Redditor lahaff got his brother a Christmas gift and was determined to wrap it in a manner that would take all day to unwrap it. First, he welded it inside a metal casing. But that’s just the first step! See the rest of the process in a wordless photo essay that will leave you shaking your head. Then we’ll just pretend his brother won’t hear about it before Christmas. Link -via reddit

USB Heating Slippers – $9.95

Are you looking for a really special gift to give this holiday season. Give someone you love that warm and fuzzy feeling with the USB Heating Slippers from the NeatoShop. These very sophisticated slippers offer deep Far Infared Heat. Just plug them into a USB port and feel your tootsies be warmed by holiday cheer. They are available in blue and brown.

Toe Tunes Prank Gift Box – $7.95

If you really want to make the gift a surprise try wrapping it in a crazy Toe Tunes Prank Gift Box. The receiver will be oh-so relieved to find that you gave them USB Heating Slippers not some ridiculous gift like Toe Tunes. Really, who comes up with this stuff?

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Footwear and Gift Boxes and Wraps!

Link

Not only did Irving Fishlove buy the idea to mass-produce and sell, he also took matters into his own hands. His son, Howard Fishlove, told the Timms about coming home as a schoolkid to find his kitchen counter covered in various types of fake barf. Turns out, Dad was so excited about this upchuck gag, he was experimenting with his own formulas of brown or yellow latex mixed with chunky bits of colored foam. “He told us it was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen,” says Mardi Timm.

The formula they settled on has been a closely-guarded secret ever since. Read all about the history of “Whoops,” the original latex barf at Collector’s Weekly. Link -Thanks, Ben!

Josh proposed to Brook and took the idea of a “leap of faith” to a ridiculous level! I don’t think her “No way!” is a rejection; I think she was only shocked and probably trying to lower her blood pressure. -via I Am Bored

Crazy Calculator

Have you heard about the Crazy Calculator, the calculator that hates math? It’s both a prank calculator and a real calculator! When your friends are around, use it in prank mode. Whatever equation you enter, the answer will come up crazy: I H8 MATH, ASK NICELY, TRY LATER, WHO CARES, GO AWAY, and more! But when you really need an answer, switch it to normal mode and get the correct answer. Sweet! It’s solar powered with battery backup and has an automatic shut off timer. Get your Crazy Calculator today at the NeatoShop!

And check out all the other prank toys and gifts at the NeatoShop!

At my office, we think it’s hilarious to fill people’s cubes with balloons (and then our facilities people get upset). At Legoland, they think it’s hilarious to replace your car with one made of little plastic bricks. They win. It took 201,076 Legos (that’s 2,934 pounds’ worth) to build this Volvo replica.

Link via The Daily What

Wait for it…. -via reddit

A store in Georgia Tech's student center is named for Burdell.

(Image credit: Wikipedia user Disavian)

George P. Burdell was a man born of a simple mistake. In 1927, someone in the admissions office at Georgia Tech accidentally sent student Ed Smith two registration forms instead of one. Sensing an opportunity for mischief, Smith filled out one form for himself and the other for George P. Burdell -a student he completely made up. When Smith arrived at the school, he kept the ruse going by enrolling Burdell in all his classes and even turning in assignments under his name. In fact, Smith did so much work on behalf of his imaginary friend that Burdell eventually graduated.

When other students found out about the hoax, they helped keep Burdell’s story going. According to his resume, Burdell flew 12 missions over Europe during World War II and served on MAD magazine’s Board of Directors from 1969 to 1981. In 2001, when Burdell was supposedly 90 years old, he nearly became TIME magazine’s Person of the Year after garnering 57 percent of online votes. Today, Burdell is one of Georgia Tech’s most celebrated alums. He even has a page on Facebook, where he keeps in touch with over 4,000 “friends.”

