Talk:Practical joke

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Practical joke article.
Article policies

Please don't put the "new messages" joke on your user page or user_talk if it will be visited by new editors, e.g. if you place vandal warning messages or welcome messages, or if you're a mediator or admin. Please stop making templates for it. -- Jeandré, 2006-12-10t08:01z

Contents

[edit] New messages joke.

Re [1]

the above was intended as a good example of a practical joke for wikipedians. whats wrong with it being there? --Nerd42 (talk) 03:45, 6 January 2006 (UTC)
Nothing at all! Does anybody know of any more Wikipedia practical jokes like the one above? Filmcom 03:17, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

The 'new messages' should be linked to Special:Mytalk, so when the person clicks the link it does link to their user talk page, so they will expect a new message even more. ~ Ghelæ talkcontribs 16:10, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

I made it into a template called Practial Joke. I can be found on the top of this page and my Userpage. The Republican 21:03, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

... which seems to have broken or been deleted. It really shouldn't be a template anyway. Reverted.  –Aponar Kestrel (talk) 05:16, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Purim

Is the Jewish holiday Priam? related here? (bad spelling, placemarker)

Do you mean Purim? It sounds plausible that practical jokes could be a part of that celebration since it does have a strong element of carnival and mischievous merriment. I'll look it up, and if that is the case I'll add it to the article. Jonas Liljeström 16:01, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Germany

Quote: Practical jokes are features of various kinds of holidays, such as April Fool's Day, Halloween, the Day of the Holy Innocents (in Spanish-speaking cultures), and the night before May Day in Germany.

As a German, I can safely say that I have never heard of pranks being done the night before May Day. There's the April Fool's Day in Germany as well, except that Germans call it "1. April" and whenever they've successfully managed to trick someone, they cry "April, April!".

17:11, 6 December 2005 (UTC) Judith

    • Same here. There's no such thing being celebrated on April 30 / May 1 in Germany. April Fool's Day is traditional, Halloween has also become a favourite kid's event over the past few years and there's still Rummelpott on December 31 where kids make some noise in order to get some sweets (similar to Halloween). Therefore I delete this part.

07:05, 17 February 2006 (CET) Sven

Judith and Sven, thats not true in large parts of Germany in the night before May 1 the Maibaum is stolen by neighbouring villages and lovelines are drawn between love interests.--Tresckow 09:49, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image

I hate that image. It doesn't really resemble a practival joke. --GeorgeMoneyTalk Contribs 04:50, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

It's a good picture for the article, especially since it is difficult to illustrate most other types of practical jokes, involving some type of action or deception that can't be captured in a still photograph. I think the picture of the phone books is amusing and relevant to the topic. OneVeryBadMan 08:20, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

that image is hillarious. I'm gonna do that one day!

I agree with the first person. I'm going to remove popular Shakam 05:49, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

  I have a picture of a prank a friend of mine in the army pulled on his buddy: literally turning the contents of tent upside down, suspended to the ceiling of the tent. His pal was not amused, upon returning from the field to that. I'll look for it to upload if anyone thinks it would be better than the one already up.

[edit] Unreferenced Tag

I am of the opinion that the following template:

This article or section does not cite its references or sources.
You can help Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations.

}}}

... is not needed in this article because the subject itself isn't one that would normally be written about, much less be cited. Whoever disagrees, respond here, or else I'll remove it. Kareeser|Talk! 06:15, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Verifiability is one of Wikipedia's most important policies. -- Jeandré, 2006-12-10t08:01z

[edit] New Addition

Hello, I recently discovered a new website that contains extremly funny pranks to pull on other people. These pranks however are for your computer such as sending them through e-mail. The web site is http://www.lizardworks.com/pranks.html and I'm not sure if this should be added to the page. Any comments on wether it should or shouldn't be added?Azizza 23:06, 11 December 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Book title

The correct title of the H. Allen Smith referred to is indeed THE COMPLEAT PRACTICAL JOKER. Mr. Smith used the archaic spelling of COMPLEAT, NOT the modern COMPLETE. The reason I know is that I own this book. 71.214.94.108 21:59, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Confirmed & changed in the article. -SCEhardT 22:13, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Crass idiocy

The 'types of practical joke' section contains poorly written, ungrammatical nonsense. It desperately needs a clean-up. --Christopher 14:25, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

I will be excited to see your improvements. Thanks. --Chris Griswold (☎☓) 21:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Well known practical jokers

