Have you had any good tricks or practical jokes played on you, or have you played any on someone else. That reminds me, I have a good one. I'll tell you it tomorrow - there's a cliff hanger for you! Hmm...

-- Tim (tim@newmail.net), August 25, 1999

Answers

This wasn't supposed to be a practical joke, but it turned into one anyway. At the GCSE Art Exhibition, I pointed to some of my brother's paintings. "That's the view from the front window," I told my friend, "And that's the view from the back." That was a joke : the second picture I pointed out showed a desert. "That's nice," she said. "The sand and the water... what's that building?" The building was an Egytian temple. "That's the garden shed." She was a little sceptical, but took my word for it. Only after a few questions did she realise I was making the whole thing up.

-- MysticZed The Magical Mong (zobocop@warnes.demon.co.uk), August 25, 1999.

Well there was the time I told Steve (misanthrope.org) that my uncle or somebody worked in the US Mint and was in the hospital because a whole wall of quarters fell and crushed him. I also told him that I went to visit him in the hospital and went out to get some gum out of the machine in the hall. It wouldn't work, though, and I came back in and said, "It wouldn't take my quarter," and held the quarter up and my uncle started freaking out.

It was funny as hell.

-- Katie Trame (katie@misanthrope.org), August 25, 1999.

I am in yearbook at school and we have a reputation of not liking the newspaper staff and going out of our way to make them miserable. Our teacher was absent one day and we wanted to play on the internet, but the computer was password protected and we couldn't sign on. Someone in a later class knew the password and wouldn't tell us what it was. We decided that if we weren't going to get to use the computers, newspaper wasn't either. So, we took the tracker ball from the mouse out of that particular computer. Then we thought, well they will just get one from any of the 10 other computers. So we took all of them. And hid them. And made a ransom note from them telling them if they told us the password, we would surrender the "balls". We also made a scavenger hunt for them to do during class. Well, they especially needed to use the computers that day so needless to say, they were angry at us, our teacher was mad at us. Oh well. The sub swore that he didn't see us do it. ha! Stuff like that.... man.... priceless.

-- Amy (AmyAmyAmy7@excite.com), May 19, 2000.

There was a legendary prank at my school that I only heard about -- the sixth form leavers ordered a male stripper to perform for our headmistress at final assembly...

-- tracing (tracing@tracing.org), May 20, 2000.

I was an Upper Sixth Leaver last year, and we really wanted to do some pranks, but were worried because the previous year's Upper Sixth had gone so far with their pranks that the whole thing became really really nasty and cruel (a massive food fight in the dining room which got a lot of "innocent" people really messed up, a lot of teachers' cars tyres slashed) and the ringleaders were disqualified from taking their A Level exams. So we were hoping the same wouldn't happen to us. But we found out from a "sympathetic" teacher that, as long as we didn't do anything really nasty, a few pranks would be allowed.

The best thing we did was putting up copies of the master timetable all over school, with the words "Attention Lesson Changes" and the room numbers all changed. Everyone in the school went to the wrong rooms for their lessons all day! God, it was hilarious.

The other thing was groups of 5 of us at a time going up to one of the (very few) male teachers at our all-girl school, and flirting with him outrageously. They all got really embarrassed - it was great!!

Ah, happy days...

-- Helen (breathe@oceanic.nu), May 20, 2000.

Once in a college dorm, one guy was going away for the weekend and the rest of us decided to fill his room with water. There was carpet only in the hallways edged in metal and that would keep at least an inch of water inside the room. We filled a full size trash can--and getting it down the hall from the bathroom was a prank in itself-- and carefully poured it down the door so it would run under the door and into the room. We filled the can twice to make sure we had enough.......then we waited. He came home as expected and never noticed all of us hanging about as he opened his door. And there was nothing there........where had it all gone......? We were deflated and went sadly off. The guy brushed his teeth and got ready for bed. His habit was to turn out his light at the door and then make a mighty leap from the door to his bed. He duly did. And SPLUUCHHH!!!! He'd left a pair of pants hanging off his bed onto the floor and they'd wicked all that water up into his mattress!! All that work and we missed it-----joke on everyone.

-- Karen (phgreen@uswest.net), May 24, 2000.

One day I decided to play a practical joke on my boss. In his office is an overhead bin in which I rigged a large envelope full of those little paper dots that you get from a three-hole punch. I also threw a boat load of pennies in there so it would make a loud noise when he opened it. To make the prank even more humorous, I planted my camcorder in one of his plants and got the entire incident on film. It was truly hilarious.

-- Scott Maczka (srmaczka@yahoo.com), April 17, 2002.

The best leavers trick ever is to swap the lockers. Take some from one house hall that are identical to another set and switch them. When lunchtime comes, stand and watch every1 try to make their keys fit the wrong lockers....Hilarious Oh and another but this time on your dad! I found an old fairy cake in the corner of a cupboard that was about 12 weeks old!!! euugh and it was rock solid!. I licked it and gave it to my dad telling him it was a rock cake i'd made in class at skool. He ate it all and asked for another one!!. Next time he freaks on you think of the ultimate prank. Thnx 4 readin!!

-- Fraser (fraycampbell608@hotmail.com), May 10, 2002.