed. For littering. Which, at the time, was about a $500 fine. Now, to be honest, we coughed up half of the money for the ticket. She wanted us to pay the whole thing. But, as I pointed out to her, it wasn't like we MADE her drive home with them on her car.

This is my FAVORITE of ALL TIME, however:

When I was engaged, my fiancee (Shauna) and I used to play pranks on each other all the time. She had my power shut off, I put her brand new car up for sale in the classifieds. That sort of thing. But here's the one that got her:

She'd just bought a new car. 1999 Mustang. She went to the dealer, asked how much the car was, and wrote them a perfectly good check for the total. She owned her own business, and got a fairly good sized chunk of change when her mother died.

Anyway, she LOVED this car. Like Cameron's dad loved the Ferrari in Ferris Bueller. So, one day when she's at work (but about to leave), I drive up to her car, which is parked in a local parking garage. I jack her car up, and take all four tires off of it. I leave it on cinderblocks, and drive around the corner. And wait.

Not more than ten minutes later, my cell phone starts ringing. It's Shauna, and she's throwing a fit. Seems that some low-life piece-of-shit has stolen her car's wheels. I ask her to get in the glove compartment, and tell me what size tires her car has. She does. I tell her that I'm on my way, and that I'm going to stop at a Firestone or someplace along the way and get her a set of tires.

I calm her down some, saying it's gonna be okay, but not to call the police until I get there. She's near-hysterical, so she agrees to it.

I wait five whole minutes from the time I hang up, then pull my car around.

At first, she's just glad to see me. As I start putting the tires on, she has a second to think about how quickly I got there. She puts two and two together, and...

...I didn't get any that night.

But, I swear, it was worth it for that ONE time. That was my apex. I'll never top it.

[DocCathode]

Every military outfit has a misfit; the guy who won't do his share of the work, screws up every job, etc. This guy was a misfit's misfit; a complete waste of skin.

So one day I stashed a defused frag grenade in the glovebox of the job truck. We piled in and I made sure Mike was in the middle. As we went down the road, I pretended to find the grenade. The driver was in on the joke and started acting nervous. I fussed around with the thing and pulled the pin.

The driver starts yelling at me to "put the fuckin' pin back in!". So I fuss some more and "fumble the ball", dropping said pineapple in Mike's lap. The spoon flies off and he pisses himself while damn near killing me trying to climb over me to jump out the window. .

I have never been in the military, but IMHO this just proved what a screw up the guy was.

Had he chucked the grenade out the window, he would have demonstrated quick thinking.

Had he tried to use his body to shield the rest of you from the blast, he would have demonstrated courage and self sacrifice.

Instead, he tried to flee without regard for the rest of you.

[grisham]

Okay I need to clarify the op so we wont keep seeing..."this is not a joke''. The guy that was kidnapped had recently been pulling a string of practical jokes( saran wrapping cars, duct taping lockers and doors) . This also occurred about the same time that the show was on (which the name of it escapes me) where they would drop people off in a foreign country with nothing and have to find their way back. This guy constantly bragged about how simple that would be. The joke was meant as a lesson. Needless to say he didnt think it was so easy. But he did have a good laugh about it. And this competition on pranks continues between them.(thank god im not in on it)

[Fritz The Cat]

Back when I was in high school, working at a grocery store, we told the new kid we were going to clean the floors and sent him across the street to a gas station (a Texaco) for a bucket of steam. When he got to the gas station, the station employee told him they were out of steam, but the Texaco station on the other side of town just got a new shipment in. So the new kid got in his car and drove over to the other station. Of course the other station attendant just laughed at him.

[DocCathode]

Ahh, the old left-handed screwdriver.

I've heard of a variant used in the armed forces, you tell the new guy the planes need cleaning and send him for a bucket of propwash.

[Cajun Man]

Let's be careful folks. Sometimes there's a fine line between what's a practical joke and what's braking the law. Technically grisham's OP could be considered kidnaping. Please stay away from suggesting illegal activity.

A good rule of thumb would be that a good practical joke is one (as RAWDuke pointed out) in which the "victim" can laugh about it as well.

