Every time I went on a camping trip as a youth, we had no actual beds, we did sleeping in our own sleeping bags. This must have been a pretty fancy camping trip!
Sounds like more of a summer camp situation. Multiple weeks, permanent cabins, camp counselors…
What does that accomplish?
Makes cleaning it out a pain? Sounds dum.
All I hear is Fred Flintstone: “Well, hardy-har-har. Droll, Wilma, very…droll.”
With the old style that hangs down a little bit from the ceiling it looks like a bunch of dead flies in the light fixture/shade and makes the new wife (traditionally the person who cleaned the house) look like a poor house keeper. Until a light bulb burnt out how many home owners look up at their light fixtures? But their guest might glance up while sitting there and notice the dead “flies”.
Or that they didn’t want to be accused of teaching kids how it’s done.
Thing, yes. Lame, yes. Funny, from a certain point of view.
I asked my parents that when I was a kid. They explained it but I didn’t really get it.
So the short-sheeted me. Oh the hilarity.
Shivareeing! Yes, I’ve also heard of people filling a newlyweds’ apartment with balloons, or wadded-up newspapers.
The OP asks why shortsheeting is hilarious. Well, there’s that moment when you’re diving feet first into the covers and your legs just stop. Shock-surprise-humor. Combined with a dab of confusion for those unfamiliar with the setup.
The consequences are annoying though: the best pranks are the ones that shake the target’s perceptions but don’t waste their time.
I think it’s one of those summer camp pranks that only works if you’ve never heard of it before so it would be done on the new young kids. If you’re older you’d immediately realize what was going on and just undo it.
It works to some extent even if you know what it is, because you’re not expecting it at that particular moment; so there’s a moment of “what the hell” before you realize “oh shit, somebody’s shortsheeted my bed and now I have to remake it.”
Which is vexing as hell for a sleepy (or wasted) person who’s quite ready for fading off to sleep, not some tiresome housekeeping task.
Practical jokes are all about pissing off the victim, but not to the extent that they hunt you down and kill you in return.
It’s a nicer world that has fewer practical jokes in it.
I don’t sleep in an envelope. When getting ready for bed in a hotel I take down the covers & then untuck the top sheet all the way around before even considering getting into the bed.
Not on their honeymoon, not even married but living together, with a dog & went home for the holidays so had a friend stay there as a dog walker. I mean, who doesn’t like coming home to find some extra ‘gifts’ wrapped up for you
OK.
Not everyone does it that way.