I always see this in TV and movies where someone puts a bucket over a partially open door and someone comes in and the bucket dumps water or sand or something like that on someone’s head and we all laugh 
My question is wouldn’t the bucket hit the guy on the head too and cause considerable pain? I know TV isn’t real life, but you never see the person in pain from the bucket hitting his head.
Assuming the contents have already dumped out, buckets aren’t usually that heavy on their own.
There was a Gahan Wilson cartoon depicting a couple of giggling prison guards standing behind the bucket-rigged door of an execution chamber housing an electric chair. ‘Here he comes!’
It did in the movie Carrie, although the gag was a pulled off a tad different.
I don’t know about you people, but I know that I wouldn’t want to get conked on the head by an empty galvanized bucket. I wouldn’t even want to be hit, unawares, but an empty plastic bucket*. I think that anybody who pulls the “bucket over the door” trick with an unsecured bucket is looking for a lawsuit.
Please not that in Carrie the bucket itself was tied to the rafter – it’d dump its bloody contents, but wasn’t supposed to fall on Carrie. Then it did fall on her date – and knock him out.
Fun all around.
*I think the worst I could take and not be excessively annoyed would be a paper bucket, like the kind they sell popcorn in. Of course, I’d still be annoyed at getting whatever dumped on me.
I think you overestimate the destructive potential of a small plastic bucket. Anything heavy enough to bust your skull probably wouldn’t easily fit over a door, anyway.
This one time, at summer camp[sup]1[/sup], we did this to get back at a particularly obnoxious CIT who would step out of the cabin to light up a joint while we were supposed to be sleeping. After that, he got wise, and would always look up before entering a door that was slightly ajar.
So the next time, we tied the bucket’s handle to the rafters above the door, and let it hang such that the bottom half of the bucket was aligned with the top few inches of the door. Then closed the door completely.
Sure enough, he swung the door open with full confidence, causing the bucket to flip and soak him.
[sub]1. Not a band camp[/sub]
That’s why you ALSO have to make sure to remove the drain trap off of any nearby sinks. So if they see the bucket and decide to empty it…
When we were kids, my brother used to line up tennis balls on the tops of partially opened doors, so that when you touched the door they’d rain down on you. Much less harmful than a bucket of water, and mom doesn’t kill you over the wet floor.
I didn’t say it would hurt me – just that I wouldn’t like it.
And if you don’t think damaging buckets won’t fit on top of doors, you plainly haven’t been hit in the head enough.
I always just tied the bucket handle to a nearby bracket or window latch. Of course, I was a kid at camp the few times I ever pulled the gag. Those cabins probably had more places to tie something off than would your house.
The bucket in the book version of *Carrie * ended up falling on her date’s head and killing him.
Didn’t Captain Bligh kill someone by hitting him over the head with a wooden bucket?
A cousin of this trick was used in our college dorm. The room doors were windowless and opened inward. A large hallway trash can (30-40 gal.?) lined with a plastic bag would be filled 1/2-2/3 full with water (in the shower) and then leaned against the door. When the door was opened, flooding of the room (and your feet) ensued.
Not sure I get this.
Presumably the water pours out of the sink right onto the floor, making a mess and possibly soaking the victim’s feet.
Ah okay now I get it…I wasn’t sure what a drain trap was (I’m not a native English speaker). :smack: So it’s the pipe under the drain, right?
Thanks GaryT.
Yes. It’s called a trap because its curved shape traps some water in the pipe, which prevents sewer gases from coming up into the sink. Illustration here and here.
When I was 13 years old, I stayed in a college dorm for a couple of weeks for a computer camp. Some kids set up the bucket trick. But instead of their intended target, the cleaning lady opened the door. Not only did the bucket conk her on the head, but she slipped and fell in the water and slightly injured herself.
They had to write a letter of apology to the lady. These days, they’d probably be convicted of assault and battery and the resulting media frenzy would lead to federal legislation mandating the re-adoption of skins as a safer form of liquid transport.
We pulled the bucket gag when I was a teenager but we rigged it so the bucket wouldn’t drop down. Duct tape, string, a bucket, and whatever we filled it with.
Human skins please. Otherwise PETA will go postal, and we don’t want that.
When PETA goes postal they shoot puppies.