Categories:

1. Camping Pranks
2. Office Pranks
3. College Dorm Pranks
4. College Sports Pranks
5. April Fool’s Pranks

Camping pranks:

Camp Prank One: Short Sheeting a Bed

Short sheeting a bed has been a long-standing tradition of campers. They untuck the top flat sheet. Then pulled half way down the cot or bunk and retucked in. When the fellow camper crawls into bed when “lights out” has been called, they will find they are unable to pull the sheet up on themselves. This has always created a bedtime stir for all the campers. The short sheeted camper finds it not amusing while the rest of their bunkmates roll with laughter.

Camp Prank Two: Ice Water in The Shower

Ice water in the shower is one prank that isn’t used very often. Many campers find it too cruel to do because they don’t want it done to themselves. Those who do throw ice water on other campers while taking a shower will do it to one who is a good sport with getting pranked. They also know the person will find a way to retaliate. To give a good spirit camper an added kick to their shower, fill a one gallon bucket with ice and add water. Throw the bucket of ice water over the top of the shower door onto the person. The shock of the cold ice water will send out a screech of a scream from the showering person. Sometimes, the showering camper will open the shower door, turn the shower head at the perpetrators getting them back in the process.

Camp Prank Three: Drawing Faces on a Sleeping Camper

During the afternoon, some campers will take a nap due to being tired from late night activities or just to rest during down time. Drawing a face on the face of a sleeping camper with an ink pen has been one of the other favorites of pranking a camper. Draw open eyes very gently on the eyelids of the napping camper and add dots randomly on the camper’s face. Other features, such as adding a mustache or a mouth can be done. Lipstick can be used instead of an ink pen, especially on a male camper.

Camp Prank Four: Getting the Counselors

Counselors are more often the targets of camp pranks than the actual campers. The number of pranks that they can pull on a counselor is endless. Not to mention any of the pranks mentioned can be pulled on a counselor. However, some best pranks are ones that the counselor and the campers will remember for a long time.

Mess in the Bed: Version One

One prank that they can pull on a counselor is the mess in the bed. At many camps, there are plenty of leaves, limbs, rocks, and other outside things (no critters allowed unless it’s a fake one) that can be put in the sheets of the bunk the counselor sleeps in. Many campers will bring fake snakes, spiders, and lizards to add to the limps, rocks, dirt, and leaves found at the camp.

Mess in the Bed: Version Two

The second version of the mess in the bed can be rather gross and messy, but it is all in good fun. Often campers have pulled the covers back on the counselor’s bunk and have placed mustard, ketchup, shaving cream, whipped cream, gummy bears or worms, peanut butter, and other various goofy foods at the foot area of the bed. The counselor most often doesn’t notice until they climb into bed for the evening. Sometimes, this gooey mess has been placed either under the pillow or in the pillow case.

With either of these two versions of a mess in the bed, a good camp counselor will bring extra bedding with them to camp for such pranks. After all, the counselors are expecting some kind of prank from their campers.

Office pranks:

20 Quick and Easy Pranks to Pull on Your Co-Workers

I was sitting here at my desk thinking about the next prank I’m going to pull on the guy 3 cubicles down from me (we call him “stinky”) and decided to put together a list of quick and easy pranks you could pull off on your co-workers. I’ve tested nearly all of these, and they can be great fun if executed properly. Most of them are very self explanatory, but if you need more expert guidance, feel free to drop me an e-mail, and I’ll be glad to assist.

“Post-it Note” their desk. I mean really saturate the desk, chair, computer, file cabinets…etc. If you can pull this off after they leave Friday night, so they come in Monday morning and have to spend an hour peeling them off, it will really piss them off!

Tape over optical mouse lens. This simple, yet quick prank will render their optical mouse useless. It will take them at least 3-5 minute to figure out what’s going on. All you need is one little strip to cover up the optical sensor on the bottom. The confusion factor is great!

Keyboard key “switcheroo.” A simple, yet classic prank. Switch around the M&N, I&U, or whatever you think would work best. I find that the most subtle changes are the most effective! Shaving cream lunch. This is one I used to get back at a fellow prankster after he pulled one off on me. He just so happened to bring his lunch everyday, and when he left to use the restroom, we completely filled his lunch box with Barbasol. Bologna and shaving cream doesn’t taste very good from what he says.

Packing peanuts. This one takes a little more time and planning, but worth it. If your co-worker has a cubicle that has 3 sides and only one entrance, then listen up. Seal off the opening with plastic/shrink wrap, and proceed to fill up the cubicle to the top with packing peanuts. Cover everything! This will literally take hours to clean up, and you can laugh the whole time. Especially fun on Mondays.

Chair anchor. Quick and easy one here. Get some rope or twine, and a roll of duct tape. Wait until they leave for a meeting, and proceed to tie a rope from their chair to an anchor point under the desk. Then tape up 2 of the wheels that are under the desk with duct tape. This will piss them off royally, as they will have to get under the desk to untie everything. Great fun!