Cajun Man
for the SDMB

[vl_mungo]

Project Garth (http://aperson10.tripod.com/projectgarth.html)

[SCSimmons]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a practical joke, or just letting someone else think that his joke has gone way too far. But it sure was funny ...

Summer of 1992. Me and a few other 18/19 year-olds are working summer jobs for the Building & Grounds dept. of our old school. And one of them & I got into an escalating practical joke war, culminating in this incident ... I had parked my car that day next to one of the gas tanks out front. These were gravity tanks, set on some scaffolding about 10-12 feet above the ground, that we used to fill the trucks, tractors, driver's ed cars, etc. And I happened to notice while on break early in the afternoon that my rear axle had been chained to the scaffolding. :eek:

Later in the day, I managed to sneak out with a bolt cutter and clip a link out of the chain to free my vehicle without the knowledge of the prankster. I left the chain & padlock there, trailing under the car, such that you'd have to crawl under to see that it was no longer secure. Then, I slipped out at the end of the day about two minutes early without saying goodbye ...

The audio of that moment is etched forever in my memory. The roar of the big V-8 in my '72 Satellite hitting the redline, the shrieking of the gravel in the parking lot as I slammed it into low gear; and yet over it all, I could still hear the screams of my co-worker as he raced out of the building: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! STOOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

:D

For some reason, we were ordered to call a truce by the manager the next morning. Can't imagine why ...

[Shirley Ujest]

I just heard this one today.

The husband put a " Happy to be Gay" sticker on the bumper of his wife's car. It took her weeks to figure out why everyone was honking and waving at her on the highway.


So, as retribution, she hired a very hot looking stripper to dance for him. ( I think at the office, but I don't know.) The hubby was getting quite into it ( as the watchers were) and when the straddle the lap dance concluded, the stripper pulled off her wig to reveal she was a he.

Heee. That was pretty funny.

[The Great Zamboni]

My aunt (dad's sister) has very active life. While she isn't gay, many of her friends are. She has known several "Drag Queens". My aunt had a picture of one of the guys dressed in drag, who looked very convincingly like a beautiful woman in this picture (so I am told). One day, my aunt visited our house with the above-mentioned man and the picture. My aunt told my mom about the picture, and they both conspired to trick my dad, who came later with a friend. My mom showed the picture to my dad and his friend (who happened to be single, and a pervert). My Mom said "Isn't she pretty? She is a gorgeous woman!" Dad and his friend replied with something like "Yes, she is." This went back and forth for a few moments, then my mom asked "You don't know who this is, do you? You want to take a guess?" Obviously, my dad and his friend didn't know, and couldn't guess. Then my aunt's friend said "That's me. That's what I do sometimes." My dad and his friend were horrified, but mostly embarrassed, while my mom, aunt, and my aunt's friend had a good, hearty laugh.

[Larry Mudd]

I guy I used to work with related a story that is unspeakably cruel and nasty on many levels, but which, no doubt, some people will find chuckleworthy.

He had a friend whose specialized acting abilities enabled him to convincingly portray a fella with Down syndrome. They'd exploit this by going to a fast-food outlet as a foursome, and letting "Marty" place the order. Of course, "Marty" has a hard time keeping track of what everyone wants, but they explain that it's something that he really likes to do, so the cashier is naturally inclined to be sympathetic.

Then they turn up the "mean," sternly correcting the guy every time he misremembers what they wanted to order. "No, you dummy! Large fries!" "Fer christ's sake, I said diet coke!" Marty gets more and more flustered and has still more difficulty, while the cashier squirms and tries to reassure him. More uncomfortable moments follow as Marty struggles to find appropriate monies to pay with. Finally, when everything is as it should be and the tray is in readiness, Marty beams and grabs the tray. "Got it!" he says, and quickly does a 180, sending fast food flying to the floor. His companions start berating him, and he starts sobbing, until the situation is remedied by the order being prepared again. The second time, Marty gingerly takes it back to a table, where more general shenanigens transpire.

Of course, the whole episode is juvenile and mean-- but I still laugh when I picture the punchline: after their meal, the foursome piles into their car, with "Marty" at the wheel. He has an obviously difficult time getting out of the parking lot, apparently not clear on the difference between the brake and the accelerator. The trio of jerks can be seen giving him shit for being such a lousy driver.

