Snipe hunt

A snipe hunt or fool's errand is a type of practical joke that involves experienced people making fun of credulous newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task.^[1] The snipe hunt may be assigned to a target as part of a process of hazing.

A snipe hunt is a specific type of "wild-goose chase", where a person embarks on an impossible search. Where a wild-goose chase may be accidental, a snipe hunt is always initiated by a second person, as a prank.^[2]

Etymology

The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about an imaginary bird or animal called the "snipe" as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises such as banging rocks together.^[1] Real snipe (a family of shorebirds) are difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word "sniper" is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.^[3]

Examples

In the pizza-making business, newcomers are told to look in the fridge for the "dough repair kit".^[4]
Another variation includes being sent to procure a "long weight" or "long stand", the idea being that the dupe will reach the shop (or equivalent source of the mythical object) and place the request. The target is then left waiting by the shop keeper (who is presumably familiar with the trick) and thus receives a long wait.^[5]
Other common restaurant practical jokes include sending the new employee to another restaurant to borrow the "bacon stretcher", "lobster food", a "souffle pump", or a "can of steam".^[6]^[7]
In construction, a "left-handed screwdriver", "board stretcher", "eye measures", "hammer grease", "wall expander", "glass hammer", "striped or tartan paint", "metric crescent wrench", "bucket of grinder sparks" or "box of assorted knots" are analogous pranks.^[8]
In Switzerland, it is common for a painter to send his apprentice for a "frog hair brush" and for electricians to advise their apprentices to "wipe up the voltage drops".
In the U.S. Navy, sending a new sailor after a "BT Punch" which is a fist-punch from a Boiler Technician that works in the Engine Room, "red lamp oil for the port running light" and "green lamp oil for the starboard running light" are similar pranks.^[9] Other examples are to send the naïve on a search for a "spool of water line", a "dropped gig line", a "bucket of steam", or the infamous "ID-10-T form".^[10] First-time crew on carriers are occasionally assigned a "sea-bat" watch, in order to ensure "sea-bats" do not infest the aircraft engines.
In the U.S. Air Force, a newbie is sent to get some "prop wash" or "flight line".
In the U.S. Army, a newbie is sent to get some "military bearing grease", a "box of grid squares", a "chemlight battery" or a "cannon report".
In the Canadian military, a common joke is tasking a new soldier to find a "brass magnet" to ease the collection of spent ammunition casings.^[11]
In Boy Scouts, sending a new camper after a "Left Handed Smoke Bender"^[12] or "100 feet of shoreline" are similar practices.
Former Major League pitcher Rick Sutcliffe would often send the young batboy out to the umpires during pregame to ask for the "keys to the batter's box". This is an age-old baseball prank.^[13]^[14]
Financial Institutions in London, England, often send newcomers to another building or business to fetch "verbal agreement forms" although it must be noted that in the strict sense a verbal agreement can be a written one - verbal simply meaning words.
In the Czech Republic, if one breaks a spirit level, they might be asked to go and "buy a new bubble". Other construction related jokes include buying a "brick bender".^[15]
In the Czech Republic, a child might be sent to the pharmacy to buy some "semosel". Spelled correctly, "jsem osel" means I am a fool, or literally "I am a donkey".^[16]^[17]
In Slovakia, one might seek to buy a "fajrontový kľúč", a term popularized by a song of the same name by the band Vrbovskí víťazi.
In the Netherlands common prank objects are the Plintentrapje (baseboard ladder), a box of blue/red ignition sparks, nailheads, air anchors, wooden electrodes, a square hole drill, an AC battery and the colour bar (TV studios)