Phone goo. One of my favorites by far! Wait until victim leaves desk for the restroom or meeting. When they are gone, fill up their desk phone ear piece with hand sanitizer/lotion/some sort of gooey stuff. Gently place phone back in to place, and as soon as they sit back down, have the secretary page them or call their phone from another desk and watch them get creamed in the ear. This one is so funny! Conference call. Call one of your co-workers who likes to complain and moan about the boss. Tell him to “hold on a sec” right in the middle of the rant and then conference your boss in. Tell your boss to hold on, and then conference. Tell Johnson you’re sorry for the interruption, and to continue on with his complaints. Caution – only use this if you want to get someone fired.

Eternal hold. Feel like being a jerk? Call a co-worker, make it appear that your talking about something important for about a minute, then tell him to hold on. Press hold button. I always time it to see how long they’ll actually hold. For even better results, rinse and repeat.

Fake meeting. Send out a memo about a last minute meeting taking place at the furthest end of the building. Mention that the boss is upset, and everyone better be there on the double. Fun stuff.

Bob quit. Convince someone that is pimping for Bob’s position that he quit. Get several people involved if necessary. Watch the look of disappointment on their face when they find out he really didn’t quit. This one can be quite fun with enough people in on it!

Decaffeinate. If you’re the morning coffee slave, get everyone a nice hot cup of decaf. Especially fun on a Monday or Wednesday morning. Talk about taking the wind out of their sails!

Random word. Another classic, but so much fun! As you make calls throughout the day, make it a point to throw in a totally left field word. Like “tuna sandwich”, or “Bill Gates”. Take a tally of how many times you can say it before someone catches on. Inter-office bets can make this interesting!

Thumbtack chair. This one can cause a slight amount of pain. Most of us don’t look at our chair when we sit down, so to exploit that, put a couple small tacks in Bob’s chair when he’s off using the restroom, and watch him hit the ceiling when he comes back and sits down.

Inky cup. Quick and effective. A lot of us leave our coffee cups on our desk. After your victim is gone for the evening, or early in the morning, feel free to take the ink from a stamp pad, or even a sharpie, and color the rim of his coffee cup. It will make for a nice mustache in the morning! *make sure ink matches cup*

Snake in a can. Another classic – pick up a joke snake in a can or something similar, place in desk, watch them jump.

“Shrink wrap my ride”. This one is so much fun. While the victim is distracted, grab the closest roll of shrink wrap, head out to the parking lot and proceed to make several rounds around their car. This takes two people to do, but it’s totally worth it! The look on their face as they try to open their door is priceless!

Re-park the car. No more explanation necessary. They will flip out when they think their car was stolen in broad daylight! You can have a lot of fun with this one. Hold it for a ransom if you’re feeling froggy.

Spice up the drink. Another easy, yet effective prank. If they make the mistake of leaving their soda/water/tea unattended, dump in that “Hot Sauce from Hell” that you picked up in Mexico last year. Careful, this one could send someone to the ER. Make sure you pick the right victims!

Bangers. Do a Google search for cigarette bangers. Order a few packs. A lot of smokers leave their cigarette packs out on the desk. Proceed to load them up with these mini-explosives, and take a trip down to the smoking area with them. BoOm! It can convince someone to quit really fast.

I hope you are successful in deploying these quick and easy pranks. Most of these (around 90%) I’ve personally done myself, or have had it done to me. They work well and are cheap, if not free, and can really stir up a boring office environment.

If you didn’t get the bonus you deserve or feuds are simmering out of control, here are a few harmless pranks that can take the heat off a tense day at work. But be sure to keep them to yourself. Be aware to use extra-stealthy mode, cameras are everywhere.

1. The Masked Email

If you have someone who likes to drop names, or suggest higher contacts or position in the company, forward them an idea or request with a fictitious tag underneath. They will usually scan down to see where the main idea came from.

You don’t have to make it look like they said anything particularly damning, but even hinting you have higher contacts than anyone else, or are getting copied on memos above your pay grade can play havoc with the typical wage slave’s insecurities.

2. Laxative Chocolate

If the receptionist has been going overboard loading up her candy dish, offering sweets every day of your diet, it’s time to fight back. If you can’t find the right product, swizzle some ex-lax in the morning mocha, your treat. The amount will vary depending on the irritation value these people gave you during the year.

3. Trashcan Warfare

His is for really evil office mates whose annoying acts, rude habits, or otherwise antisocial behavior has attracted your ire. If your office facilities staff only removes trash every other day, or if the room is closed for the day, make sure to get the tuna sandwich or spoiled egg salad in the bin with adequate time for spoilage.

When your unwilling victim returns to the scene of the crime, it will stink to high heaven. No amount of spray with take away the offensive odor. If the employee has a meeting, or better yet, a deadline, it’s a sure-fire crowd pleaser.