[phouka]

I haven't been involved in many practical jokes, but I've heard many tales.

A teacher once regailed the class by telling us how, during college, he and several friends took revenge on an uptight residence associate. He had left his car in the parking lot over winter break. They took a garden hose to it every night, and encased it in a six inch layer of ice. Guy couldn't get back into his car until spring thaw.

When my mom was out for a week, she returned to find that her coworkers had moved all her office furniture into tiny bathroom attached to the office. It took her the better part of the day - with their help - to get everything put back. In revenge, she purchased a life size cardboard figure of Fabio (he of the mighty thews and romance novel covers), taped a jungle print thong in the correct spot, and hid it in the coworker's bathroom. Then she enlisted the help of me and my brother to hide three pounds of Hershey's kisses throughout the office.

At a previous job, we got a supervisor by removing his mouse and keyboard, taking them to the best copier in the building, cutting out the copies of mouse, keyboard, and cables, taping them to the correct place on his desk, and watching his reaction after he booted up his computer and tried to get some work done.

At the first school where I student taught, I heard the story about my master teacher's fiance - a British guy who'd been in the military and shipped off to the Fauklands during that short war. Another teacher popped in the door during class and tossed a potato at him. British guy screamed "COVER!" and leapt behind a row of filing cabinets while his students tried to figure out what the hell was up.

[AngelOfMusic]

some of the more interesting senior pranks that I've seen:

A few days before school started my sophomore year, a few of the kids got into the school and took the room numbers down from the doors. They put them all back up, but in different places. They also switched the "boys" and "girls" signs on the restrooms. It was a great joke. The poor freshmen were completely confused, and most of the sophs, too. the teachers had to stand outside their doors with signs.

One year the seniors got into the football field and covered the goalpost in plaster to make it a huge sculpture of a penis.

Last year, apparently, they put laxatives in the ketchup in the cafeteria, but I'm not sure if they really did it or not. I don't eat ketchup, and I didn't hear about anyone getting sick.

My dad's favorite idea, which would take way too much preparation for my tastes and would be too easy to catch is to take birdseed out onto the football field at the same time every day (preferably the time that the homecoming game or some big game would take place) and ring the football buzzer before feeding the birds. That way, by the time of the game, birds would flock to the field whe they heard the buzzer.

that's all for now! hopefully I'll think of more later!

[ianzin]

Best practical joke I've ever heard of. Needs a camcorder.

Hold or stick the camcorder in the top corner of your bathroom ceiling, aiming at the toilet, providing a sort of 'security camera' view. Tape about 10 minutes of this 'still life' scene.

Hold a party. Wait until someone goes to the toilet. Before they come back, stick the tape in the VCR and PLAY, and the rest of you all gather round and start pretending to laugh yourselves stupid. The victim returns, comes into the room, wonders why you're all laughing... then sees what's on the TV and 'works out' that you have rigged a hidden camera in the bathroom and have just been watching him while he was in there.

Works best if you can be reasonably sure the victim was attending to solids.

[DocCathode]

Ianzin

I'm very disappointed in you.

When I saw that you had posted to this thread, my heart leapt. With your sleight of hand and cold reading skills, you should be capable of some truly awsome pranks.

[TJdude825]

I don't know if this is true.

Four or five years ago, some kids from our rival school poured gasoline onto our football field in the shape of their school name (Redondo), then lit it so the word would be permanently etched into the grass. The problem is, they left out the "N." Is our annual "Redondo Nerd Day" really a more politically correct version of "Redodo day"? Could be, but it's a good story either way.

[Scumpup]

20-some years ago, when I was an undergraduate, I lived on-campus for one semester. My roomie was an annoying little git in more ways than I care to recount. Fortunately for me, he had his full name written in laundry marker on all his underwear. One Saturday night while he was out, I swiped a pair of his whitey-tighties. Then, early the next morning while everybody on the floor was still asleep, I went to the student lounge and mixed up the following concotion:
1. Fudge brownies (from vending machine)
2. mustard packets (from cafeteria)
3. a couple spoonsful of corn (ditto)
4. enough water to give it the proper consistency
Et voila! Frighteningly realistic feces.

