April Fools Day Pranks

The ClubHouse: General Discussions - Jan -Apr. 2001: April: April Fools Day Pranks

Twiggyish

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 09:15 am Click here to edit this post

So what do you all have planned for April Fools Day? Have you ever pulled a prank? Were you ever the recipient of one?

One time while working at a bank, I wrote on a piece of paper, "Today is my birthday"..and then I taped in front of another teller's window. All day people kept wishing her happy birthday and she didn't know why..lol We all had a good chuckle over that one for a long time.

Max

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 09:27 am Click here to edit this post

I'm not a big fan of April Fool's day. Who started this anyway?

Twiggy, your prank is funny and harmless and that's cool. Unfortunately, I've seen too many times when pranks have been mean-spirited and potentially harmful.

Here's the main story that makes me think that way:

In high school, the homecoming day parade was a BIG thing in my small town. Our class had a record of building the best float for the parade each year. In our Senior year, some guys decided to pull a prank on April Fool's Day while we were building the float.

We were working in a big building on the county fair grounds. People were on ladders and working with chicken wire and wire cutters and all kinds of stuff. Kevin, a popular party-guy in our class, came stumbling into the building acting very drunk. Things were said between him and another guy. A fairly loud argument ensued and Kevin was then forcibly escorted from the building by a couple of other guys. About a half hour later, Kevin returned. Folks generally ignored him, hoping a fight wouldn't break out. All of a sudden, he started yelling at the guy he'd argued with earlier and pulled out a gun. Next thing you know, BANG! and, for some reason, the lights went out. Kids started screaming and running for the only pay phone in the place. The first kid to the phone said it was out of order. There was a LOT of panic. When the lights came back on, the guy Kevin had argued with was lying on the floor with what looked like a bloody gunshot wound in his belly. Another guy apparently had fallen off a ladder in the fracas and seemed injured on the floor.

The pranksters let the panic go on for a while and then the "dead" guy got up and started laughing. At that point, they finally revealed it was all a "joke". Personally, I didn't find it one bit funny. People could have REALLY gotten hurt. It was reckless and just plain stupid. Had this occurred today instead of in 1974, I'm sure there would have been some serious consequences. As it was, the only consequences were nothing more than a lecture from school administrators to the organizers of this "event."

Anyway, this year, April Fool's Day is on a Sunday. The only "prank" I'm participating in is at my church. Our youth director is currently in Hawaii for his wedding. He doesn't know it, but next Sunday has been declared "Tropical Day" at church. Everyone is encouraged to show up in Hawaiian print clothing. The music is going to have an island theme, and there's a key lime cake (his new wife's favorite) and punch for the reception following the morning service. :)

Elitist

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 09:44 am Click here to edit this post

Hey Max that is so funny!

It reminds me of my roommates fraternity during the Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Friday the 13th days when they had all the brothers in a big room for their weekly meeting and a guy with a hockey mask and chainsaw came bursting in revving it up and placing it on a couple of preselected victims necks.

Of course they had taken the chain off the saw and nothing happened, but you never saw such a rush for the door.

Or it reminds me of my brother telling about how they convinced a couple of guys that they needed to lose their virginity, and took them out on a deserted road to meet the prostitute. They saw another car, and blinked their lights on and off, and the other car did the same.

He and another guy took the two virgins out of the car and walked toward the car as the lady got out of the front seat. As they neared the car, a large man got out of the driver's side screaming "So you are the SOBs that have been messing with my wife" and pulls a gun and fires two shots. My brother and his buddy hit the ground as if hit.

He said they got one guy out of the rice field pretty quick, but it took them five minutes to find the other guy swimming down the canal as fast as he could go.

Of course I would never do something so irresponsible.

Twiggyish

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 09:57 am Click here to edit this post

roflmao!!!!

Norwican

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 11:25 am Click here to edit this post

I like funny, harmless pranks also.

Max and Twiggy yours are cute.

Elit... yours is a little over the top for me.
Although it sounds funny... if anyone did anything like that to me... I would be PISSSED!

I usually just put cut up pieces of terry cloth towels in the hamburgers or serve drinks in drip glasses... something cheesy like that.

Resortgirl

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 03:16 pm Click here to edit this post

The only time I've pulled an April Fools joke was on my poor husband. I do feel bad about it now and don't know what got into me at the time.

I had a friend call him at home pretending to be an IRS agent wanting to set up an appointment for an audit. She insisted that it be scheduled for April 31st at 10am and although my poor husbands calender didn't HAVE an April 31st on it, he agreed to that date and time. He was so ashen and shakey when he got off the phone I felt like the devil... my friend called back and yelled "April Fools!" and he chased me around the house and yard... I don't know what he was going to do to me cause he never caught me! I am bracing myself for the day he gets me back. I'm a meanie!!

