There used to be tear-off advertising reply cards on bulletin boards in the corridor on the way to the restrooms at the local grocery stores and malls. One was for a company that was supposed to cure enuresis (involuntary loss of bladder control/ bedwetting). A co-worker and I used to prank each other, so I filled out a card with his contact info and mailed it in. A few weeks later he received a phone call waking him up at 6am from a salesperson who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. The salesperson kept insisting it was nothing to be ashamed of, no need to pretend someone else sent the card in as a prank, lots of adults have the same problem, etc. I laughed so hard as he was telling me about it…
I have a friend who occasionally invites me to his home for social events. One day I notice a grocery list on the kitchen counter, and when he and his wife were out of the room, I grabbed a pen and added Cheeze-It crackers to the list. Now, the first time they read this I imagine it caused some confusion, but they soon figured out who added it to the list. Still, every chance I had I continued to add Cheeze-Its to the list. For years. A silly joke, but it became a challenge to casually add it to the list.
Fast forward several years and they eventually divorced (nothing to do with crackers, as far as I know). My friend eventually met a new gal, and she recently moved in with him. This last Sunday they had a party, and while there I spotted the grocery list. Of course, as soon as they were preoccupied with other guests I grabbed a pen and added Cheeze-Its to the list.
The next day I had plans with my friend and when I stopped by his house to pick him up, his girlfriend walked out to my car, handed me a box of Cheeze-Its, and asked "Is this what you wanted?” I burst out laughing. It had taken perhaps a decade, but my practical joke had finally paid off.
Might not qualify as a “prank,” but when I was in college, a friend of mine had narcolepsy and would frequently wander off to take naps in the middle of meals. While she was away, I would sometimes rearrange the peas and carrots to form shapes on her plate, etc. So one time, she had to wander off again but said, “Velocity, do NOT play with my food while I’m gone!” She then went to the couch.
So I got out pen and paper and drafted an affidavit:
Let it be attested, on this 15th day of March, 2010, that the serving of food allotted to (friend) for lunch was not touched, disturbed or played with in the absence of its owner.
Signed _____________________
Signed _____________________
Signed _____________________
Signed _____________________
Signed _____________________
Signed _____________________
All six of us people at the lunch table signed the document and left it next to her plate for her to read upon return.
My best prank was actually a two-fer, at my brother’s wedding reception. My best friend was there with me, and my brother was sure we were going to try something, most likely with his car. A few times I’d walk up to him with a smirk on my face and say “Hey, can I have your keys?” and he’d say “Hell no!”
So at one point my friend goes up to him and says “I can’t find my wallet. I think I left it in the car.” (We had all driven to the reception in his car.) “Do you mind if I go look for it?” My brother handed the keys right over without a second thought.
We grabbed a bunch of sliced cheese and bread off the buffet table and headed out. We popped the hood, spread the cheese slices on top of the engine block, then laid the bread slices on top of the cheese. Then we went back inside, my friend flashed his wallet at my brother and said “found it!” as he handed back the keys.
My brother told me later that after they left the reception, they got less than a mile down the road before smoke started pouring out from under the hood. He stopped the car, popped the hood, and could only just shake his head and laugh.
The second part of the prank though, was when my friend asked what my brother’s reaction was to the face down grilled cheese sandwiches we made on the engine. I said “Oh man, he is so pissed. He had to pay $700 to have his engine steam-cleaned to get all that gunk off.” My friend was horrified and felt guilty as hell. I eventually told him the truth, that my brother thought it was hilarious.
I was in the USAF assigned to Chanute back in the late 70’s, it was summertime, and we were bored. Our barracks was a few stories tall with a flat roof, so we posted a fake assignment sheet on the bulletin board listing the newbies that were assigned to “Tornado Watch” each night. We put a chair on the roof with a large whistle hanging from it, and gave the newbies the instructions: Sit in the chair during your shift, and blow the whistle loudly if you see a tornado. Funny as hell…until that fateful night when, at around 2 am when we were awakened to the sound of a loud whistle. We scrambled up the stairs to the roof and found a newbie blowing the whistle excitedly and pointing at a small tornado heading for the base. We pulled his ass downstairs, made frantic phone calls to the authorities, and they made sure the base was secure.
Yes, our barracks got a commendation for our quick thinking and, no, nobody said jack shit about how it started out as a joke.
I’ve written about this one before. It wasn’t me, but a co-worker at an optical engineering company.
One of our other co-workers left the HeNe laser used for alignment of a system on while he went to lunch. The laser spot ended up on a white wall made of drywall. One of the other guys poked a hole in the wall where the laser beam hit, then shoved wooden match in there, with the head protruding. Then he lit the latch with another match. This created very nice soot mark on the wall above the hole, a nice burn around the hole itself, and the match head was consumed. So it looked for all the world as if that puny quarter of a milliwatt helium neon laser had succeeded in burning a hole into the wall.
Wait for co-worker to get back from lunch, and watch for his reaction.
The fact that it was a HeNe laser used for alignment shows how old this story is. Nowadays you’d be using a corrected diode laser.
Nothing epic, but many years ago my friend and I went to the PX where he bought himself a new boombox with a CD player. We went back to his place, where he eagerly tore into the box and took out the unit. While he was getting it plugged in, I glanced into the box and spotted the remote, took it out and put in the batteries.
He turns on the power, and I turned it off. On again, off again, on again, off again. He’s getting frustrated, so I stopped. Then he opens the CD drawer, and I close it. Open, close, open, close. Now he’s getting really pissed and muttering about what a piece of shit this thing is.
I let him keep the tray open and he puts in a disc and closes the drawer. Repeat the open and close routine, and by now I can hardly stifle my laughter, while he’s raging at the gods. I let him start the music, and more shenanigans ensue. I finally stopped him from picking the thing up and smashing it on the floor and showed him the remote. He wasn’t happy with me.
I just remembered this time I pranked a friend in college. I typed up a letter that claimed to be from the university, telling my friend that he had failed two classes with an “Incomplete” status (ie. he had not completed the required exams etc.) I picked unlikely classes that my friend would never have taken; I think they were Introduction to Mandarin and Animal Husbandry. I used two different typewriters so that it looked like a form letter with the list of classes added separately, to add to the verisimilitude. I mailed the letter to him via the university’s internal post office. It was a rather crude forgery and upon receiving it my friend was suspicious but worried. I and a few other people that I had let in on the plan listened sympathetically while he fretted about whether this was real, and what kind of error either he or the university might have made. He finally took the letter to the university office and showed it to them. They just laughed and told him it was a fake.