I then befouled his stolen underdrawers with the mixture and dropped them on the floor in one of the stalls in the communal bathroom. I also artfully besmirched the walls and commode seat with more of the mixture.

Then all that was left was to retire back to my bed and wait for the outraged screams to start...

[SCSimmons]

Four or five years ago, some kids from our rival school poured gasoline onto our football field in the shape of their school name (Redondo), then lit it so the word would be permanently etched into the grass. The problem is, they left out the "N." Is our annual "Redondo Nerd Day" really a more politically correct version of "Redodo day"? Could be, but it's a good story either way.

Pikers. My dad and some of his accomplices, er, classmates, burned their school's initials into the football field of their rival school, a couple of days before the 'big game'.

Ironically, at the time of the incident I described in my previous post, one of my job duties was taking care of the fresh sod on that very same field to get it ready for the upcoming football season. Thirty years had erased all evidence of his shenanigans, naturally ... but it was interesting to ponder. Or not, I dunno.

[Burrido]

Wasn't a joke that I did, but one that was done on me. I have a habit of scaring people whenever I get the chance. Jumping out, grabbing the leg and barking like a dog, hiding in cars, etc.. Its to the point now where no one thinks its funny anymore, yet I still do it. We'll one morning after a late night drinking party, my friends took my drivers liscence and pasted a picture of an erect penis over my face. Now, I get carded everytime for smokes. Everyone knows this. I'm 27, but I still look like I'm 15. I think i went 3 days before I noticed.

[Blue Dragon]

I'm surprised no one heard of this one. It's a little nasty. It works best for someone who works or uses a desk.

Take a can of shaving cream and put it in the freezer. Once it is good and frozen snip away the canister from the frozen tube. Now, put the frozen tube in a desk drawer.

Once that sucker starts to dethaw it will expand like crazy. The best part? When they open the desk drawer it will continue to expand!

Make sure your victim has a sense of humour...

[wenonahbone]

Ah, the toilet siren. I have to remember that. That's classic. :D

Better do it before my parents get too old, too! They'd shit themselves.

At least they would be in the right place!

[angelicate]

My high school psych teacher told us a story of some kind of hazing thing he went through in college.
Apparently, they took him out to the country, put him in a wooden box with a lid, told him they were going to bury him, and then took the box off of the back of the truck and proceeded to shovel dirt on top of him.

The "funny" part is that they'd never put him in a hole, so they were just tossing dirt on top of the box and laughing as he thought they were actually burying him alive.

Another high school tale: Apparently, one of the cheerleaders did something to mortally offend one of the football players, so after a weekend of deer hunting, they took the insides from the deer and dumped them on her car.

I'm so happy sometimes that I was an unpopular kid. No one paid enough attention to me to want to do stuff like that.

[Opus1]

Heard this one from my grandfather. He and his coworkers gave a large number of lottery tickets as a birthday present to a particularly unpleasant coworker. They chose the numbers on one of them to be the winning numbers of the previous lottery drawing. They then switched the newspaper on the desk with yesterday's. After checking his numbers and seeing that he had won, he proceeded to announce his departure and tell off everyone in the office. He left in a blaze of faux glory. No one at the company ever heard from him again. I take my grandpa's stories with a grain of salt, but this one's too good not to tell, apocryphal or not.

[Cholo]

I always like this one although it's pretty harmless. My wife's birthday a few years ago called for a family party and I was in charge of the cake. I went to the baker and on a whim I decided to have some fun. Instead of telling the baker to write "Happy Birthday Linda" I thought it would be funny to have it say "Happy Retirement Earl" with a on old coot in a wheelchair with no teeth. They did it up just fine. A few days went by and the party was in progress and I was told to pick up the cake. I did and brought it back. I set the box in front of my wife and let her do the honors. You should have seen the look of confusion on her face and we all asked "What's wrong?" and she showed us the cacke. I acted totally innocent and confused about the mixup. They sent me in to call the baker...of course I didn't but when I came out I said somehow the baker was confused about it too since there wasn't an order for any "Earl". The whole family was dazed by this turn of events. After about 20 minutes I fessed' up and we all had a big laugh.