4. Alphabet City Pseudospeak

Use Acronyms thought up with a co-conspirator. Discuss (without breaking into laughter) something very important sounding while others star or outright ask what you’re talking about.

This is even better when you can work with a colleague with which you have no previous rapport. Simply by becoming allies and pretending to be unwilling coordinators of some “unnamed” project can stir the waters.

5. The Fluttering Document

This works very well for the cubicle slave who has exceptionally nosy neighbors. If you find yourself being watched, try this ploy. It gives the cooks something to stew over.

Make a few calls to a number only you know, a friend’s voicemail or cellphone who is in on the joke. Leave a somewhat cryptic message, fluttering your eye to the eavesdroppers, then nervously reword something about a fax, or “getting a signature”.

Make a big deal of printing a special document. Make sure it remains upside down or place it underneath other papers. Later, make a follow up all “confirming” the business. Your officemates will go nuts wondering what it’s all about. If someone seems to be spearheading a charge to see it, rush to shred it. And spread the confetti around.

6. The “Important Meeting”.

One day, for no reason in particular, dress way up. If people ask, just say “oh, I couldn’t make it to the Laundromat”, or “it was the only clean thing left”. The better you look, the more people will talk.

If your boss asks, just say you have a big date after work and don’t have time to change. If you’re married, pretend it’s a PTA meeting or service

Club event. You get an opportunity to look good, but many may suspect you’re ready for an interview.

7. The 8 am office meeting.

If you have one person in the office who regularly slides in late, the 8 am meeting prank is a great payback. This is best for when the night after a late entertainment or other party the admin or you can call and ask about what’s the morning meeting about.

This is best done when everyone else is unavailable to answer the phone or does not respond to emails. The slackers who drift in late won’t sync up their emails anyone specifically to avoid this. This really crunches when it’s done with the boss’ knowledge. If a special campaign is needed to get someone in the office on time, this is a documentable issue.

8. The Phony Award

If you have someone in the office that likes to chase windmills let them know about the “unofficial” underground service award your company holds. It may be “off the books” but had led to “several important promotions”. Who will get the Golden Wallaby this year?

This works under the unsuspected ally program. After mentioning that something will “disqualify” you from the award, let the matter drop. Make sure there is a “go-to” person who can unofficially give the necessary detail about the “service requirements” for this recognition.

9. False Rumor

Oh, everybody’s guilty of this. Sometimes just a few words can get the ball rolling. All you need is one culprit willing to make a mountain out of a molehill. A whisper of a new client for the new guy. A big promotion for the Team leader in the next division.

If you get caught, just wrinkle your brow and pretend you didn’t understand the first time around correctly. Least said soonest mended.

10. A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Ever get that guy in college who ran up to the test with three seconds to spare and wanted the lowdown on the test? The girl who called around the night before every assignment was due, wrote down what everybody said, or showed up for the oral exam without knowing the last detail?

If you can squelch the urge to help one last time, you can show Jenkins up for the tool he really is. Just wait until he gives the client review without the last tweak, or features the one product the client hated. Team effort be damned. If you don’t act now, you’ll be covering for this person forever.

College Dorm Pranks:

Alright, college is a time for fun, creativity and social exploration…and when the three come together it can be cause for some of the greatest amusement of your life. If you live on a hall you’re bound to run into a prankster or two. Some of their gimmicks can be entertaining, but I’ve seen some pretty lame attempts at “pranking” someone. However, I have seen a few shots of mischief that have blown my mind and I always keep in reserve to nail someone with. So whether you want to prank your best friend or get back at someone on campus, these few ambitious insights may prove useful.

The Packing Peanut Invasion

Ok, know someone on campus who works in the mail room or maintenance? Even if you don’t packing peanuts are easy to come by and can usually be bought in bulk for a small fee. Look at it this way, what is more satisfying than any other kind of prank? The kind that keeps coming back to haunt the person who got pranked.

Think of this: a dorm room covered in white packing peanuts. But that’s not all…every drawer, pillowcase, couch, closet, bag, shoe, sock, desk and window is chock-full of peanuts. Every space behind shelves, couches, bed and desks is filled with the little buggers. Essentially, what can be a quick job turns out to be a prank still coming up for months. I witness my RA’s room get nailed in this way around Christmas. Up until the last day of classes he was still coming across a stray peanut.

The Great Door Switch

This has to be my favorite, mainly because it is so creative, and yet so simple. Know someone who always locks their door? When you have the chance, sneak in and unscrew the hinges on his door while doing the same with another door on the hall (preferably of a person in on the prank!). Swap doors and reattach the hinges…but make sure to switch the nameplates and decorations on the doors…especially the door number. Lock the prankee’s door and walk away.

