Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pranks

I started looking at the sequel yesterday, because I am a lunatic. One of my favorite scenes is actually inspired by a senior prank played by one of my friends when he was in high school. I'm not going to give you the exact deets, because duh, I want you to read my book. But it got me thinking about pranks. Fun, mean spirited and otherwise.

I think my favorite prank ever was planned out by one of my college roommates. This was the guy who looked vaguely devilish and was obsessed with the X Files. Anyway, his high school graduation was supposed to be outside, only for some dumb reason they moved it into the musty, yucky gym. They were concerned about allergies or something. Well, the seniors all wanted to graduate out in the sun where it was pretty and didn't smell like old socks. No go. Administration wouldn't allow it.

So roommate went to school with boxes upon boxes of alarm clocks. And put them in the rafters. Set to go off at different times. By the time all of them went out, the noise was deafening. Graduation was moved outside. I hear it was lovely.

I'm not exactly advocating this. I do think it's funny, and it was a creative way to accomplish the goal. But roommate got into a LOT of trouble over it, so please bear that in mind, Gentle Readers. (And you not-so-gentle readers? REALLY bear it in mind.) But it's great book fodder, isn't it?

What are some of your favorite pranks?

14 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

We had an open air court in the middle of the school and some underclassmen put a bunch of chickens in it for a good laugh. I have heard that my uncle's class disassembled a volkswagon beetle and put it back together in the gym.

Kim Harrington said...

I love the MIT pranks every year.

A couple of my favorites:
the epiphany toilet - http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2008/toilet/

the Apollo Lunar Module on the Great Dome - http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2009/apollo_lander/

Unknown said...

When my parents had me babysit my younger siblings for the first time when I was 10 or 11, one of my younger sisters and brother conspired to freak me out. They know I hate blood, and my brother poured a bottle of ketchup all over my sister's leg then yelled that she was hurt.

I tore up the stairs and didn't process quickly enough that it was a little thick and aromatic for blood. I screamed like one of those girls in the horror movies. Yeah, I love them. :)

Kelly Polark said...

When my friend and I would wait for the bus in college, we'd use the dorm phone and call and prank random people.
Also, as a child, I'd tape the kitchen sink sprayer so if the faucet was turned on, the person would get sprayed!

PJ Hoover said...

I do think that's funny. A friend of mine buzzed the football field during homecoming (he had a pilot license).

Carolyn V. said...

They really did that?! How clever! I don't have a favorite prank...yet...I need to start thinking!

Tere Kirkland said...

Funny you should post this today. I'm no prank monkey, but earlier my coworker said she was sick of all the calls she was getting from outside the bldg this morning—from her dad, her boyfriend, her neighbor—and wasn't going to answer another "double ring".

The phone system is the same as the one I had in college, where you can "double ring" someone from inside the building by dialing 9 and their whole number instead of the extension. We used to trick our dorm mates in college by calling them with a double ring and pretending we were someone else.

So this morning, when my coworker said that, I couldn't resist, I had to call her with a double ring. I think they could hear her sigh in the next building! Of course, she laughed when she realized it was me (I sit right behind her, so she heard me in stereo, lol), and has been in a much better mood since then.

More of a little joke than a prank, but still, it was funny!

Stephanie McGee said...

I once pretended to talk in my sleep and then sleepwalk. I acted entirely as though I had no recollection of it when my roommate asked about it. Loved that night.

Bish Denham said...

When a restuarant had a sign that said "No pets allowed" I always had an invisible pet I was feeding under the table and tell said pet to behave and not chew the table legs and don't bite the waitress, etc. etc. etc. That's just one. My mother didn't call me the Rotten Kid for nothing.

Wendy Sparrow said...

LOL. I'm too tired to think in complete sentences but I loved all the pranks listed.

K.C. Shaw said...

That's a good one. When I was in school, everyone was too drunk or dull-spirited to do any pranks. Or maybe I just didn't notice them. :)

Unknown said...

We did Secret Santa for the holiday party for my first job, and I drew the name of an older lady who worked in the pharmacy of the store. I didn't know her at all, but I also knew pranks and gag gifts were something of a tradition for this store.

So, I wrapped up a big box of packing peanuts with a note taped in the bottom that read, "You've been naughty, so here's the scoop, all you get is snowmen poop." When I got to the house, I hid her real gift behind the sofa, and put the package under the tree. At first she was just kind of digging through the box delicately looking for something, and they finally brought her a bag to dump all the peanuts in. When she read the note, she looked up with this sad little pout just in time to see me handing her the tin of homemade goodies.

Mariah Irvin said...

I had to have my high school graduation in the gym, too. It sucked. The only thing my fellow graduates could come up with was inflating a beach ball and throwing it around during the principal's speech. Ah, public school.

Sherrie Petersen said...

I've never been good at thinking up pranks. That's my husband's territory. For my baby shower he and his friend Mike melted candy bars in diapers and made us guess what each one was. Melted Butterfinger looks quite nasty in a diaper!