Another time happened when my wife and I were playing grab-ass years and years ago. We were chasing each other having fun when she ran into the bathroom and I pretended to hit my face. Of course she thought I was faking (I was) and she wouldn't come out. In then meantime I kept hollering and it was becoming more and more serious and I just so happened to remember where I kept my fake blood from the previous halloween. I start whimpering while I began to saturate my nose with this fake blood and I start yelling that there is a lot of blood out here. Curiously she opens the door and FREAKS! She rushes to help me out and I'm covering my nose and half-laughing but it sounds like I'm whimpering. She rushes me to the bathroom and has me pinch my nose and look upward. As I pinch my nose, more and more blood is pouring out and I tell her that it's broken and it really, really hurts. She's very serious and trying to wipe up the blood with a rag and begins to tell me to get my things together for the hospital. That's when I look her in the eye and say "Got you". We laugh and laugh about that everytime one of the kids asks us about it.

[cogitator]

Two instances come to mind, both car related:



Yuhp. I like to think of pranks as a tai kwan do exercise: lesson teachers. Only no kwan and no grasshoppah and lots more amusing. :D

One of my old roommates (still a close friend) used to be a maniacal driver. I got nothin' against makeup application in the car (it's smart! timesaving!) but she was a make-up applier while also digging in the back seat for a piece of gum while changing her shoes while switching three lanes at high speeds while fumbling with her cell phone and lighting a smoke ... she thought nothing of it.

So for Poisson d'Avril while she was off on a date (leaving late, driving fast) I set out on my mission.

I typed out a very official-looking/sounding letter, supposedly from a small town I knew she would be driving through in order to meet her date. Wish I could remember exactly what I wrote, it was awfully swell. This was 10+ years ago ... the letter was supposedly a 'postally-delivered ticket' issued automatically by the new surveillance cameras the town had supposedly installed to catch and track drivers such as herself, and by using the new photoscope technology Officer Flossy had tracked my roommate's personal info from her license plate number (all lies ... LIES, I tell you).

'We have film documentation of your very inattentive and dangerous driving technique which is shown to include eyeliner application, not using turn signals when appropriate, lipstick application, cellphone use, and frequently, NO eyes on the road anywhere. This letter is to let you know the charge for these extensive reckless driving offensive totals (itemized list) $521.43 and the town of xxx will expect to receive your payment within the next two weeks. Should you decide that you would like to treat this notification the same way you treat your driving, we will be glad to have you as a guest in our jailhouse to serve a sentence equalling the monetary charges assessed. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Officer Flossy at xxx-xxxx.'

The telephone number I listed in the letter was the # to a local porn shop.

When my roommate came home and I handed her the envelope our postman had 'delivered to me at the house with great urgency, insisting that I needed to really really make sure that she received it ASAP', she had a flaming COW.

Such shrieking and carrying on has never been heard (nor the stifled gleeful giggles I was muffling). I knew just what buttons to push and boy howdy, did I hit em. :D I encouraged her to settle her shit down before she called ANYone ('they're the freakin' police, do you think they'll listen to you if you're screeching at them?'), we discussed her driving (roomie: defensive-->angry-->accepting-->resolved to change); she finally felt prepared to deal with Officer Flossy in an attempt to have the citation dropped and hoping she could use her 'wit' and good looks to get her out of another fine mess, she dialed what she thought was the police station. Heh.

It was a very peaceful two days that she didn't speak to me (after I confessed) and completely worth it. And she still does drive but not like she used to. You're all quite welcome.

[Tentacle Monster]

We were on break at work one day, and I showed a few of my co-workers how to send wallpapers, ringers, etc. to their phones. When you do this, your phone gives you this nice "THIS FILE IS NOT OFFICIAL AND MAY MELT YOUR PHONE" kinda message.

After I got home, I hunted down a copy of the picture from goatse.cx, scaled it down, and sent it to a co-worker's phone.

He called in sick the next day.