Watch with great amusement as he goes to open his door, only to find that his key is useless…locked out of his own room. Now you might think, “that is so cruel, what if he really needs to get in?” Well, he can always get in, and watching him attempt to do so can be the most fun. If climbing in through a window won’t work, make sure you get the RA in on the prank so that when the victim comes for aid, he could just use a master key to open the door. Overall, this prank can last for as long as you want and if revealed, it has the power to amaze the victim with how simple-yet-powerful it was.

The Classic Double-Door Tie-Up

Ok, this is about as simple as it gets, but it never gets old. Got two rooms of your friends that you want to confine? If the answer is “yes” and especially if you happen to live on a second or third story floor, then tying their doorknobs together is the next logical step. However, this simple prank can become extremely complex if you wish it to.

I have seen two rooms tied together…but they were two floors away. The conspirators managed to tie them together with the rope winding through a staircase. Now, whether or not it adds any difficulty to getting out, it sure adds a lot more confusion when the victims do break free. Also, this prank can be made pretty near impossible to get out of, if the anchoring strings and ropes are wound and tied enough.

Finally, The Room Removal

Now as a forewarning, this prank is perhaps as cruel as you can get at college and often requires cooperation between a lot of people, sometimes including campus security.

As well, this prank requires a lot of time and is best done by people who remain on campus during a break or a weekend while the victims are away.

If you choose to switch rooms, you will still need a lot of time and manpower, but not the cooperation of maintenance or other campus groups concerned for property damage…This version is simple…merely switch the contents of one room completely with another. Harsh but straightforward, the look on the victims of both rooms’ faces is priceless. However, the whole enchilada rests with a prank that takes that to a new extreme.

Like I said, this can be hairy and there can be a lot of red tape to get through, but the ultimate in high-quality college pranks rests with the Room Removal. This, too, is simple, if difficult. After a decent amount of effort, a group of students can relocate the entirety of a victim’s room outside, positioned exactly as it would be inside, but out on the front lawn of the dorm.

For added effect, run extension cords out to the new and literal grass-roots room so that it is fully functional. It has been known that some people, after falling victim to Room Removal, have actually lived in and used their external room for up to a day before campus security and other campus administration asked them to return their possessions. That is why, if you can get cooperation, this prank can be incredible. Either way, it is simply brutal.

Yes, college is a time for elevating your illustrious education, but there’s no reason to limit your education to mere academics. In fact, if you can improve upon your socialization skills through creative debauchery…well, you’ll find yourself ahead of the game.

Speaking of games, it’s always fun (and generally humorous) to play games or pranks on unsuspecting roommates. Roommates tend to be the most gullible or vulnerable to such antics when they are impaired or intoxicated with alcohol (which tends to occur as frequently as sobriety in college). Although the first of these pranks can be effective at any time, it is almost always sucessful under two conditions. The first condition is bright and early in the morning. At this time roommates don’t yet have their wits about them, and their eyes are generally crusty and only half open as they stumble to the bathroom to relieve themselves for the first of many times throughout the day. The second ideal condition is one in which your roommate is drunk beyond measure, and their only concern is to make it to the bathroom before they have an accident. If they are fortunate enough to do so, they hardly ever take the time to examine the toilet or lift up both lids of the toilet. Instead, they simply ‘let it fly.’

Imagine the look on their face, or the howls to be heard, when the victim’s urine never makes it to the bottom of the toilet bowl, but instead splashes back at them! What would cause such an occurence? Seran wrap. Yes, it’s dirty. Yes, it’s cruel. But, oh, is it funny!

Like any prank, it requires proper preparation. But doing so is definitely worth it!

The materials needed to pull this prank are as follows:
Transparent Seran/Cling Wrap
A clean toilet bowl or a set of rubber gloves
A drunk or groggy roommate

Preparation of the prank:

1. Apply a layer or two of transparent Seran wrap or Cling wrap to the toilet bowl. Do so by stretching it from one end of the bowl to the other, draping it over the sides of the bowl. Be sure it is not visible below the toilet seat as it rests atop the bowl. In addition, the wrap must be stretched so that there are no creases or wrinkles visible. It must appear as if no tampering to the toilet bowl has occurred.

2. Be present. You’re going to want to hear the reaction of the surprised, and more than likely, ticked off roommate after he/she has wet him or herself.

Caution: Victims will initially possess a heightened degree of malcontent for the prankster; however, after hearing your uncontrollable laughter, the malcontent will quickly be displaced with ideas for revenge.