Twiggyish

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 04:00 pm Click here to edit this post

RG, this one reminds me of a funny prank. A few years ago, I worked in a Real Estate office. There was one agent, Walter, who was a real character. (He was one of my favorite people)

Anyway, Walt was known to be very sentimental over funny things like his dog and his car. One of the other agents put a FOR SALE sign on his car and had a friend call up to ask about it.
This one had us rolling in the aisles!!! Poor Walt was laughing with us once he figured it out. But his expression when he looked out the window at his car was priceless!! He then ran outside to take off the sign!

Noslonna

Tuesday, March 27, 2001 - 06:37 pm Click here to edit this post

GREAT PRANKS IN HISTORY

THE DEAD BARRYMORE
In 1942, director Raoul Walsh bribed a worker at a funeral parlor and borrowed actor John Barrymore's barely cold body. Then he took Barrymore to Errol Flynn's house and propped the corpse up on a sofa with a drink nearby. Flynn walked in, nodded at Barrymore, then let out a piercing scream and ran out of the house.

THE PANTS
Keith Moon, The Who's late drummer, and an accomplice, singer Vivian Stanshall, would enter various tailor shops and ask to see "the strongest pair of trousers in the shop." After the shopkeeper brought out his most durable garment, Moon and Stanshall would "test" it: Each would grab a leg and tear the trousers in half. The shopkeeper's anguished screams were the cue for a third accomplice, a one-legged man, to enter the shop and exclaim: "Just the job! Wrap them separately!"

THE GREAT TRICKY DICK TRAIN TRICK
While campaigning for governor of California in 1962, Richard Nixon made a whistle-stop tour of the state and paused in San Luis Obispo to speak to a crowd. A political prankster put on a conductor's uniform and, in the middle of Nixon's speech, waved the train -- with Nixon aboard -- right out of the station.

TOJO'S TEETH
In 1947, when U.S. Navy dentist George Foster found himself entrusted with the dental care of prisoner Gen. Hideki Tojo, the man who led the Japanese forces in WWII, he couldn't help himself and engraved "Remember Pearl Harbor" in Morse code on Tojo's sandwich clamps.

THE DAY IT RAINED PINGPONG BALLS
In 1959, director John Huston rented a small air- plane from which he dropped 2,000 pingpong balls onto a golf course where a celebrity tournament was in full swing.

THE MAN WHO FOOLED HOWARD COSELL
College student Michael Banks, pretending to be Muhammad Ali, called Howard Cosell while the sportscaster was hosting "Monday Night Football." Cosell spent most of half time regaling viewers with the story of his phone call from Ali.

Max

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 08:42 am Click here to edit this post

Okay, here's another one from my past. Not timed with April Fool's Day, but a great prank nonetheless.

First day of classes in my Senior year of high school, we had to fill out the usual paperwork (this was before the age of computers). Some of the kids got the notion to complete a set of paperwork for a new student, Frank Tuttle. Only problem was, there wasn't any such person.

They gave Frank a class schedule, completed all the required paperwork with fictional information, and turned it in. For two weeks, teachers were calling roll and wondering where the heck Frank Tuttle was. Of course, every time this occurred, all the Seniors in the class sat there snickering, which further irritated the administration.

I don't remember how they finally caught on. They were pretty good sports about it, though. Frank Tuttle "appeared" in our yearbook (we took an old Senior picture of a student and cropped out the face so it was just a suit sitting in the frame). His ambition was "to find himself."

Frank even graduated with us. The administration agreed to call his name during the diploma ceremony and one of the guys put on a gorilla head and marched on stage to accept Frank's diploma. He received a standing ovation from the class.

Resortgirl

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 01:04 pm Click here to edit this post

Max, that's a great one! LOL!

My daughter's school is getting so serious and lacking in a sense of humor that the whole class would have probably been suspended if they tried that now.

Moondance

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 05:30 pm Click here to edit this post
April Fool's Day

In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a "fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was true. In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d'Avril!" (April Fish!)
Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One common trick on April Fool's Day, or All Fool's Day, is pointing down to a friend's shoe and saying, "Your shoelace is untied." Teachers in the nineteenth century used to say to pupils, "Look! A flock of geese!" and point up. School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled. Whatever the trick, if the innocent victim falls for the joke the prankster yells, "April Fool! "
The "fools' errands" we play on people are practical jokes. Putting salt in the sugar bowl for the next person is not a nice trick to play on a stranger. College students set their clocks an hour behind, so their roommates show up to the wrong class - or not at all. Some practical jokes are kept up the whole day before the victim realizes what day it is. Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The most clever April Fool joke is the one where everyone laughs, especially the person upon whom the joke is played.

"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. "
- American humorist Mark Twain

Willi

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 - 07:09 pm Click here to edit this post
Every year since he was about 8 (so we're going on 5 years now)...My son rubberbands the kitchen sprayer so that when I go to turn on the water first thing in the morning on April Fools Day...I get squirted. He laughs so hard he cries.

