Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pranks

April Fool's Dinner

nalyd — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:42:11 -0800

I'm looking to make an April Fool's day dinner, where dinner looks like dessert. We already have the idea of a meatloaf "cake" with mashed potato icing. Do you have any ideas for side dishes that also look like dessert?

Where can I find this gnome?

theRussian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:57:11 -0800

Have you seen this gnome? This gnome has become the object of several pranks that have been played on a good friend of mine--including a large rasterization of his picture taped to wall of bedrooms and showers, twittering of his portrait, and a general increase of the word 'gnome' into our vocabulary.

Unfortunately, we are only in possession of this one image of it. We contacted the art director of the magazine in which the picture was found, and alas, it was culled from a stock photo site.

Antics would be greatly increased if we were to get our hands on the actual statue, or any resembling it. Online is likely best, but we're located in Austin if you know of anything locally. So, hive mind, have you seen this gnome?

Suggestions for more pranks always welcome.

Can you please suggest pranks, stunts, and tricks that fall under the category of "physical challenges"?

chr1sb0y — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:56:54 -0800

Can you please suggest simple pranks, stunts, and tricks that fall under the category of "physical challenges"? For example: Offer 2 kids a piece of newspaper, and challenge them to find a way for both to stand on the paper at the same time, without ripping it, such that neither kid is able to touch the other. Answer: Slide the paper under a door; they stand on either side of the door. I know there must be whole books/websites/etc. of these out there, but I'm not finding them.

These are for use at a birthday party of 7-9 year olds.

YouMailFilter: Where can I download fake telco "out of service" messages?

melorama — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:41:10 -0800

I've been loving YouMail for the past year, as a replacement for VerizonWireless' sucky voicemail, but I've only now started playing around with it's individualized greeting/"ditchmail" features. I'm looking to mess with my friends & co-workers minds using this feature. I can't remember where I heard it before, but I am specifically looking for a recording of a telephone company "out of service" message that asks you to insert coins in order to complete the call. I recall there was a website that someone mentioned on a past 2600 "Off The Hook" radio show, but for the life of me I can't seem to find it anywhere.

I'm also open to any other creative ideas or soundfiles that I can use for customized YouMail greetings and Ditchmail messages (and when I say "creative", I don't mean fake celebrity voices, movie/tv soundbites etc.)

pranks needed.

goldism — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 06:41:53 -0800

Does anybody have any ideas of some practical jokes i can play on a colleague by remoting into his registry? I only have access to his HK_LOCAL_MACHINE and HK_USERS branches. so i cant, to my knowledge, change his homepage to something childish.

i got him with a bunch of directories on his desktop that were not removable in windows.

He in-turn got me with, loading up a screenshot of my computer on bootup making me think the computer was frozen.

i need some ideas to retaliate. nothing damaging please. 5th grade humor is welcome.

Who are some nonviolent political pranksters?

Phred182 — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 01:38:20 -0800

Please tell me about some nonviolent political pranksters I might have missed. This Salon article (ad view required) got me thinking about monkey wrenchers and pranksters. My own username comes from an impressively dopey movie in the same vein. The
Ebert review led me to The Fox, an environmentalist prankster active in Chicago in the 1960s and 70s. He doesn’t have a wikipedia page, but he did have Mike Royko. Maybe there are others who are only known regionally, or have otherwise been slighted by history. Any suggestions?

I’d like to learn more about nonviolent, ideological, political pranksters. I’ve seen this thread. N.B.: I’m not interested so much in college pranks, as there’s already a definitive—and unnecessarily beautifully written—book on the subject.

They don't have to be environmentalists, and I've seen the Yes Men.

Tell me a good computer prank

mooreeasyvibe — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:54:24 -0800

Does anyone know of a good computer prank I can install on my housemate's computer that will let me do funny stuff to him remotely across our network? Nothing horrible or malicious here - just a bit of fun.

Did someone pee on my A/C?

Doctor Barnett — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 05:35:46 -0800

My window air conditioner smells like pee when it's on. There is a roof deck immediately above this window. We are on good terms with the tenants up there, but they have guests over pretty often. Last night, upon turning on the air conditioner fan to drown out the sound of a car alarm, I was assaulted with the smell of urine. (If this isn't a sign to move out of the city, I don't know what is.) It is not coming from outside or inside, and I can only smell it when the A/C fan is running.