My execution of the prank:

After all of my roommates had left for the evening, I prepared the toilet accordingly. The weekend after finals had finally arrived, and all of my roommates and I made it a point to get grossly intoxicated at the local watering hole. We had done so admirably, but in our cab ride home, each and every one of us shifted left and shifted right to avoid wetting ourselves. We all had to get to a bathroom quickly. After the cabbie let us out, I lingered behind to pay the fare. My other three roommates darted up the stairs to our apartment, each of them yelling out first dibs for access to the bathroom. I followed close behind and soon my other two roommates and I anxiously stood outside the bathroom door, yelling at our buddy to hurry up. As anticipated, he was in no condition to examine the toilet bowl. He only lifted the lid of the toilet seat, and let it fly. Due to his state of being, he was unable to hold his steady stream back, even after he realized none of it was reaching the bottom of the bowl, but rather splashing back at him. He did manage to scream words of fury and promises to kill each and every one of us, as we laughed hysterically right outside the door. Once he had finished, he opened the door and tackled the first, innocent roommate. The other roommate and I egged the two on, and I entered the extremely messy bathroom, retrieved the set of rubber gloves under the sink, and removed the Seran wrap so I could relieve myself without incident. My other roommates soon followed. This prank was successful several times thereafter, and it always elicited a good laugh. To this day, my friends and I frequently recollect the memory, and laugh as hard now as we had when it actually occurred.

Prank #2 Exploding School Supplies

In my junior year of college, a girlfriend of mine convinced me to visit Chinatown with her. At this point I was introduced to the Chinese firecracker, which inspired an idea for a prank that I’ve used several times since.

A Chinese firecracker is a small, safe, exploding device with two long pieces of string attached to both ends. By pulling the two strings simultaneously, in opposite directions, the firecracker creates a loud ‘Pop!’ The use of such items is stupid and rather boring when amusing yourself; however, when somebody else uses them without the knowledge of doing so, it is in fact a sight worth remembering.

For a matter of pennies you can purchase a box of 10-15 firecrackers. I purchased enough to last the remainder of the school year.

The materials needed to execute this prank are as follows:
Chinese firecrackers (available online or in Chinese stores)
Tape (any kind will do, but invisible tape allows for the element of surprise much more so than visible tape)
An item that must be opened, such as cabinets, dresser drawers, notebooks, textbooks, etc.
An unsuspecting victim

Preparation of the prank:

1. Tape one end of the string (attached to the Chinese firecracker) to the inside of a cabinet, drawer, notebook, textbook, etc.

2. Tape the other end to the side of the item that will be opened. Allow enough slack to install the firecracker without it going off, but be sure that it’s tight enough to explode when the item is opened in its entirety.

3. Be present. The look and scream of a clueless victim is priceless.

Execution of the prank:

I carefully taped all of my roommates notebooks and textbooks. One of my roommates and I had a psychology class together. We attended the class, and once the professor began his lecture all of the students fumbled for their notebooks to record notes. When my roommate retrieved his and opened it, the entire class was startled by a loud ‘Pop!’ Somehow I managed to stifle my laughter, but when the class was instructed to refer to a page in the textbook, my roommate experienced another surprise explosion. The professor was not amused and he asked my roommate to leave. I could no longer hold in my glee, and I laughed hysterically, along with the rest of the class. I stayed behind, recorded the necessary notes, and willingly lent them to my roommate after class. In addition, I sparked several curiosities from the students, which naturally translated into humorous conversations and lessons how to execute such a prank.

*Note – Although this may sound dangerous, the firecrackers don’t emit any spark or fire; therefore, they don’t pose any fire hazard when they come into contact with paper.

The 10 Best College Sports Pranks to date:

Pranks are as much a part of college as tailgating before a big game or pretending to listen to your professor while you’re really IM’ing with your friends. But what are the best pranks of all-time? Here is SIOC’s Top 10.

10. The Bush/Ivy League

Sorry Harvard students, but there’s no other way to describe you after Yale pranked you into spelling this self-effacing comment.

School: Harvard
Year: 2004

During the 2004 Yale-Harvard football game, a group of Yale students posed as the non-existent “Harvard Pep Squad” by wearing custom-designed T-shirts, painting their faces and toting fake student IDs. They convinced the opposing cheering section to hold up colored placards to create a mosaic that supposedly displayed, “GO HARVARD.” In fact, the letters spelled “WE SUCK.”

Many Harvardites didn’t even know they were pranked. The hoax organizers started a website that touts a video, pictures and an online store that sells shirts and posters. Alas, the best pranks usually deflate such arrogance … if only Harvard retaliated. In spite of its gratuitous message and arrogant PR policy, the “Harvard sucks” prank should be commended for its creative execution and as a bold effort in today’s hypersensitive, lawsuit-ridden era.

9. The Freshman Face-Off

School: Air Force
Year: 1956

Typically, stealing another team’s mascot is a meticulously calculated covert operation. Things are different at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where the mascot kidnappings are customarily blatant: Notre Dame’s leprechaun ended up with a bloody nose in 1987 — during the game and right in the middle of the field. Once the mascot is disabled, cadets pass him up through the stands, à la involuntary “crowd surfing.” The practical joke from which the tradition originates is quite compelling.

