Neatorama » pranks

Polish Spiderman Is A Public Nuisance

Zeon Santos — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:32:00 +0000

Spiderman hasn’t come to save the day, he’d rather go around annoying people while capturing all the fun on video camera. In Poland, Spiderman hits the streets and harasses the people he once saved, using his arsenal of silly string and lasso to really tick them off. You’d think this wannabe superhero would be in better shape, considering how often he has to run from the cops!

-via ComicsAlliance

The Great Post Its War of 2011

Jill Harness — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:48:35 +0000

What happens when one bored office starts posting 8 bit characters on their windows with Post It Notes and the office across the street starts competing with their designs? A delightful art war, that’s what. Be sure to click the link and enjoy all of the great pictures.

Link

Religious Rights for Church of Flying Spaghetti Monster

Phil Haney — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:57:30 +0000

When you get your photo for your driver’s license taken you are not allowed to wear a hat or head covering unless it is for religious or medical reasons. One Austrian follower of the satirical Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster won the right to wear a pasta strainer on his head on religious grounds for his driver’s license.

Pastafarian Niko Alm, follower of the One True Flying Spaghetti Monster, won the right to appear in his driving-license photo with a pasta strainer on his head after it was formally recognized by Austrian authorities as “religious headgear.”

Link

Trapped People

John Farrier — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 18:57:28 +0000

Artist/prankster Dan Witz puts pictures of people behind fake ventilation grates and then places the grates in public places. This one, for example, was stuck on the outside of a condo in Brooklyn. Link -via Super Punch (where there’s a video)

Previously about Dan Witz: Pranks — It’s the New Art

University of Alaska Students Keep Flushing Socks Down Toilet

Phil Haney — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:00:13 +0000

I don’t know about you, but when I was in college we had way more fun things to do than flushing out socks down the toilet. Apparently though, the students at the University of Alaska apparently are so bored this is their only alternative.

Hundreds of socks have been flushed at the UAF Fine Arts Complex since December, creating havoc on the building’s sewer system. Maintenance Superintendent Bill Cox figures the stray socks have caused at least $15,000 in equipment damage and labor costs.

Link

Sexy Sax Man On The Prowl

Jill Harness — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 18:01:37 +0000

I don’t know about you guys, but I wish you could actually order this guy to crash your school or office building. It would be so much cooler than a singing telegram.

BTW, good luck trying to get that song out of your head for the rest of the day.

Link

Lil Devil’s Trick of the Day

Tiffany — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:22:32 +0000

Lil Devil’s Trick of the Day - $10.45

It’s April Fools’ Day! Is your bag of tricks all packed and ready to go? No!!! Well, don’t get caught with your pants down again! Get over to the NeatoShop and get the Lil Devil’s Trick of the Day prank set!

This beautiful little ensemble will give you a weeks worth of pranks. You may have missed the holiday, but that doesn’t mean you have to miss all the fun.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more hilarious Gag Gifts & Pranks!

You’ve Been Watching Too Many Horror Movies

John Farrier — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 15:39:00 +0000

(Video Link)

Because you’re freaking out over ordinary things. TV pranksters had a little girl in a nightgown stand in the middle of a hotel hallway. They placed hidden cameras nearby to test people’s reactions. When guests step off the elevator, they’re shocked at what they see. The best reaction is at 2:00.

via Super Punch

Men in Floating Bouncy Castle Interrupt International Regatta

John Farrier — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:43:35 +0000

(YouTube Link)

Three British pranksters, reflecting upon the great seafaring history of their nation, decided to paddle an inflatable bouncy castle across Italy’s Lake Garda. They did so during a major international regatta, and brought along a man in a shark costume (just to be prepared). The act was a publicity stunt for a project called Live Every Litre, which hopes to encourage young people to travel.

via Gizmodo

The Invisible Rope Prank

John Farrier — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:09:22 +0000

(YouTube Link)

Pranksters Dan Podosek and Yuki Palermo like to pretend to hold a rope across walkways and roadways to see who will stop rather than break the invisible (and non-existent) rope. Here’s their Christmas video, shot at a snowy road and a shopping mall. There are more videos at the link.

Link via Urlesque

Seven College Pranks

Stacy — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:06:20 +0000

You know all about student pranks – greased pigs in the cafeteria, cows being led upstairs, all of that juvenile stuff. Maybe you’ve even heard about the more complicated college stunts – when M.I.T. students erected a police car on the top of the school’s Great Dome, for example. Its license plate number was pi. Anyway, here are a few lesser-known student stunts. If you’re, um, “inspired” by some of these, I claim no fault… but be sure to take pictures.

Harry Potter and the Scheming Students

In 2007, M.I.T. students pulled two pranks of smaller proportions to commemorate Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Since we’re just a couple of days away from the latest movie, I thought it would be appropriate to mention them. The first appeared a couple of days before the final book came out: a broomstick parking area, complete with broomsticks and appropriate signage, appeared in the Student Street area of the Strata Center. Then on the day of the actual release is my favorite: the Death Eaters acknowledged their presence at the school by setting off an eerie, glowing green Dark Mark on the roof of the Student Center. Awesome. This gives me an idea for Halloween… Photo from Eric Schmiedl.