Should Ashton Kutcher be added to the list? Just a thought. JordanZed 22:24, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] enough

I am not mad I just want to know who keeps sending me this÷Sonicrules2

[edit] movies / fraternities

Isn't there a connection between pranks and college fraternities, or, at least, with a certain type of movie featuring fraternities and their pranks? The article doesn't reflect this at this point. -- 790 08:35, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moving unencyclopedic section here

[edit] Types of practical jokes

  • PC Pranks, practical jokes that one does to anothers computer such as disconnecting their keyboard. These pranks are usually found in an office or classroom scenario.
  • False signaling, such as a "kick me" note stuck on someone's back, an 'automatic door' sign on a normal swinging door, or dropping an empty carton on someone's foot after pretending it is heavy.
  • Removing someone's clothing so that it exposes a private body part or their undergarments, particularly in public. See sharking and pantsing.
  • Surprise disruption, employing (for example) trip-wires, whoopee cushions or other practical joke devices, peanut butter on the inside of a car door handle, punctured ketchup packets under the toilet seat, a three-legged lectern for a public speaker, defecating in the toilet's holding tank, or putting a bucket full of cold water above a door.
  • Visual deception; such as water-filled balloons, plastic wrap on a toilet seat, 'apple-pie beds' which have had the top blanket artfully folded back so the victim cannot get all the way in (also known as "short-sheeting"), loosening the tops of salt shakers, causing its entire contents to spill on one's meal, fake flowers in the lapel which squirt water, rubber fruit, and guns which unfurl a flag saying 'bang'.
  • Fool's errands such as sending someone to buy striped paint, water-proof towels, left-handed wrenches or screwdrivers, or elbow grease (see also: snipe hunt).
  • Hoax stories or situations perpetrated on or by the media such as fabricated UFO landings and fake celebrity interviews involving rude or ludicrous questions. One famous hoax was played by BBC on April 1st around 1959. It depicted a Swedish family going out and picking spaghetti off of trees. Operators were told to tell people who asked how to grow their own spaghetti tree to put a sprig of spaghetti in a can of tomato sauce and hope for the best. (see also: culture jamming).
  • Spontaneous impersonations, such as taking an order for takeaway food from someone who has actually dialed a wrong number.
  • Verbal and typographical pranks, such as printing a block of text so that the first letters of every line spell out an irreverent message (see also Acrostic), or teaching someone a purportedly useful phrase in another language which transpires to be an insult (such as "(Tú) eres una vaca", which means "You are a cow" in Spanish.)
  • Internet Jokes - Fooling to be thought playing a game, and midway through the game be interrupted by a scary or obscene animation or photograph.
  • Practical jokes are features of various kinds of holidays, such as April Fool's Day, Halloween, the Day of the Holy Innocents (in Spanish-speaking cultures). They also feature in various rites of passage, such as stag nights.
  • Physical pranks, such as sticking a sleeping person's hand in warm water so that they wet the bed, or putting shaving cream or whipped cream on a sleeping person's hand and tickling their face—the object being to cause them to essentially pie themselves.
  • Gross out pranks, such as "cup-a-soup"ing someone by shoving a fart in their face or placing dog poop in their coffee. The aforementioned Tank Prank is also a popular gross out joke.
  • The burning-paper-bag-of-excrement joke, which involves filling a brown paper bag with excrement, placing it on the doorstep of the house of the victim, setting the bag on fire, ringing the doorbell or knocking on the door, and then running away. The theory then goes that the excited party--who answers the door and then sees the burning paper bag, will stomp on the bag to extinguish the flames, thereby coating the victim's foot with the contents of the bag. The humor purportedly arises particularly intensely when the victim answers the door while in bare feet. This joke is only known to be effective against those individuals of comparable ignorance to the joke perpetrator, since clear-thinking individuals would simply seek to extinguish the flames by an alternate method such as dousing the flames or using a fire extinguisher.

Most of the content above has no place in an encyclopedia. If you think there's something salvageable in the section, then please by all means restore four or five, encyclopedic examples or types or whatever they're supposed to be of practical jokes. But not the whole list. Please. - ∅ (∅), 16:27, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Origin

Could someone cite the origin of the pranks or possibly the origin of the name of the prank? (E.G. Atomic Sit Up) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.119.248.253 (talk) 22:49, 21 March 2008 (UTC)