Wife’s prank on sleeping husband goes viral. Read the whole story on CNN here.
Throwing Money Around Can Lead to Jail Time
Bank Robber Prank yields fun for some and felony charge for others. Pretending to rob a bank is a YouTube prank “genre”. These guys had fun…
Bank Robber Prank, September 20, 2019 (Over 10M views on YouTube)
These guys, not so much. Stokes twins BANK ROBBER PRANK (gone wrong), March 30, 2020
And, then…
Twin YouTube Stars Alan and Alex Stokes Charged with Felonies After Staging Bank Robbery Pranks, by Ashley Boucher, People, August 5, 2020
Twin YouTubers have been charged with felony counts after they pretended to be bank robbers for prank videos filmed in California last year.
Alan and Alex Stokes, 23, are each facing a felony count of false imprisonment effected by violence, menace, fraud, or deceit and one misdemeanor count of falsely reporting an emergency, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced in a press release Wednesday.
The twins are accused of dressing in all black and wearing ski masks while carrying around duffel bags of cash last October.
According to the DA’s office, Alan and Alex ordered an Uber driver while posing as bank robbers on October 15, beginning the caper around 2:30 p.m. The driver refused to drive them, and a bystander believed they were trying to carjack the Uber driver.
When police arrived, they ordered the Uber driver out of the car at gunpoint, releasing him when they realized he was not involved. Read the whole story here.
Pass The Pepper: Social Distancing is Nothing to Sneeze At
From the great inventor of useless machines, Joseph’s Machines
JOSEPH’S MACHINES solve everyday problems using familiar objects in unfamiliar ways. He creates them in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York. This was a two-month collaboration between Joseph and chain-reaction artist Lyle Broughton.
Use this fool-proof method for completely safe, germ-free passing of condiments across the table.
Mal Sharpe, Urban Prankster, RIP
Mal Sharpe, comedic pioneer and a very funny man, has left us. In 2007 the Art of the Prank blog published access to 20 of his early Imposter Podcasts, which are recordings of his street sketches (more like comedic ambushes) with his comedy partner Jim Coyle, who passed away in 1993. These recordings had been re-purposed and released by Jesse Thorn of the Maximum Fun site, where all 100 episodes reside:
In the early 1960s, James P. Coyle and Mal Sharpe roamed the streets of San Francisco, microphone in hand, roping strangers into bizarre schemes and surreal stunts. These original recordings are from the Sharpe family archive, which is tended by Mal’s daughter, Jennifer Sharpe.
We extend condolences to the family. Here’s his obit from The New York Times:
Mal Sharpe, Groundbreaker in Street-Level Pranking, Dies at 83
by Neil Genzlinger
The New York Times
March 19, 2020
Long before late-night talk show hosts began doing it, he conducted absurd interviews with gullible passersby with his comedic partner, Jim Coyle.
Two strangers approach a man named George on the streets of San Francisco.
“George,” one of them says, “would you yourself participate in a program of inter-protoplasm flow?”
George doesn’t hesitate. “If I needed it, I guess I would,” he says.
One of the strangers, earnestly impressing on George the seriousness of that commitment, elaborates: Continue reading “Mal Sharpe, Urban Prankster, RIP”
Buck Henry RIP
Buck Henry passed away January 8, 2020 at age 89. He was a prolific screenwriter (“The Graduate”, “What’s Up Doc?”, “Catch-22”), show creator (“Get Smart” with Mel Brooks), director (“Heaven Can Wait” with Warren Beatty), actor (he appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows), SNL Host (10 times), and hoaxer…
From his Wikipedia page:
From 1959 to 1962, as part of an elaborate hoax by comedian Alan Abel, he made public appearances as G. Clifford Prout, the quietly outraged president of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals,[8] who presented his point of view on talk shows.[9] The character of Prout, who wished to clothe all animals in order to prevent their ‘indecency’, was often presented as an eccentric but was otherwise taken seriously by the broadcasters who interviewed him.
A great satirical wit, Buck Henry will be missed.
New York Times Obituary
New York Post Obituary
image: worldofwonder.net/