Pranks, Tricks and Practical Jokes

[TE999]

I ran across references to same in a book I'm reading and it got me to thinking about stunts I pulled in my relatively misspent youth. I ran around with friends that in my day were referred to as 'high spirited' and 'delinquents' by parents and the school principal respectively. Nowadays, prolly most of us would have been pumped full of Ritalin and stood in a corner.

One of the best pranks we ever pulled involved the town's more upscale movie theater. It always showed the first film releases and even hosted a few premeires. In those days, movies were segregated so Blacks were relegated to the balcony. You actually had a better view from there, so when we did go to a movie there it's where we sat, much to the ushers chagrin.

On to the prank. One Saturday afternoon we emerged from the downscale movie theater all hyper from the 'kiddie' matinee' (two westerns, Three Stooges shorts, Warner Bros. cartoons and a serial) and decided to cause trouble.

Our groups official 'madman' was Bob. He'd do anything once, no matter how risky or harebrained and had the scars to prove it. He went in the luncheonette at Woolworths and emerged with a cup of what turned out to be piping hot vegetable soup. With an evil gleam in his eye, he suggested we take in a movie at the upscale theater. We knew something was up, but didn't care as long as it was fun.

Bob hid the cup under his shirt, we bought our tickets and headed for the balcony. We sat in the front row and Bob waited for a romantic part of the movie when the theater was quiet except for the sound track.

He took the lid off the now warm cup of soup, made teriffic gagging and retching noises and poured the soup over the balcony rail. We ran for the fire exit as the theater erupted in a cacophony of screams and shouts. We ran for three blocks, ducked into a drug store and began reading comic books, snickering at our cleverness.

We heard later three rows of people were hit with the soup, the house lights went up, the film was stopped and chaos reigned. We we're never caught, but it was the talk of the town for months afterward.

How about you denizens of the AH? Ever pulled a stunt that raised hell in school, the movies, a friends house, against an enemy or whereever? Now's the time to fess' up and boast about your ingenuity.

[SweetWitch]

I once put a baby skunk in the car of a girl who screwed my best friend's boyfriend. Does that count?

Daddy ended up buying her a new car.

[TE999]

Originally Posted by SweetWitch

I once put a baby skunk in the car of a girl who screwed my best friend's boyfriend. Does that count?

Daddy ended up buying her a new car.

It most certainly does.

Another automobile prank is to put limburger cheese on an engine's exhaust manifold. When the manifold gets hot, talk about a stink. Ugh! You can't get rid of it unless you etch the steel with acid.

[Salvor-Hardon]

The high school I attended had a very straight pattern of concrete blocks, and nice institutional beige paint. A friend and I split some blocks so we could epoxy the sides to a sheet of plywood, and then paint it over. It fit perfectly and made it look like the door had disappeared.

We got the rest of the class to pretend that there was never a room there, and when the teacher went to open her door.... well no door. "No Ma'am your room is down the hall. There's never been a room here."

[TE999]

Originally Posted by Salvor-Hardon

The high school I attended had a very straight pattern of concrete blocks, and nice institutional beige paint. A friend and I split some blocks so we could epoxy the sides to a sheet of plywood, and then paint it over. It fit perfectly and made it look like the door had disappeared.

We got the rest of the class to pretend that there was never a room there, and when the teacher went to open her door.... well no door. "No Ma'am your room is down the hall. There's never been a room here."

*snerk* That's a true masterpiece.

There's a fine line between goofing on someone like that teacher and being truly malicious. We once put the Senior Class presidents Nash Metropolitan between two pine trees during a pep rally. He was a snotty bastard and we all hated him.

He finally begged six guys from the football team to lift it free while we stood by and laughed.

[SweetWitch]

Originally Posted by Salvor-Hardon

The high school I attended had a very straight pattern of concrete blocks, and nice institutional beige paint. A friend and I split some blocks so we could epoxy the sides to a sheet of plywood, and then paint it over. It fit perfectly and made it look like the door had disappeared.

We got the rest of the class to pretend that there was never a room there, and when the teacher went to open her door.... well no door. "No Ma'am your room is down the hall. There's never been a room here."

Sal. Long time! I like your trick. Sounds like an awful lot of work, but still a lot of fun.

[glynndah]

While in college, I, with the help of a few friends, typed up a new list of house rules for the boys' dorm and posted it on their official bulletin board. The new rules were the talk of the dorm and then the campus for weeks.

[SweetWitch]

Originally Posted by glynndah

While in college, I, with the help of a few friends, typed up a new list of house rules for the boys' dorm and posted it on their official bulletin board. The new rules were the talk of the dorm and then the campus for weeks.

Well? What were the rules?

[TE999]

Originally Posted by glynndah

While in college, I, with the help of a few friends, typed up a new list of house rules for the boys' dorm and posted it on their official bulletin board. The new rules were the talk of the dorm and then the campus for weeks.

I gotta hear this one. The good little witch has a touch of the prankster in her past.

[wonderingwhy]

I led a fairly boring, prank-free childhood, however, my mom...