Every year I fall for this. As he gets older, the "fooling" gets more & more sophisticated. Last year, he replaced the sugar with salt. I've also had plastic bugs floating in my coffee.
He is so excited this year because April Fools falls on a weekend which means he'll have the WHOLE day to torment me. I see him conspiring with his dad and I'm thinking I should make plans for Sunday. Solo plans. I did remind him that Sunday is a holy day and that he needs to remember the twelve commandments (I made a couple up).

Maybe I should start thinking up some ways to fool him...

Mishamisha

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 07:14 am Click here to edit this post
I've heard of one, don't know where I heard it: buy a car door at the junk yard that matches your mate's car. If the used door isn't already thrashed, smash it. Have it installed on your mate's car while he/she is at work. You get the idea.

I don't know if I've been truly "had" on April 1st yet. I used to work with a guy though who was ALWAYS pulling small pranks. Offering you free tickets to something, then when you looked at them you'd see they were for an event last week, or even last year. Modified all the printer dialogue messages on my computer once so instead of "spooling to printer" "Imaging", stuff like that, it would say "Fatal film jam" "Meltdown will commence in 5..4..3..2.....".

Elitist

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 07:54 am Click here to edit this post
Well when I first got out of school, for some reason I let a guy live with me who turned out to be really weird. I grew to hate the guy and did mean things to him. Like he used to leave his dirty clothes all over the place, and I would tie his ties to the ceiling fan. When he didn't take that hint, every now and then I would take a few articles of clothing and opening the attic access and tossing them upstairs. Was he suprised to find all those "missing" clothes when we moved.

Well shortly after I started dating my wife, for some reason the talk turned to the lingerie show at the local Hilton. Being the nice guy I was, I told them these events were an ideal place to pick up women. All you had to do was when the model came up to you, purchase the lingerie, then tell her you bought for her. If you handled it just right, you would get a special showing of the item later that night.

Of course this was the wrong thing to tell him. For the next several weeks all he did was bug me about going to the Hilton with him. Finally I had enough, and told him to meet me there at 7 o'clock.

Well instead of going home that night where I would run into him, I went out to eat, took my time, and ended up at home after 7. I got on the phone to my then girlfriend, and as usual we were hogging the phone. After about 15 minutes, the operator breaks in and says there is an emergency phone call. Of course I took it - it was my roommate calling from the Hilton wanting to know where I was. Thinking fast, I told him that I had already been up there and gotten lucky, and that he had called at an inopportune time. He asked who I was talking to on the phone, and I told him he was the second to interrupt a delicate moment, that my mother was the one I was talking to. He bought it and finally hung up.

My girlfriend of course cracked up when I told her what I had done. So after talking a bit more, we hung up. Then I heard my roommates car drive up, so I ripped my shirt open, pulled one shirttail out, mussed my hair, and sprinkled a little water on my face. Then I flung myself on the couch and put my best exhausted look on.

He came in and I fed him the whole line about bringing a model home and that we had wild, passionate sex, and I was just totally wiped and was going to bed. After a general quizzing he let me go. I never told him that it was a joke.

The funny thing about it is that after my wife and I got engaged, he kept trying to tell her how bad a person I was and that she shouldn't marry me. Since she knew what had happened, it took everything she had not to burst out laughing whenever he approached her with this sad story.

Guruchaz

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 09:02 am Click here to edit this post
How dare you call your roommate "weird". That's offensive.

Elitist

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 09:06 am Click here to edit this post
I'm sorry Guru, but when you and I roomed together I really didn't like you

And I don't mean in Game II.

Norwican

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 09:09 am Click here to edit this post
<note to Digi and Nos>

You may want to reconsider "rooming" with Elit on the Minnesota trip... you may find personal items twirling from fans or gone altogether.

Elitist

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 09:11 am Click here to edit this post
That sounds like a plan to me Nor, not a problem

Guruchaz

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 04:39 pm Click here to edit this post
I know. Child prodigies bring out the jealousy in everyone. uh huh huh

Guruchaz

Thursday, March 29, 2001 - 08:32 pm Click here to edit this post
I'm sure that joke got lost somewhere.

Elitist

Friday, March 30, 2001 - 06:21 am Click here to edit this post
I got it, I am just too jealous to respond. uh huh huh.

Guruchaz

Friday, March 30, 2001 - 07:14 pm Click here to edit this post
Nope, never been really successful with pranks. I'm not the little prankster.

Mishamisha

Saturday, March 31, 2001 - 04:51 pm Click here to edit this post
However...if we WERE ever going to revive the Flame Warrior game, wouldn't April Fool's Day be the day to do it? (slithers out of seat onto floor. good meds today)

Enbwife

Sunday, April 01, 2001 - 07:40 am Click here to edit this post
Neil and I have a joke fake arm and a fake leg that have clothing on them and feel and look quite real. One time, I brought them to work and had the arm hanging out of one of the filing cabinets. It looked like someone was inside reaching out. It was the funniest thing!!! People would come around the corner and jump, or shriek... it was hillarious!!! The leg we have used in the same manner. Under a big piece of furniture where it looks like it fell on someone (hahahaha). Sick I know.