Then I’m confused. Your OP asks about the consequences if you were to carry out a prank that you say you had no intention of actually pulling. Some people get miffed because they dont’t think it’s a funny thing to do. Slightly heated discusssion about the nature of humor and societal expectations of respect in the service industry ensues. Then you say:
The only things I see in that statement are that you believe that pranking, under the stipulations you give, is funny. I then opined that this attitude is fucked up, speculate that you may be defending a position that you did not originally intend to, and predict that this sort of behavior may result in being told not to return to a business.
What am I seeing in your statement that’s not there? Please understand that I’m not being sarcastic, I genuinely don’t understand what you think I’m reading into your statement.
It is worth as much as a $5 bill, if it clears. But the only way to check if it is valid is take it to the bank and file it and see if it bounces. Involving fees. Not good.
And yes, it is a bit condescending. Instead of presenting the paper, ask “Do you take checks?” and see how well that goes over.
Think about this, would you appreciate your boss giving you a pile of personal checks made out to cash instead of direct deposit? Personal checks from a random person’s checking account rather from a company account. “Who is this Mike Jones?”
Same deal, disrespected. “We don’t take checks.” It might have been funnier back when paper checks were more common, but between debit cards and electronic transfers, checks are falling out of favor in places they used to be welcomed. They are not going to be appreciated by someone who has no way of evaluating their legitimacy when the standard is cash money.
You know what would be just as funny? Handing out IOUs in preset denominations. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Depends on the stripper, some will pull it out for you. But not for a check.
The way it works here, you can sit at your table and watch for free. If you go up to the stage, you are offering to tip for special attention. The dancer will come over and start giving you a more personal interaction, and after 20 to 50 seconds or so, if you have not already thrown the cash at her, on the stage, or started dropping ones all over her (called a “money shower”), she will indicate time for a tip by offering a hip and pulling out her g-string a bit. Then you submit your bill to the offered spot. She may also ask your name or otherwise try to assess if she should find you after getting off stage to get lap/table dances.
If at said time you were to pull out a check instead of a bill, she would likely get a bit upset - “What’s this? I don’t take checks.” She might just move off and ignore you from then on, she might wave over a bouncer, she might start getting loud/vocal/violent - depending upon her temperment, the culture of the establishment, etc. If you don’t know her, though, (at least as a regular), she’s not going to look at it as cute - pre-printed personal checks.
Now if you have a regular stripper you have been seeing for some time, such that she knows your name and you’ve never stiffed her before, then she might think/pretend it’s cute. But she’s very likely to refuse to accept it and prod you for cash.
Humor is subjective.
It’s not supposed to be examined from the perspective of the person receiving the checks. It’s “hey look, I’m not using cash - I’m using personal checks. Ha ha! But they’re preprinted denominations, like cash! And they’re made out to cash, so they can be exchanged like cash!” It’s mildly amusing in a strange juxtaposition way, but only from the perspective of being odd, not from actually receiving said checks and having to deal with them.
No, it’s not about being annoying or making the persons’ job/life more difficult. It’s simply about the juxtaposition of seeing checks in prefilled denominations. Escalating in value. The fact that it would actually be annoying and make the recipient’s job harder is why you shouldn’t execute it, because it wouldn’t actually be funny to them.
Sure. “Look at this clown who tried to give me checks. In increasing increments! Like we take checks.”
Well, I’d certainly be laughing and shaking my head. And feeling a bit sorry for the stripper having to put up with that kind of a jackass.
Teasing someone you know is one thing, pulling a prank on a stranger is another. But then I don’t like the local radio show hosts that do a “birthday prank” deal. People submit ideas/requests about a friend who had some annoying situation, and they call the person and pretend to be involved in that situation and see how much they can ratchet up the annoyance to get that person angry on air. So they can reveal at the end the prank. That’s a great Happy Birthday message! :rolleyes:
I don’t want to pile onto the OP, but I also have some difficulty in seeing what is the funny part. Is it paying by cheques (checks) or presigned or have I missed the lot?
I think it’s supposed to be the stripper’s reaction to the checks, because fucking with people who are just trying to get through the workday the best they can is oh so hilarious. See the quote below.
So you’ll think it’s a scream when the stripper shows up at your workplace the next day and turns off the grill while you’re trying to flip the burgers? I mean, it’s not harmful. Just confusing and annoying. No damage, no panic, no firing, so it’s all great, right?
I see your error, and it is the one I expected. You are misinterpreting “As long as it’s legal, doesn’t cause a panic, and doesn’t get the employee fired, of course.”
This means a prank is impermissible if it meets conditions A, B, or C. It does not mean that any prank that does NOT meet condition A, B, or C IS permissible. I simply am saying that those three conditions are instant vetos for a prank, not that they are an exhaustive list. Clearer?