[Ashkicker]

Me and my other half used to work in a pharmacuetical warehouse. His supervisor couldn't stand him at all. Anyway he worked in shipping. They had these huge boxes that would go on a pallet. They had a lid to which you would have to band strap the box to the pallet and up over the lid. Well wouldn't you know my other half gets the bright idea to get in the box. The guys tighten down the box and supervisor comes over to inspect. To which he can't find the packing slip on the outside of box. Thinking it may have been accidentally left in the box, supervisor who is already pissed off unbands the box and out pops me other half singing "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" by Van Halen. He nearly passed out. Scared the shit out of him. No wonder he was on supervisors bad side. :D

[ContumeliousBob]

Kinda questionalbe, but funny none the less.

Where I work there are coffee addicts.

I replaced the coffee with decaf.

Waited a few months.

Allowed the decaf to run out and they got regular coffee.

Much fun was had with the buzzing bees.

[Susie Derkins]

This one was simple, but hilarious to watch. I was a high school senior, and as it was nearing graduation we had all sorts of rehearsals and assemblies to go to. On this day, all the seniors were sitting in the auditorium, spread around in our little groups, waiting to rehearse the awards assembly. Suddenly, a group of the snobby girls (we still called them "preppies" back then) started squealing and pointing at the ceiling. My friends and I looked up, and saw that there was a huge cockroach crawling up there, about twenty feet above their heads. I don't know what came over me (I was a nice, shy person...back then ;)), but I reached into my purse, pulled out a penny, and threw it up in the air toward the girls. It landed right in the lap of the squealiest one. I still remember the screams and dancing. :D

[Wikkit]

Take a can of shaving cream and put it in the freezer. Once it is good and frozen snip away the canister from the frozen tube. Now, put the frozen tube in a desk drawer.
It doesn't really work very well. There's less shaving cream in a can than you might think. http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/frozen/frozen.html

[Larry Mudd]

Worst practical joke--

As a birthday gag, salesmen I used to work with nicked a roll of plastic palette wrap and styrofoam chips from the warehouse to prank a guy on his birthday. They filled the interior of his new Lexus up with chips, and then wrapped the entire car in plastic wrap.

His birthday was in July.

Did ya know that plastic wrap will bond with a car's paint job under a hot sun, so that you can't remove the wrap without pulling chunks of paint off?

Well, it does. :o

[Mercury]

My quantum professor uses a pointer in class. This is not your ordinary pointer. Oh, no, this pointer is an orange hand on a stick. An orange hand, complete with wrinkles and fingernails, front view and rear view, pointing with its index finger. A once-amputated, now Scotch-taped, index finger.

Got a mental image yet?

Obviously, this hand is a bit used. My friend D is a great artist, and my friend J works in the professor's office. D, ever so generous, traced him a new orange hand. D's orange hand was indistinguishable from the original. Same colour, same wrinkles, same rip, same tape. Exactly identical, except for one small difference...

This hand is pointing with its middle finger.

Obviously, our little group knew all about this before class, and was ecstatic to see him bring out the pointer before starting. Since I'm so deaf, I don't sit with everyone else. I sit right up front, so close I may as well be sitting on the chalk tray.

So class begins. And he points with it. And I almost die. I look to my left, and all my friends look like they're about to pass out.

Class continues on. Professor employs the pointer to show us allowed electron transitions. He gets really into it, walks right in front of me, and puts the pointer right in front of my face. The pointer's maybe 10 inches away. A larger-than-life, bright orange, laminated obscene gesture. I start cracking up. Desperate to regain composure, I look to my left again. They're discreetly flipping me the bird.

I lose it and have to fake a coughing fit.

This was last Wednesday, by the way.

[Lobelia Overhill]

I had an ad from online pen pals somewhere on the 'net a couple of years ago, and some fella responds, I replied and for whatever reason something I said set him off and he replied with a torrent of abuse :confused: I was just going to ignore it and delete, but I thought "nah I'll get the fecker for that ... " I set up an email address for a fake TV production company (I forget what I called it but when you said it out loud it was a swear word - like Up Yours or something), and gave the producer and his assistant names like Richard Sole (R.Sole) and something else rude that I've forgotten, I then emailed the rude git and said the ad had been placed by the TV company and he'd been chosen to appear on the show, could he please ring XXX XXXX ASAP?