Snipe hunts in popular culture

This class of jokes was behind what was pulled on Olive Oyl in Thimble Theater in the 1922-01-14 strip. Castor Oyl, not wanting Olive to sail to Dice Island with him, sent her to get a "dime's worth of longitude", expecting to be sailing before she gave up. Popeye made his debut in the strip, during this sequence.
The 1985 Cheers episode "The Heart Is A Lonely Snipehunter" revolves around the bar's male regulars playing this type of joke on Frasier Crane.
In The Inbetweeners Will, when he begins Work Experience as a mechanic, is given a list of things to fetch including tartan paint.
In Game of Thrones King Robert sends his squire to find a "breastplate stretcher".
In the movie Up, Carl tries to fool Russell by telling him about snipes. Later, when they meet Kevin, Russell believes he has found it, leaving Carl in disbelief. Many sources, including Peter Docter's study guide to Up, say that Kevin's species is the mythical "Snipe", a fictional bird created to send foolish people on wild goose chases. Similarly in Dug's Special Mission, it is revealed that Alpha gave Dug a series of fool's errands, including watching a large rock to keep it from rolling, to keep him out of their way while they hunted Kevin (all of which backfired miserably).
In Red vs. Blue the object being asked for is generally "headlight fluid".
"Long Stand", a 1980s song by David Harley, is partly based on examples of apprentice hazing such as sending a lad off for a "long stand" or a "can of striped paint", though its main theme is unemployment.^[18]
An album by Sting based on his 2014 musical The Last Ship includes a song "Skyhooks and Tartan Paint" on apprentice hazing that has a very similar first verse to Harley's "Long Stand", though it focuses on the hazing aspect.
In "Help Wanted", the very first episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, a skeptical Mr. Krabs and Squidward send new hire SpongeBob on a mission to obtain a "hydrodynamic spatula with port and starboard attachments and a turbo-drive", thinking he will never be able to find such a spatula.

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 Palmatier, Robert Allen. Speaking of Animals: A Dictionary of Animal Metaphors. Greenwood Publishing. p. 375. ISBN 0313294909.
↑ Paris, Leslie (2008). Children's Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp. NYU Press. p. 104. ISBN 0814767508.
↑ Etymonline.com – snipe
↑ Aman, Reinhold (1996). Maledicta, Volume 12. Maledicta Press. p. 11.
↑ Humphries, Vaughan (2008). Grumpy Young Man: The Incoherent Mutterings of a Humanitarian Misanthrope. AuthorHouse. p. 393. ISBN 1467899437.
↑ Josefowitz, Natasha (1988). Fitting in: how to get a good start in your new job (illustrated ed.). Addison-Wesley. p. 32. ISBN 0201116537.
↑ Cameron, Kim S. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 482. ISBN 0199734615.
↑ Paap, Kris (2006). Working Construction: Why White Working-Class Men Put Themselves—and the Labor Movement—in Harm's Way (illustrated ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 69. ISBN 0801472865.
↑ Cutler, Deborah (2005). Dictionary of Naval Terms (illustrated ed.). Naval Institute Press. p. 182. ISBN 1-59114-150-8.
↑ Joey D. Ossian (4 February 2004). A Marine's Lapse in Synapse: Part Ii: More Unbelievable, But True Short Stories. AuthorHouse. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-4140-4945-8.
↑ The Electrical Journal. Benn Bros. 1916. p. 51. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
↑ Rich, Alvin (1984). The History of the BSA. Aramco Press. p. 87.
↑ http://gameofinches.blogspot.com/2009/02/baseballs-top-pranks.html
↑ http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19920315&id=4kJWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nOoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6770,3535341
↑ http://www.munimedia.cz/prispevek/kto-zavaha-naleti-1169/
↑ http://wiki.zena.centrum.cz/april/
↑ Kutinová, Amálie. "Na prvního apríla". Gabra a Málinka, povedené dcerky. „Jo! Obětovat moc na to nemóžu, ale šesták dám,“ hrabala Gabra honem v kapse. „Tu máš,“ povídala Málince, „a kup mně zaň ‚semosel‘.“
↑ "Long Stand « David Harley's Songs". davidharleysongs.wordpress.com. Retrieved 5 August 2014.

External links

Look up snipe hunt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Snipe hunt at TV Tropes