Apparently, the quickest way from the bottom of Falcon Stadium to the top is through the stands. Just ask Wayne Waterhouse, a freshman in 1956, whose rite of passage was a malfunctioning prank-explosive that literally caused him to “loose face.” It was meant to detonate during a halftime skit before he was near. The fastest way to a medic was up and over the student section.

8. Operation Dung Drop

School: USC
Year: 1958

The ancient USC-UCLA rivalry is speckled with tall tales; some are fact, some fiction. What’s for sure: the Tommy Trojan statue on USC’s campus is the most defaced statuary in college history. Typically, UCLA pranksters conspire to paint him blue and gold — thwarted now by a condom of duct tape that covers him during rivalry week. His bronze sword has been removed so many times (once, it was welded into the middle of his back) that the school began replacing it with a wooden one to cut-costs. Attempts have been made at his head, limbs and even the whole statue.

But the most elaborate of them all was a failed attempt at averting the stonewall of all-night student guards and 24-hour camera surveillance. Perhaps inspired by competitive hot air ballooning, the crew planned to toss a few hundred pounds of manure out the door of a rented helicopter, splattering on the target below. To their dismay, it backfired — literally. The volatile winds of the helicopter blades sucked the debris upward and back into their faces. An unknown amount of the manure probably made it to the icon, far from triumph — at least according to the real story.

7. Still Undefeated

School: Plainfield Teachers College (sorta)
Year: 1941

In the early 1940’s, the New York Times published the scores for a legendary college football team, the Plainfield Teachers College Comets. They starred Johnny Chung, a Herculean Hawaiian quarterback, whose only weakness was … his nonexistence. The Comets were a mythical team counterfeited by Morris Newburger, who wasn’t even a college student; Newburger was only a stockbroker and a sports fan with a sense of humor, mocking the obscure teams that appeared in Sunday papers. The ruse held up for six weeks, due in part to his keen attention to detail: the Hawaiian leader downed a bowl of rice between halves for extra energy and the team’s matchless “W” formation (which required the ends to face the backfield) preserved their perfect record.

6. The Birth of a Dynasty

School: Miami (Ohio)
Year: 1867

The earliest debauchery in this prank rank is from 1867, long before the NCAA, when beanie copters were still funny. Though not an actual “sports prank” per se, it changed the face of college football as we know it.

Ohio legislature passed a bill to establish an agricultural school and Miami University (Ohio) petitioned enthusiastically to make this new college a part of ye olde domain. The students did anything but mind their Ps & Qs. They staged a full farmstead inside the school’s beloved chapel, including: a haystack, a harrow, a cow, two horses and several ducks, pigs, and chickens. The statesmen caught word of the wicked blasphemy and established the school elsewhere. It was dubbed “The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College,” which is just an old-fashioned name for Ohio State University.

5. The (overruled) Play

School: UC Berkeley
Year: 1982

During 1982’s Bay Area rivalry game between Stanford and UC Berkeley, Cal returned a kickoff to win in the final moments, making five laterals and trampling over the Stanford Band in the process. The disputed touchdown became known as “The Play,” and within four days of “The Big Game,” Stanford got its revenge by replacing The Daily Californian with thousands of phony reproductions. The mock front-page explained how the NCAA overruled the officials and scored the game 20-19, a victory for Stanford. “I’ve watched that replay a thousand times and if that guy wasn’t downed my first name isn’t Richard,” an NCAA officer was quoted. Below the fold, a story detailed the Cal coach’s teary-eyed breakdown upon hearing the news. The counterfeit newspaper gag is an old one, but the tension and controversy surrounding “The Play” makes its prank just as legendary.

4. Balloon Animals

School: Harvard
Year: 1982

Using a vacuum, a 1967 Mustang, a weather balloon, a handful of marbles and some talcum powder, a group of students lampooned the 1982 Yale-Harvard football game by inflating a latex bubble at the 46-yard line. The balloon erupted from beneath the turf and grew to about a six-foot diameter before it exploded. The startled crowd of bulldog-haters and anti-Harvardites united in confusion for just a moment, until they realized that the atypical balloon was not donned with “Happy Birthday” or the Easter Bunny — it was covered in the letters: MIT. After the game, MIT school president Paul Gray wrote the Harvard president asking for the contraband techno-lark that caused pandemonium at the rivalry football game. He wanted to put it on display.

3. Victoria’s Secret

School: UC Berkeley
Year: 2006

The New York Times compared this prank to a “military-style psychological operation” and named it one of the most notable ideas of 2006 — though, I doubt the UC Rally Committee referred to The Art of War or took notes during History 101’s Genghis Khan lecture.