I’m a database analyst, but to fire a hypothetical back at you, if I were doing your job - which is veterinary in nature, correct? - and someone brought in their “very sick” cat, who turned out to be a stuffed and mounted animal, I’d laugh.
I get that some people don’t like practical jokes in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Some people do. I do. And you seem to have made the same error as the Furious Marmot - The damage/panic/firing statement does not imply its inversion.
Your practical joke essentially amounts to offering somebody fake money to do their job. I don’t get why that’s funny to do to anybody in any job, but when you do it to strippers it carries an extra level of mockery and degradation. I don’t get the joke. If it’s not on the strippers, who is it on?
I’ve never been to a strip joint, but I’m guessing if you waved a check at a dancer, she’d just ignore you and your prank would never go anywhere. If you kept it up with trying to wave one dollar checks at dancers, you’d probably get a word from a bouncer to knock it off.
Basically imagine trying to pull the same “prank” with Monopoly money. The reactions you’d get would be exactly the same. You wouldn’t be stuffing and garters or thongs while confused, compliant strippers ket taking them. You’d be ignored until you became annoying enough to get bounced.
Now see, the stuffed cat joke I’d actually find pretty funny. But veterinarians aren’t historically known for already having a rough go of things.
I’m not sure where the line is drawn (for my own tastes), but I’d put strippers (and bartenders, fast food workers, waiters and the like) on the other side of it.
So you only get angry on behalf of service-industry people who work in large part for gratuities? Why is that, do you think? Do you look down on them, and thus pity them, and single them out for some kind of paternalistic protective instinct?
One of my best friends in the world is doing part-time work in the fast food industry. I don’t look down on her for it, I treat her just like anybody else. And if I take a wild hair to go up to the counter where she works and start quietly singing the menu under my breath as I contemplate my order, then I’ll do that. It may waste a little time, but it’d be funny.
I have to agree with Bob Ducca sp while I can’t answer for him I’ll take a shot at this.
It has nothing to do with the person the prank is pulled on. What makes the cat thing funny is the outrageousness of the whole thing. It is strikingly out of the norm and the only confusion is the mental sanity of the cat bearer and how you approach them.
People trying to pay for things with checks in places where checks are not allowed? Not funny and depressingly normal. Over the years I’ve seen it countless times and it’s never funny. These people aren’t trying to be funny either. They want the item and are willing to argue about it. They are annoying.
Presenting to a stripper in a strip club doesn’t change the fact that it’s unfunny. Maybe if I looked down on them I might find it funny but since I don’t, no it’s not funny simply because the root of the prank isn’t funny or clever but simply annoying.
I’ve worked enough shitty service-industry jobs to know how hard people in those jobs work just for little-pay, but also for very little respect - from both management and society at large. Working as a stripper is just about at the bottom of the respect ladder (just above prostitute, really), but that doesn’t make them any less deserving of MY respect, or YOUR respect.
When someone is already doing something that garners them such little respect, they don’t need people purposefully disrespecting them even more than they are already, making their jobs even harder than it already is, just for a laugh.
Part of being an adult non-asshole tenant of Earth is being able to show respect to those who don’t normally recieve it from the immature asshole members of the world. What’s so wrong with trying to be on the right side of that line? Is being respectful of others really that hard for you?
My previous job was veterinary, yes. And no, having to either cut my lunch break short or call and piss off a bunch of other people to create an opening to see this very sick animal and having it turn out to be some lame-ass prank would not be funny. In fact, if the prankster picked his day badly, I would be seriously tempted to bludgeon him to death with his fucking taxidermy. Actually, I bet that would engender a whole lot of highly amusing consternation and confusion. So maybe I would laugh, after all.
Other things that your veterinary staff will not be amused by:
-smoking up your pet and calling us to tell us about its reaction
-feeding someone’s 8-week puppy all the black cake icing it will eat because the dye will turn its poop weird colors
-calling us to ask what to do if your dog’s wooden leg falls off
-calling us to ask how to tell if the muskrat you’ve been fucking has AIDS
-yelling “Boo!” in the middle of a blood draw
Believe me, you are not the first one to come up with hi-larious pranks to play on the vet clinic staff.
Never said I was! And just because you wouldn’t find it funny doesn’t mean another veterinary employee might not find it funny.
So I’m headed out of town for a few days and won’t be able to keep up with this thread, but I can go ahead and answer some posters in advance. Please select whichever response is most suitable for your post, as indicated :
“It’s not funny!” -> Some people think it is, and there’s no accounting for taste.
“You shouldn’t prank people at work!” -> That’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it. So please, keep it.
“You’d get your ass thrown out!” - > Yup, already figured into the OP. Please read.
“Only a horrible person would do such a thing!” - > For a variety of reasons, I’m not planning to do it, so this is not really contributing anything of value to the thread.