best practical joke EVER

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

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.

42

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.

43

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.

44

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.

45

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!

46

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.

47

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.

48

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)

49

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.

50

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.

51

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

52

Project Garth

53

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!”

:smiley:

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

54

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.

55

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.

56

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.

57

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.

58

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!

59

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.

60

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.