When USC’s star basketball player, Gabe Pruitt, hit the floor for a crucial game against U.C. Berkeley last year, he brought more baggage than he even knew. In the fashion of Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator,” Cal fans had posed as an internet-honey from UCLA, aptly named Victoria, who Pruitt agreed to meet once he returned to L.A. — or so we can assume from Pruitt’s words: “I want to c u so bad.” Like many online relationships, this one didn’t go well: Cal fans broke the bad news mid-game, chanting “Victoria” and reciting his digits throughout the game. Pruitt shot 3 for 13 and USC lost by 11 points.

2. The Georgia Tech Train Wreck

School:Auburn
Year:1898

In the early days of college football, the preferred mode of transportation to away games matched the brawn of its athletes: the iron horse. For about a century, it became Auburn University’s mission to reduce this brawn every time Georgia Tech came to town. Students ran grease across the tracks before and after the station platform the night before the game. Catching a greased pig is hard. Catching a greased locomotive is harder. The train flew past the stop year after year, leaving the Auburn opponents with a hefty warm-up as they trekked several miles back to the station.

In 1898, the administration threatened to expel whoever attempted to continue the greasing ritual. Teachers and the like camped out and supervised the tracks until swarms of students in pajamas and bathrobes emerged from the woodwork. Expulsion became impossible — but the students were still intimidated. The tension released in the form of a friendly impromptu pep-rally that became a yearly tradition: the “Wreck Tech Pajama Parade.”

1. The Great Rose Bowl Hoax

School: Rose Bowl
Year: 1961

Today, Caltech has no official mascot, much less a football team. But until 1993, the Rose Bowl was home to the mere technical school’s football squad — as well as the culminating event of college football. In 1961, a team of 14 students decided to capitalize on the event’s irony by changing the University of Washington’s flip-card stunt at half time.

A student disguised himself as an eager reporter from a high school newspaper and interviewed a cheerleader to get the details. They found that by surreptitiously altering 2,232 instruction sheets, the entire Husky fan section could be duped into displaying any pattern the “Fiendish Fourteen” desired — without the crowd realizing it. They stole the instructions, printed modified copies, and replaced them.

On game day, the college card collage played out as expected for the first 11 patterns, lulling the crowd into a sense of security and drawing the lenses of (color) national television. Subtle alterations to the 12th pattern resulted in a Husky that looked an awful lot like a beaver — the dam-building totem of many technical schools. The 13th stunt came off as a mistake: “HUSKIES” spelled backwards. And finally, the 14th stunt spelled “CALTECH,” and it all made sense, casting silence upon the stadium for a few moments. Soon, laughter set in among the crowd and panic among the Washington cheerleaders, who cancelled the final stunt, which was wisely left unadjusted by the pranksters.

I can’t go without thanking Neil Steinberg, whose book If at All Possible, Involve a Cow, is the only certifiable manual on college pranks.

Acing the pranks
Whether it’s a grudge match against `Stanfurd’ or indignities heaped on Tommy Trojan, students use their brainpower to fuel feuds.
By Roy Rivenburg, Times Staff Writer
Airborne manure. Painted crickets. Kidnapped statues. And the Great Rose Bowl Hoax of 1961.

In the annals of college mischief, Golden State students have perpetrated some memorable pranks over the years.

California has a venerable history of campus practical jokes, said Neil Steinberg, author of “If at All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks.”

The high jinks date to at least 1899, when UC Berkeley students stole Stanford’s ceremonial ax after a baseball game, touching off a century of dueling shenanigans. In addition to back-and-forth ax-nappings, the capers include tweaking Palo Alto freeway signs to say “Stanfurd,” disrupting Cal’s halftime marching band with tiny motorized cars and unleashing mice in each other’s campus libraries, according to news reports.

In 1982, after Berkeley’s football team beat Stanford with a wild last-second kickoff return that involved five laterals, Stanford retaliated by replacing Cal’s student newspaper with an impostor edition that claimed NCAA officials had overturned the touchdown and made Stanford the winner.

At another game, Cal fans hacked into the stadium sound system and announced: “Penalty, excessive arrogance; Stanford sucks!”

Southern California has a similar prank rivalry. It began in 1941 with USC’s theft of a 295-pound victory bell from cross-town rival UCLA. The subsequent battle of stunts includes planting 20,000 gold-and-cardinal-painted crickets in UCLA’s library, kidnapping USC fans and chaining them to fire hydrants — and numerous sneak assaults on statues of Tommy Trojan and UCLA’s Bruin Bear.

One year, blowtorch-wielding Bruin conspirators cut off Tommy Trojan’s sword and replaced it in a most uncomfortable location.

On another occasion, in 1958, UCLA pranksters rented a helicopter and tried to dump manure on Tommy.

But the escapade backfired when the helicopter’s rotors sucked some of the aromatic gunk back onto the passengers.

Church-affiliated colleges and commuter campuses also pull their share of pranks.

At Concordia University Irvine, a Lutheran school, dorm residents recently lined a quad with sandbags, then filled the area with water and goldfish.