1) Is this something guys do now, going all R. Kelly on A/C units? I'm sure it wasn't an act of revenge, but it could have been some random guest acting out while the hosts were away.

2) How do I clean this? Whether it's pee or not, the smell has got to go. I was thinking of pouring warm soapy water in through the vents on top. Any reason that wouldn't be safe? Any better ideas?

How to set up a fake ghostly haunting?

robocop is bleeding — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 09:49:37 -0800

How to best fake a haunting, demonic possession, or alien visitation? After years of enjoying shows like Ghost Hunters, A Haunting, and various shows of that ilk with friends, I would like to set up a fake "experience" for them.

How best to go about setting the stage (ie, creating "experiences" that get people thinking the place is haunted), running an "investigation" (ala Ghost Hunters), and giving everyone a good scare?

We have a couple moving into a new apartment in the next month. He is the sort that would get really into/freaked out by this sort of thing and she is the sort that would help me set him up for the haunting. There would, of course, be a big 'reveal' at the end to make sure he can still sleep at night in his new home.

There is no need to limit ideas to simple hauntings. Demonic posessions, alien visitations, and strange Lovecraftian horrors from beyond sanity are all welcome for the set up.

What Happened to my Girl's Computer?

Doublewhiskeycokenoice — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 23:31:49 -0800

Incredibly strange happening last night. Is my girlfriend's computer haunted? Does my house have a gnome/stalker? Some language possibly NSFW Ok, so here is a very strange story that has no readily apparent explaination. My gf was over at my place last night working on a project for her anthro class and was up particularly late. I went to bed, and about two hours later she joined me, leaving my two housemates up for another few hours. I get up early the next morning to go to work, and all seems normal. About 8:00 PM tonight the lady calls me and says "Big Boy Nut Sack, huh?" Naturally, I am confused. Turns out that when she went back to her computer (12" powerbook G4), the name of the CD in her computer had been changed to "The Sack Chronicles," the artist to "Big Boy Nut Sack" and the genre to World Music. Originally, the album was titled "beat," and no other fields were filled in. She thought it was a clever prank played by us boys on her unsuspecting computer, but this is simply not the case. None of us have any idea what the deal is with her computer, or what the meaning of these changes could possibly be. These changes were only performed in iTunes, and not the actual files if that matters. The best guess we have now is that someone did it in their sleep, but that seems like a pretty intricate task for a sleepwalker to perform, and none of us have a history of sleepwalking, especially when sober. And what of the bizzare track and album titles? Do these mean anything to anyone? Have iTunes tracks ever changed for no good reason on anyone else's computer? Am I a goofus for even asking these questions?

What's a great April Fool's Day prank?

Rock Steady — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 16:15:48 -0800

What's a great April Fool's Day prank my 5-year-old daughter and I can play on her Mom (my wife) tomorrow? Nothing too devious or disturbing, please. There have, of course, been more general AskMe's about AFD, but I'm specifically looking for a trick my 5-year-old can participate in and enjoy.

female tricksters, pranksters, radical artists

nyoki — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 13:01:28 -0800

I'm looking for female tricksters, prank-sters or radical grrl artists who are creating contemporary playful political art in any genre including: pranks, graffiti, installation art or performance art, street protest groups, etc. Does anyone know where to find these wild women?

APRIL FOOLS!!!

beammeup4 — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 12:29:14 -0800

So April Fool's Day is this Saturday, so I'm wondering what is the best joke you've pulled, and more specifically... what's a good joke that a somewhat quiet and reserved college freshman can do to "make a name for himself" in front of his friends? =)

(no suggestions involving mooning anyone or getting wasted...I want it to be a shocker for them, but that too much so...)

Halloween: costume ideas?

masymas — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 13:17:08 -0800

Halloween: costume ideas? I'm trying to think of a cheap DIY costume for a halloween party for a bunch of 20-30 somethings. I've been browsing the thrift stores for ideas, but have so far just come away with the usuals: cowboy, pirate, etc. I'm going after something unique, perhaps Bob Ross. Any other ideas/suggestions? Some thoughtful pranks might also be in order.

Know any college pranks?

Acey — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 05:24:31 -0800

Know any good college pranks? You know the score: maximum hilarity, minimum cost. Stories of pranks you've pulled would be great.