THE FANTASY HOCKEY PLAYER

Like many hockey players drafted in the 11th round of the 1974 NHL draft, Taro Tsujimoto never actually made it to the big time. But unlike the other players drafted with him, Tsujimoto didn’t exist. His name is in the record books because of Punch Imlach, the former general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. Imlach was so fed up with tedious late rounds of the draft that he decided to poke some fun at the league. He pulled a Japanese name from the local phone book and made up an imaginary team. Then, he simply told NHL president Clarence Campbell that his draft pick was Taro Tsujimoto of the Tokyo Kahanas. Sure, no one had ever heard of Tsujimoto, but that didn’t stop the NHL from making the selection official. Several weeks later, Imlach revealed his prank, but Sabres fans didn’t care. For years after the draft, Buffalo crowds would break into chants, demanding, “We want Taro!” (Image credit: twoeightnine design)

THE FICTION CRITIC

Very few film critics had anything nice to say about Rob Schneider’s 2001 comedy The Animal. One exception: movie reviewer David Manning of the so-called Ridgefield Press, who called the movie “Another winner”! In reality, Sony marketing executives created the fictional critic to promote the company’s worst films. In fact, The Animal was just one of many box office bombs that Manning enthusiastically praised. He also lent his critical support to Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, and The Patriot.

After reading about the deception in Newsweek, two California movie lovers, Omar Rezec and Ann Belknap, decided to sue Sony. They filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all filmgoers who saw the movies based on Manning’s “reviews.” In the end, Sony settled out of court, paying real money to anyone duped by the fake critic.

THE ELUSIVE ARTIST

Sometimes life imitates art, and sometime life mocks it. In 1998, Scottish novelist William Boyd wrote a book called Nat Tate: An American Artist 1928-1960. The book was pure fiction but Boyd released it as a biography because he wanted to see how long it would take the art world to figure out that Tate never existed. To help sell the story, Boyd enlisted some powerful friends, including author Gore Vidal (who is liberally quoted throughout the book) and rock star David Bowie. When the book debuted, Bowie threw a huge party in Tate’s honor, inviting the most elite members of New York’s art scene. Journalist David Lister, who knew that Tate was fake, made the rounds at Bowie’s party and asked people what they thought of the artist. When they inevitably spoke of their familiarity with his work, Lister would hear them out, then let them in on the joke.

THE MYSTERIOUS ABORIGINES

In the early 1990s, two Australian artists had the same bad idea completely independently: to sell their work by pretending to be Aborigines.

One of the two artists was Leon Carmen, a cab driver living in Sydney. He invented a new identity for himself as Wanda Koolmatrie, an Aboriginal woman abducted from the bush in the 1950s and forced to live in white society. Carmen wrote an autobiography as Koolmatrie, and the book went on to win praise for its “distinctive new voice.” But when Carmen tried to write a sequel in 1997, the publisher caught on, and the incident became a national scandal.

The other artist, painter Elizabeth Durack, had more luck with her fake identity. In 1994, she began signing her work Eddie Burrup, supposedly a male, Aboriginal ex-convict. The paintings were selected for indigenous art exhibitions and won numerous prizes. But when the paintings began to draw serious interest from art collectors, Durack revealed herself as Burrup, claiming that she understood Aborigines well enough to paint as one of them. Aborigines disagreed, and they demanded that galleries stop selling her work. Strangely, the artist continued to paint as Burrup until her death in 2000.

_______________________

The article above, written by Adam K. Raymond, is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the March-April 2011 issue of mental_floss magazine. Get a subscription to mental_floss and never miss an issue!

Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ website and blog for more fun stuff!

What would you do if you had five minutes to live? Probably things you wouldn’t do otherwise, as you’ll see in this short film Ien Che made for a Campus Movie Fest at Emory University. -via reddit

Here’s how they did it, as told by the mastermind of the stunt (a then 19-year old student) Lyn Hardy:

"There was a lot of luck involved," the retired engineer says during an interview at his home in Torrance. "From a maturity of age looking back, what were the chances of pulling that thing off? I’d say zip. But you don’t know that when you’re 19."

Hardy, after learning that the Washington band and cheerleaders were staying in dormitories at Long Beach State, showed up posing as a reporter for the Dorsey High student newspaper. (Hardy, a Caltech junior at the time, was a Dorsey graduate.)

The cheerleaders, who organized the flip-card routine, willingly shared the technical details of how it worked.

"Three very nice guys . . . talked me through the whole thing, showed me where they kept everything," Hardy says.

Later, when the cheerleaders left for dinner, Hardy and another of Caltech’s so-called "Fiendish 14" broke into their room by picking the lock. Lifting a card-stunt instruction card, they took it back to Pasadena and had some 2,400 copies made.

Early on New Year’s Eve, while the cheerleaders were at Disneyland, Hardy’s group broke into their dorm room again, this time "borrowing" the master instructions.