At Cal State Fullerton, science professors have seen their offices bricked up, filled with beach sand or decorated with a life-size plaster dinosaur head that spewed gas flames from its mouth. Chemistry professor Richard Deming once opened his office door and found all the furniture — including a sofa and lighted Christmas tree — hanging upside down from the ceiling.

Such elaborate stunts are rare today, thanks in part to political correctness, post-9/11 anxiety and fear of lawsuits, school officials say.

“The golden age of college pranks was the 1950s,” said author Steinberg, who traces the phenomenon back to colonial times.

Today, one of the final frontiers of prankdom is Caltech, whose mischief curriculum vitae includes commandeering a Rose Bowl scoreboard and changing the UCLA-Illinois score to read, “Caltech 38, MIT 9.”

The MIT snub in 1984 was part of a long-running battle of stunt-upmanship between the brainiac campuses. In the latest volley, MIT this year swiped Caltech’s cannon and hauled it to Massachusetts.

Caltech is also famous for its Ditch Day tradition, in which underclassmen try to outwit elaborate dorm-room locks designed by seniors. One year, students not only picked a tricky lock but took apart the senior’s parked car, then reassembled it in his room and reportedly left the engine running.

In 1991, when then-President George H.W. Bush delivered a commencement speech at the school, he joked that he might be late to his next meeting because “some of Caltech’s finest reassembled Air Force One in the lobby of my hotel.”

But the school’s ultimate achievement, hailed as the best collegiate stunt in history, is the Great Rose Bowl Hoax of 1961.

Posing as high school newspaper reporters, Caltech pranksters duped cheerleaders from the University of Washington into revealing the inner workings of their carefully choreographed halftime flip-card show, in which stadium spectators held up colored cards to form giant words and pictures.

The Caltech students then stole and replaced Washington’s flip-card instruction sheets with their own.

On game day in Pasadena, the plan unfolded before a national television audience. To avoid creating suspicion, the pranksters left intact the first 11 images of Washington’s flip-card show. But they doctored the 12th image, a giant Husky mascot, into a Caltech beaver. Next, they reversed the word “Huskies” to spell “Seiksuh.”

The last image was supposed to say “Washington.” Instead, it flashed a giant “Caltech.”

On the field, Washington’s band stopped playing and the crowd went silent, according to museumofhoaxes.com. Then laughter erupted and the band stormed out.

April fool’s day pranks:

April Fool’s Day is a lighthearted holiday with jokes and pranks being pulled everywhere. Most of the jokes and pranks are all in good fun and are not meant to harm anyone. April Fool’s Day was originally called All Fool’s Day but everyone eventually started calling it April Fool’s Day.

There are lots of different theories about how April Fool’s Day was started. One theory is when the date of New Year’s Day was changed from April 1st to January 1st. New Year’s Day was originally on March 25th but with the Holy Week starting on March 25th, New Year’s was celebrated on April 1st. Once the date was moved from April 1st to January 1st France adopted the new calendar and switched the date to January 1st. However most people either refused to change from tradition or just simply forgot and still celebrated on the 1st of April therefore being called fools and having pranks being pulled on them.

Another theory is that with Spring starting in late March that “nature” must be pranking us with the weird weather changes, The weather in March one day can be really nice and the next day it could be cold and snowing.

No one knows for sure what really happened to start April Fool’s Day but it really doesn’t matter because the pranks keep coming each year. There are superstitions that say anyone playing a joke or prank on someone else must quit playing these jokes or pranks by noon on April 1st. If they do not quit by noon they will have bad luck for years to come. Another superstition is if a girl plays a prank on a girl then the boy she played the prank on will marry her in the future or at least have a long lasting friendship with the girl.

In the early days when April Fool’s Day or All Fool’s Day first started it was tradition to send people on impossible errands or taping a “please kick me sign” on someone else’s back. It’s not only children who play pranks on people but the media like to have their share in the fun also. They say the best prank was pulled by a news report back in 1957 on BBC’s Panorama. The news report said that not only was spring coming early that year but Switzerland’s spaghetti harvest was also coming early that year. They had a video backdrop with a happy peasant woman picking spaghetti off of trees. People were actually calling in and asking where they could try their hand at some homegrown pasta. The BBC Panorama’s producer gave them a helpful hint by telling them that some people were having good luck by putting a little helping of spaghetti inside a can of tomato sauce.

Even teachers get into the spirit of April Fool’s Day and try to get back at the students pranks. One grade school teacher in Boston comes in early every year to write that days lesson plan upside down on the black board. When the students come in looking confused and asking what it is she tells them she wrote it by standing on the ceiling.

There are many practical jokes and pranks pulled every year on April Fool’s Day. Some are funny and some could even be mean but this year let’s all try to make it original instead of doing the same old thing every year. This gets my imagination going wild thinking of what kind of prank I can pull on my family. The only problem I have is trying to keep a straight face.

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