Screwy Scoreboards

Caltech is M.I.T.’s biggest rival in pranks, despite being located at opposite ends of the country. They often take potshots at one another and are especially prone to pranks at football games. Although the Great Rose Bowl prank is pretty well known, another football stunt occurred when Caltech wasn’t even playing. During the 1964 Washington vs. Illinois Rose Bowl game, the audience of 100,000 was rather bored by a somewhat lackluster game. That is, until they looked up and realized that someone had changed the electronic scoreboard to make it appear as if Caltech was putting the hurt on M.I.T. It happened again in 1984 – although the teams were UCLA and Illinois (again), it appeared as if Caltech was stomping M.I.T., 31-9.

“We Suck”

During the Harvard-Yale game of 2004, some students took the Great Rose Bowl Prank to the next level. In case you didn’t click the Rose Bowl Prank link above, the story goes something like this: Caltech students handed out a bunch of colored placards to the opposing team and told them that when flipped over at a specified time, it would spell out the name of their team. It didn’t, of course, it spelled out “Caltech.” Yale students repeated this stunt by handing out similar placards to a group of Harvard students and alumni. When they flipped the cards, which they thought would say “GO HARVARD,” it actually spelled out “WE SUCK.” Photo from Yale Daily News

In Cod We Trust

Another one from our friends over at the Museum of Hoaxes – the theft of the Massachusetts Sacred Cod. Yes, Massachusetts has a sacred cod, and they really refer to it as such. The pine likeness is about five feet long and can be found hanging over the entrance to the House of Representatives chamber in the Massachusetts State House – at least, that’s where it is usually found. In 1933, staff at the Harvard Lampoon decided that the fish was theirs. They simply walked into the State House with clippers and a flower box, snipped the Cod down when no one was looking, hid it in the flower box and strolled on out of there like they owned the place. After a couple of days of drama – allegedly the river was even dragged – the Harvard Chief of Police received a tip that he should show up on a certain road at a certain time and follow a certain car. He did, and when the car pulled into a forest, two disguised men jumped out, handed him the Cod, and fled. Photo from MassMoments.org

Rooftop Ride

Pranks aren’t limited to U.S. schools, of course. In June of 1958, Cambridge, England, woke up to find an Austin Seven sitting on top of the Senate House like it was in the middle of a skyward road trip. It took a week for firefighters, police and civil defense units to figure out how to get the thing down – in the end, they decided just to take it apart piece by piece. And the really great thing about the whole prank is that the perpetrators were never caught. That is, until 2008. Fifty years later, 9 of the 12 guys who participated in the prank had a reunion dinner and told the press how they did it. In the middle of the night, they hitched it up to the roof using a makeshift crane of steel cable and scaffolding pieces. Although they had never revealed their identities, the then-Dean suspected the group of men and had a case of champagne sent to them to congratulate them on such an amazing prank. Click the link for a diagram of how they pulled the stunt off. Photo from the Daily Mail.

Rice Gets More Comfortable

In 1988, a group of students at Rice decided that the 2,000 pound statue of William Marsh Rice would probably prefer to face the library instead of having his back to it. So, obviously, they moved it. After a couple of botched attempts, the pranksters got serious. They got plans of the statue from the library to figure out the exact weight, then built some A-frames with one-ton hoists on either side. After practicing with a Toyota a couple of times, they got the hang of things and headed to campus to give Mr. Rice a better view. They were caught moving the A-Frames across campus by some cops, but managed to convince them that they were part of a senior project. They successfully moved the statue, but one of them, Patrick Dyson, was caught and made to pay the cost of moving William back to his rightful position, which for some reason was going to cost up to five times as much as it cost to get him in the new spot. Students rallied behind Dyson, designing t-shirts that said “Where there’s a Willy, there’s a way,” and raised more than enough money to turn Rice back around. Photo from Rice.edu.

Fictional Facebook Fox

Here’s a prank in keeping with our social media-obsessed society. There’s a moral to this one too, if you’re inclined to find one. In 2006, USC basketball player Gabe Pruitt (he’s a Celtic now) was the star during a game against UC Berkeley. He had been cultivating a, um, “relationship” with a girl named Victoria from UCLA – he met her over Facebook and not face to face, but they had been IMing and she sent him pictures. The only problem? She wasn’t real. When Pruitt got up to shoot a free throw, Cal fans started chanting, “Victoria! Victoria!” and promptly followed that up with Pruitt’s personal cell phone number, which he had given to the fictional Victoria. They kept it up for the whole game and Pruitt ended up shooting 3 for 13. There are nine other college sports pranks over at SI.com if you’re interested, including the somewhat sordid history of poor Tommy Trojan over at UCLA.
Photo from BigGreenMachine.