The number I gave him was for a pest control place in LA ...

R. Sole got a highly irate email from said fella freaking out that the Production Co. didn't exist

[Larry Mudd]

The number I gave him was for a pest control place in LA ...

R. Sole got a highly irate email from said fella freaking out that the Production Co. didn't exist I'm just sayin' (http://www.bancomicsans.com/home.html)

[Dangerosa]

At SF Cons it is customary to have a "Badge Name"

I managed to get about 300 (out of 3000) people registered with the "badge name" that happened to be a friend of mine's real name. He was at the convention. Many of the people he didn't know.

We even hosted a programming event in his honor. Which was about two hundred people in a room - I believe it was one of the better attended events that year.

[store-clerk-slacker]

My father is probably one of the biggest practical joksters I know. As a matter of fact he honestly thinks that April Fools was created especially for him and just happens to be everyday of the year. Fourtunately for myself and my mother, he is also technologically impaired. He can't work a simple remote with out messing it up. My favorite prank pulled, was by myself on him, a legend in his own mind.

I guess I was about 19 or 20, still living at home and bored to tears one day. Knowing that my dad couldn't work any of the technical equipment around the house, I decided that I was going to play a joke. I re-recorded the "outgoing" message on their answering machine and then paged my dad. We waited and about 3 minutes later this is what we heard....

A-M: Thank you for calling. If you know your parties extension please dial it now followed by the pound sign. To reach "MOM" press 1, to reach "DAUGHTER" press 2 and to reach "DAD" press 758421 followed by the pound key and then the star key"

The first phone call we here the pressing of what we assume was the number 1, because then we heard my dad calling thru the machine.."HELLO!! PICK UP!!" He hangs up and calls back this time he dials number 2..same thing yelling to pick up. Finally he calls back a third time and we hear him talking to himself....

Dad: What the hell was that number to my desk?? F@ck!!..then numbers just pushed at random and the slamming of the phone.

When he got home he asked me what the hell I did to the answering machine. I said what the hell were you thinking trying to call yourself??

He still hasn't lived that one down... :D

[Clothahump]

I still love the story of

[Clothahump]

Well, I'm confused as to how that last post happened. Someone played a practical joke on me, I guess :D


I was trying to tell the story of the famous prank played by Hugh Troy, when he made a fake ear out of hamburger and slipped it into a Van Gogh exhibition labelled as the actual ear Van Gogh cut off and sent to a hooker.

[screech-owl]

...I once saw a car in my neighborhood that had been competely filled with Styrafoam peanuts. Cute....

My sister hung tinsel all over the inside of her then-boyfriend's car. Dashboard, steering wheel, ashtrays, glove box, you name it, every internal square inch was covered with tinsel. All done while he was at work. Imagine walking out to your car and finding it glittering in the afternoon sun.

A few months later, she crawled under the car and wired small jungle bells under his engine compartment (nowhere they would cause actual problems), but it drove him insane trying to find the souce of all the pinging from the engine. Took him long enough to think about looking underneath the car.

[screech-owl]

... jungle bells ...

Dammit. ...jingle bells...

[infamousmom]

One of my dad's favorite tricks was to send off cards for free samples, magazine subscriptions and so forth, in the name of people he didn't like.

His all-time prize prank of that nature was when we were in the Minneapolis airport and my dad found a kiosk with cards to send off for a free demonstration of, of all things, earth-moving equipment.

He promptly filled in the name and address of a major horse's patoot of our acquaintance and mailed it off. Pity we never heard what became of that one (the guy lived in Nebraska).

My brothers and I are rather pleased with the memories of a couple of pranks we pulled with real-estate signs. One Halloween we went out and swiped a for-sale sign from one real estate agency and planted it on the lawn of his biggest competitor. And on another occasion we swiped a sign advertising the numb-nut construction agency that had built our house and planted it in front of a tumbledown old wreck of an abandoned shack out on a dirt road just outside the city limits.

A friend of my parents' later told us he'd driven past that place and just about drove off the road, he was laughing so hard.