Pranks

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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.
 This article needs additional citations for verification.
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.


Pranks popularity can be traced back to the Saturnalia of ancient Rome [1] In ancient Greece, 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.

Modern and successful pranks often take advantage of the modernization of tools and techniques, like the engineering prank in Cambridge, England, where an Austin Seven van was put on top of the Senate House building.[2] Pranks also adapt to the political context of the era.[3]


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 American humorist H. Allen Smith wrote a 320-page book in 1953 called The Compleat Practical Joker[4] 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

Some Resources

Television Shows

Movies

Radio Shows/Personalities

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)

Famous Practical Jokers

Real People

Fictional Characters

Colleges/Universities

Prank Stores Online

Links with Pranks

See also

References

  1. ^ From Hermes to bonsai kittens. What makes a jape great?, from The Economist, Dec 20th 2005. Discusses the origins and evolution of pranks.
  2. ^ From Hermes to bonsai kittens. What makes a jape great?, from The Economist, Dec 20th 2005. Discusses the origins and evolution of pranks.
  3. ^ Priceless pranks, from The Economist, Feb 21st 2006. Lists famous and successful pranks throughout history.
  4. ^ The compleat practical joker [WorldCat.org]
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_joke"

Article keywords: prank call,

This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

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