For example: there was a story of a guy who released 3 pigs on campus. He numbered them 1, 2 and 4. They caught the pigs quick enough, but they spent weeks looking for pig number 3.

Heavy, flat and cheap?

bondcliff — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 06:26:44 -0800

What is the heaviest object that would fit inside a standard letter-sized envelope? This is for personal reasons, nobody's going to get hurt, I promise.

I need to find the heaviest object or material I can put into an envelope. It needs to be heavy, flat and cheap. It should also be easily obtainable. The atomic weight of Abevigodium might be 98379, but if I can't find it at Home Depot it's not going to help. I want the end result to be an envelope so heavy God himself would need to stop and catch his breath on the way to the post office.

Help me come up with some creative office pranks

Emperor Yamamoto's Eggs — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 12:16:46 -0800

Help me win a good-natured office prank war with a co-worker. Over the past month, some co-workers and I have been involved in a little prank/joke war with another department in the office. Most of the stuff we’ve done is pretty benign (stuffing a desk drawer full of plastic snakes and spiders, switching desks, replacing their bag lunches with plastic fruit and food, switching phone cords) but we are looking to step it up a little. I’ve Googled around and most of the office pranks I’ve found either require access to the mark’s unlocked computer (we don’t have that), involve destroying or ruining something, or are just plain mean. Help me cook up some borderline cheesy, yet clever, pranks that don’t involve the aforementioned and would be appropriate for an office setting?

Prank or not?

interrobang — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:40:01 -0800

This happened to my girlfriend in 1987, and for years she's been telling the story as though it was a genuine mistake. The first time she told me the story, I immediately thought it was a prank. She was working in the Carleton College call center at the time, working at a switchboard.

One night, she received a call from an "overseas operator". The operator told her to please wait for an incoming call for a student at the college.

There was a "whooshing" sound--which she describes as being like the sound of lines being connected over great distances--and a man speaking Chinese came on the line. She couldn't communicate with the person to find out who they wanted to talk to, and the overseas operator came back on the line.

The overseas operator told her to please hold, and again she heard the whooshing sound. Then a man speaking German came on the line, and again, she couldn't figure out who they wanted to talk to.

The operator came on again, and told her that if she hung up, it would cost the school 35 dollars. Another whooshing sound, and another indecipherable foreign language. At this point, she was in tears.

The operator came on again several more times, and continued connecting her to people speaking a variety of languages. The "cost to the school"--namely to her--kept going up. At the end, the operator came on the line and apologized.

This sounds to me like a hoax involving something like five people and a vacuum cleaner. Is anyone familiar with this specific kind of prank, or alternately, does anyone know that such things as "overseas operators" have ever existed? I am especially interested in knowing whether this kind of thing used to happen often to call centers, or if anyone has encountered this prank before.

Apologies for the length of this question.

Gimme your best Office prank ideas!

moonbird — Fri, 03 Dec 2004 18:20:30 -0800

Office PrankFilter: it's payback time. I used to be the prankmaster in my office, but I've been had, twice now. It's time for Revenge Claus to visit, but I'm out of ideas. [MI] I'm not the biggest fan of Xmas, and I was a little flustered as all the decorations went up this year that no consideration was being given to non-Christians, and I got the Scrooge label. After returning to the office from a home visit (it's social work), I found my desk covered in garland, ribbons, and everyone gathered around to sing carrolls. Actually, it was very nice, but I've lost my prankster crown and I really want to get the ringleader back.

What I'd love to do is come up with a web-app that counts time backwards, as she has to punch in online everyday. But anything to get her goat, in a way that's not too mean. Ideas? Thanks in advance

Gardening Surprises

bondcliff — Tue, 25 May 2004 09:43:41 -0800

Ok folks, show me your whimsical side. My wife is quite a gardener and she's always out there bending down, pulling weeds, digging, etc. I thought it would be fun to occasionally stick things under the plants for her to stumble upon. Star Wars figures having tea, little elves napping, Lego construction crews, small billboards with cute signs, etc. I want to make it look like there's a little community of miniature garden people living in the dirt. I know she'd appreciate the effort. I need more ideas. [MI] What would be appropriate action figures, toys, signs, and other things to put down there? I want to keep costs down and I'd rather not go mail order as she might wonder what all the UPS shipments are for. There's plenty of stores nearby where I can buy things. And yes, I have way too much time on my hands.