Practical joke

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An office cubicle with all the contents covered in aluminum foil. Practical jokes are a common workplace activity.
An office cubicle with all the contents covered in aluminum foil. Practical jokes are a common workplace activity.
One example of a practical joke is to completely block someone's doorway while he/she is in the room.
One example of a practical joke is to completely block someone's doorway while he/she is in the room.
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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

A practical joke or prank is a stunt or trick to purposely make someone feel foolish or victimized, usually for humor. The victim is called "the mark", "the target", and even "April Fool" if they were fooled on the day dedicated to pranks, April Fools' Day, which is held on the first day of April each year. Another day common for pranks and practical jokes is Halloween. The pranks are pulled by "the prankster", "practical joker", "gagman", or "jokester". Practical jokes are different from cons in that the victim finds out, or is let in on, the joke rather than being fooled non-jokingly to retrieve money or other valuables. Since pranks are made to make people feel foolish or victimized, there is an inherent strain of cruelty in most practical jokes. There is a thin line between practical jokes and hooliganism, bullying, vandalism, or sadism. Pranks can be pulled on a person or something that belongs to the person, like their house, pet, or mailbox, etc.

Practical jokes are usually done for amusement purposes, so when the perpetrator is discovered, they usually admit to it, as they are mostly done between friends and do not involve foul play. Although some practical jokes are pulled on enemies as a hatred remark or as some type of revenge.

The term "practical" refers to the fact that the joke consists of someone doing something (a practice), rather than a verbal or written joke. A practical joke can be caused by the victim falling for a prank, the victim stumbling into a prank, the prankster forcing a prank on the victim, the prankster causing others to do something to the victim, or even causing the victim to do something to others. Sometimes more than one mark is used.

Even practical jokers should be careful of "Fake Pranks" and "Reverse Pranks". A Fake Prank is where the mark is fooled into believing he is pulling a prank but is actually a victim. A Reverse Prank is when the intended victim becomes the prankster by turning the tables by either evading the prank and returning it or pulling a back-up prank of their own on their would-be pranksters.

The Trapezium of Xenophanes was cited by Aristotle as a notable compendium of practical jokes, but only a few fragments of this work have survived.

The American humorist H. Allen Smith wrote a 320-page book in 1953 called The Compleat Practical Joker[1] that contains many examples of practical jokes. A typical one, recalled as his favorite by the playwright Charles MacArthur, concerns the American painter and bohemian character Waldo Peirce. Peirce was living in Paris in the 1920s and "made a gift of a very small turtle to the woman who was the concierge of his building". The woman doted on the turtle and lavished it with care and affection. A few days later Peirce substituted a somewhat larger turtle for the original one. This continued for some time, with larger and larger turtles being surreptitiously introduced into the woman's apartment. The concierge was beside herself with happiness and displayed her miraculous turtle to the entire neighborhood. Peirce then began to sneak in and replace the turtle with smaller and smaller ones, to her bewildered distress. This was the storyline behind Esio Trot, by Roald Dahl.

Contents

[edit] Practical Jokes

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There are different kinds of practical jokes. All pranks/practical jokes fall into one or a combination of these categories:

  • prank calls which involves telephone pranks, usually consisting of a gag name
  • slapstick pranks where the victim gets hit with a unharming object.
  • surprise pranks which are made to surprise the victim.
  • errand pranks where the victim is made to find or capture something imaginary
  • gross-out pranks which are made to gross out the victim
  • fake-out pranks where the victim is faked into thinking something is, was, or will be real or different
  • annoyance pranks where the victim is being confused
  • trap pranks where the victim is pranked by a booby trap or similar setup

Some classic pranks include:

  • Atomic Sit Up - The victim is told they can't do a sit up while someone creates resistance using a blindfold. After a few tries of proving everyone wrong, the victim finds their face smacking into someone's butt, usually bare. The blindfold can be quickly taken away to force their efforts into the butt or just let them hit while blindfolded. The person who is putting their butt in the victim's face also has the choice to fart or not.
  • Wooden Spoon Head Knock - Two people place a spoon in their mouth (handle side) and take turns bending over and allowing the other person to hit them with the spoon on the back of the head. Whoever hits the hardest is the winner. One of the players, unknown to the victim, has help, and when their victim bends over, the helper uses his own spoon in hand to hit the victim. This can be repeated if the helper stands beside the victim acting as a simple spectator and hits from behind.
  • Forehead Coin to Funnel - You place a funnel in your pants and a coin on your forehead. You show the victim how it's done by allowing the coin to fall into the funnel. When they try it, you pour liquid down the funnel.
  • Bucket of Water on Door - A bucket of water is placed on the top of a partly opened door. When the victim opens the door, the bucket falls, splashing them wet. Alternation: Eggs can be alternated for a bucket of water.
  • Snipe Hunt or "Fool's Errand" - The victim is told to fetch an imaginary object or being with believable words, sometimes it includes doing ridiculous things to retrieve it (e.g. "Go get the key to the parking lot." [There's no such thing as a key for a parking lot.]). Sometimes the imaginary object is made real when a random object is handed to the victim (e.g. "Excuse me, I was told to get the key to the parking lot." The victim is handed a 50 lb. vise. "Now take that to Marty and he'll show you what to do with it"; and thus, the victim carries around a 50 lb. tool wondering what to do with it and is given the runaround).
  • Sleep Pranking - You take advantage of a sleeping person or persons by cutting/shaving their hair or eyebrows, marking on their face with a marker or make-up, sticking their hand in lukewarm water to make them urinate, putting shaving cream in their hand and tickling their nose so they pie themselves, etc.

Other classic pranks can include a practical joke device:

[edit] Some Resources

[edit] Television Shows

[edit] Movies

[edit] Radio Shows/Personalities

[edit] Books

  • Cubicle Warfare: 101 Office Traps and Pranks by John Austin (ISBN-13: 978-0061438868)
  • The Compleat Practical Joker by H. Allen Smith (ISBN-13: 978-0899669311)
  • The Practical Joker's Handbook by Tim Nyberg (ISBN-13: 978-0740741982)
  • Prank University: The Ultimate Guide to College's Greatest Tradition by John Austin (ISBN-13: 978-0307338433)
  • Prank the Monkey: The ZUG Book of Pranks by Sir John Hargrave (ISBN-13: 978-0806527802)
  • The Complete Book of Outrageous and Atrocious Practical Jokes by Justin Geste (ISBN-13: 978-0385230445)

[edit] Famous Practical Jokers

[edit] Real People

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[edit] Fictional Characters

[edit] Colleges/Universities

[edit] Prank Stores Online

[edit] Links with Pranks

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ The compleat practical joker [WorldCat.org]