Jerry Crowe of the Los Angeles Times has the story: Link (Photo: Wally Skalij)

Previously on Neatorama: Seven
College Pranks

Wake And Bake Dream Griddle Prank Gift Box – $7.95

Prank gift boxes from the NeatoShop, because:

a) You love messing with your family.

b) You would really buy this crap if they made it.

c) You only give the very best gifts.

d) All of the above.

Be sure to check out the other fabulously fun prank gift items now available at the NeatoShop.

Prank Packs are gift boxes with ridiculously fake products printed on the outside. Give a gift in one of these and be ready for an uncomfortably awkward expression of gratitude: “Uh, thanks, I always wanted a motorized rolling pin (or a talking coffee cup, or a hat that doubles as a fish net).” That’s when you show them the nice personal gift that you put inside! This year’s new designs include the pictured iArm, the Pet Petter, and the Family Blankeez. Link

Where once Batman ruled Taco Bell with promotional movie cups and kid’s meals, it seems the Caped Crusader (or an impersonator) has now turned to crime, taking food from an unsuspecting drive-thru customers like a thief in the night. It’s sort of like the old drive-thru football grab from MTV’s "Jackass," only the gosh-darn Batman leaps from an untold height onto the top of an SUV before grabbing an order and fleeing into the shadows.

Comic Alliance has the video clip (A prank? A viral vid attempt? Can’t be a coincidence though the driver seems genuinely pissed off): Link

Doctor Who apparently made a visit via his time machine/police call box to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Entering freshman paused in their moving procedures this morning to see a blue TARDIS atop a building on Mass Avenue. A close up showing the sign on the time machine can be seen at the Boston Globe. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Melanie McCue)

Nothing was done to Bur’s office last year, so the students needed to amp up their efforts this year.

They took a week, said Kristen Jahr, a senior from Proctor majoring in biochemistry. They did a little bit at first, then, as college students are wont to do, they crammed most of the work in on the day before Bur returned.

The results are extraordinary. Nothing was left unfoiled. Computer screen, chairs, the ceiling, the floor — all covered in foil. Books and pens were wrapped individually.

The cords that lead from the computer and phone to the wall? Hard-wired with foil. The coffee pot? Call it the sterling silver blend. Even the delicate model of a molecule was painstakingly covered in what looked like “Ag,” (the symbol for silver on the periodic table of elements.)

Robb Murray of The Free Press uncovers the details: Link (Photo: John Cross)

Are you tired of people asking you questions that are easily answered by Google in the first place? If Let Me Google That For You isn’t enough of a hint for them, why not play a little harmless prank? Behold Google Gravity, a lil project by Mr.doob – via Gearfuse

The effect doesn’t work on Internet Explorer, which is undoubtedly the browser used by people who don’t know to use Google first, so it’s sadly kind of ironic.

Why? Because there’s nothing that says "I Love You" like a fake chest knife wound and scary Halloween mask. Thanks for the psychologically scarring us for life, moms! Link

Rob noticed how easy it would be to reproduce Costco shelf tags at home, so he printed up the most ridiculous product names he and his family could think of and inserted them into shelves at his local store. Then he made more tags and sent them to people all over the country! The correspondents placed more tags and sent pictures back. Although many were taken down quickly, you might want to check your local store for odd products. Link

This time the theme is April Fools’ Day and you will find things like the mildew lunch bag, a cellphone jammer and learn how to make pre-sliced bananas.

Link

The next day the Navy was mortified to learn that the party they had escorted around the warship had not been Abyssinian dignitaries at all. Instead it had been a group of young, upper class pranksters who had blackened their faces, donned elaborate theatrical costumes, and then forged an official telegram in order to gain access to the ship. Their ringleader was a man named Horace de Vere Cole, but the entourage also included a young woman called Virginia Stephen who would later be better known as the writer Virginia Woolf.

By February 12 the British newspapers were full of the story of the stunt. “Bunga Bungle!” the Western Daily Mercury trumpeted. For a few days the Navy was the laughingstock of Britain. Sailors were greeted with cries of “Bunga, Bunga” wherever they went. One newspaper suggested that the Dreadnought change its name to the Abyssinian.

Link -via Metafilter

See a larger photograph of the event. Link

[YouTube Clip]

… and vans (later half of the clip):

[YouTube Clip]

Yes, they’re a bit (okay a lot) low brow, but very funny. Oh, Japan … thank you for playing pranks that will surely bring about multi-million dollar lawsuits if done in the United States!