When she was in high school, she and a bunch of friends decided it would be fun to fill the school's swimming pool with goldfish. Apparently they weren't honor students because they didn't take into account the chlorine in the water. The next day, instead of laughing about the giant fish tank they'd created, they cringed at the dozens and dozens and dozens of dead goldfish floating in the pool. Oops!

Okay, I take it back. I remember playing one joke when I was a kid. I was about 12 years old and at a slumber party. Around midnight we grabbed the phone book and started calling people at random. Just really stupid stuff like using a sultry voice (yeah, what 12yo kid has a sultry voice? ) and phoning the local Howard Johnson's hotel, requesting their most private room with candles and a hot tub and asking if Howard would be available to join us.

Duran Duran was huge back then, so we also looked up and called a "John Taylor" at random out of the phone book. Yes, at midnight, we woke up some poor guy, asked if he was John Taylor, and then when he said yes, we started screaming, "Oh, my God! It's John Taylor! Is Simon Le Bon there?"

Hey, I never said I played any good pranks! Remember? Boring childhood. Sigh.

[glynndah]

Originally Posted by SweetWitch

Well? What were the rules?

Originally Posted by TE999

I gotta hear this one. The good little witch has a touch of the prankster in her past.

It's been a long, long time ago. I don't remember all of them. I think there was one about a new curfew and mandatory meetings. My favorite one was a list of approved girls interested in dating those boys to be handed out at the front desk. People working the desk had no clue, of course.

[TE999]

Originally Posted by wonderingwhy

I led a fairly boring, prank-free childhood, however, my mom...

When she was in high school, she and a bunch of friends decided it would be fun to fill the school's swimming pool with goldfish. Apparently they weren't honor students because they didn't take into account the chlorine in the water. The next day, instead of laughing about the giant fish tank they'd created, they cringed at the dozens and dozens and dozens of dead goldfish floating in the pool. Oops!

Okay, I take it back. I remember playing one joke when I was a kid. I was about 12 years old and at a slumber party. Around midnight we grabbed the phone book and started calling people at random. Just really stupid stuff like using a sultry voice (yeah, what 12yo kid has a sultry voice? ) and phoning the local Howard Johnson's hotel, requesting their most private room with candles and a hot tub and asking if Howard would be available to join us.

Duran Duran was huge back then, so we also looked up and called a "John Taylor" at random out of the phone book. Yes, at midnight, we woke up some poor guy, asked if he was John Taylor, and then when he said yes, we started screaming, "Oh, my God! It's John Taylor! Is Simon Le Bon there?"

Hey, I never said I played any good pranks! Remember? Boring childhood. Sigh.

The goldfish prank has merit, but as an aquarium gets points off for execution. Come to think of it, a pool full of dead fish is in itself a good prank.

Crank phone calls have been around since Bell hooked up the first lines. "Do you have Prince Albert in the can?" "Is your refrigerator running?" "Do you have any naked pictures of your mother/wife/girlfriend/sister?"

[glynndah]

When I was a child, the pay phones would allow about ten seconds of talk time before you had to put your dime in. Just enough time to ask about alligator shoes, a running refrigerator, Prince Albert in a can, etc.

Oh, not that I ever did, of course.

[MistressLynn]

I was innocent.

[TE999]

Originally Posted by glynndah

When I was a child, the pay phones would allow about ten seconds of talk time before you had to put your dime in. Just enough time to ask about alligator shoes, a running refrigerator, Prince Albert in a can, etc.

Oh, not that I ever did, of course.

Of course you didn't.

Caller ID's pretty much put the kibosh on phone pranks. You can still leave phone message slips for co-workers saying Mr. Lyon, Mrs. Monk or Ms. Foxx wants you to call them back and their number's the City Zoo.

[voluptuary_manque]

I admit nothing. Nothing, do you hear, NOTHING! After all, if I had done something, I might have gotten caught and getting caught was something that only happened to 'other people'.

[oggbashan]

1. Og's friends: The Physics teacher exploded at his class: "You've learned absolutely nothing about levers and pulleys. I give up. You'll have to cover that part of the syllabus yourself!"

By the end of the school day, his car, an Austin Seven, was on the roof of the Physics Lab with a note "We were listening". The school secretary received an anonymous envelope full of cash to repay the cost of the crane to retrieve the car.

2. One of Og's friends saw a report in The Times about a military exercise on Salisbury Plain that mimicked a nuclear mushroom cloud with a small explosive charge set off in a mixture of dirty engine oil and detergent. He intended to duplicate it but didn't have the military explosive so he used the IRA's explosive mixture which was known to all schoolboys of my era.

At first he meant it to be a small scale replica but when he found how cheaply he could get the materials in quantity he made it bigger, and bigger, and bigger... Eventually the explosive mixture weighed nearly a tonne and the detergent/engine oil mix about two tonnes before his friends realised that the prank was getting out of hand and made an anonymous call to the Police.

The bomb disposal experts calculated that the device would have made a hole about 50 yards across and 10 or 12 yards deep, creating a mushroom cloud rising to 50,000 feet visible over most of SE England. Og's friend was never identified.

Og

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My old man did some time in prison and was involved with organized crime, so I learned how to pull some great tricks on people. My favorite prank was getting a mutt from the SPCA and tossing it into a kennel of purebred AKC females the victim's wife bred and sold.