Via Gizmodo

Many college students use laptop computers to take notes during class. The student in this video, as a prank, took an old mechanical typewriter to a lecture for that purpose. The professor gets quite perturbed and asks him to mute the sound effects.

via Gizmodo

YouTube Link

Handily, the Prankster features a time delay setting, so that after installing it, you can make your getaway safely before it startmisbehaving.

The Prankster is highly annoying, but itll never activate the Enter key or close or save documents, so it’s mostly mischievous, not super-dangerous.

Link

Henken’s story attracted the attention of another woman, Betty Atkison Ryan, who knew a practical joker (long deceased) named John Slaven, who often used the fake name, Chauncey Wolcott.

Atkinson Ryan told the newspaper that Slaven was her boss in the Journal-Register’s classified advertising department decades ago. She said Slaven often used a typewriter to compose some of his jokes and signed them “Chauncey Wolcott.”

Ms. Henken has admitted to being had, but still thinks there must be something buried there.  She luckily still has use of a donated backhoe; unfortunately the property owners have pulled the plug on her efforts.

Link Photo: Associated Press

Here’s a simple yet diabolically genious prank that you shouldn’t pull on anybody, you hear? Link

You can check out previous years’ pantless rides and other great pranks on ImprovEverywhere’s YouTube channel.

[YouTube]

The signs, which were put up by pranksters in and around Nottingham, are designed to look official.

They feature a toilet sign and include the words: "Public Urination Permitted After 7.30pm".

Nottingham City Council is now urging the public to ignore the notices as it sets about removing them. [...]

The prank also featured a laminated note, headed with the logo of Nottingham City Council, which said the scheme was aimed at reducing the mess faced by residents outside their homes.

Link – via Museum of Hoaxes

When Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett of Carnegie Mellon University found out that Google Street View is coming to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the duo arranged a more "interesting" view of the street: they staged a marathon, a parade, a mad-scientist laboratory, and even a sword fight!

National Geographic Magazine’s Intelligent Travel Blog has the story: Link [with embedded YouTube clip] | The Google Street View of Sampsonia Way – Thanks Marilyn!

Now this is a clever and entertaining classroom prank: here’s Reach! A lecture musical prank by Prangstgrüp, starring Mike Barry with lyrics by Brian Jacobs. Even Prof. James Valentini, who teaches chemistry at Columbia College was amused.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Suhan Li!

IKEA is definitely nicer than my house… well, maybe not nicer, but definitely cleaner and more organized. So it makes total sense to have a party there, which is exactly what the people at Cockeyed did. Dinner at the buffet (why not? I could always go for their Swedish meatballs), then on to various dining tables and living rooms to play BananaGrams, Boggle and Catchphrase. Looks like a good time was had by all.

What could you do with thousands of dixie cups? Here’s a teacher-pranking-teacher moment, photographed for your enjoyment:

Every single one of those 10,000 dixie cups was full of water. It took 10 people 3 hours to painstakingly set those things up and fill them. Every single horizontal surface we could get to was covered. There were even dixie cups in the desk drawers.

Link – via Buzzfeed

During Hollywood’s centennial in 2003, Caltech’s Prank Club tackled the famous Hollywood sign with cherry pickers, large sheets of black and white plastic, and duct tape. They hung just enough plastic so that from a distance, the sign appeared to read "Caltech." "Hollywood is still mad about that," says Autumn Looijen, author of the prank history, Legends of Caltech III: Techer In the Dark. The sign assailants’ names never surfaced, but their work has become famous on campus. (Both Caltech and MIT tout their students’ pranks on their admissions websites.)

Link – via BuzzFeed

I first heard about the Wal-Mart position from a friend of mine who was working the early morning shift at the famous discount retailer. He explained that the electronics department needed a full-time employee on the overnight shift, because the last person who worked there was caught masturbating to a Cindy Crawford workout tape at 2 AM while the other employees were goofing off in the break room.

Sadly, I’m not kidding.

Joe went on to describe how he was pranked at Wal-Mart, got fired by an unscrupulous gang who framed him for theft, and how he got a sweet, sweet revenge: Link – via Miss Cellania (who has a whole list of Wal-Mart related websites)

Link (embedded YouTube video, warning: coarse language) – Thanks Photosapience!