Practical Jokes and Mischief - The Art of the Prank

April 1, 2024

How the Proliferation of Fake News Makes April Fools’ Day Every Day

5 tips for not getting tricked online this April Fools’ Day — and beyond
April 1, 2004, by Rachel Treismanm, NPR

Myths and misinformation run rampant on the internet all the time these days, but never more reliably than on April 1.

People have celebrated April Fools’ Day for centuries with all sorts of jokes and pranks, and while old-school traditions (hello, rubber snakes) remain plenty popular, gags have grown considerably more high tech over the years.

And fake news and announcements — whether by a major company, public figure, a random social media user or your childhood best friend — can take off quickly and morph wildly, thanks to social media.

It can be tough to tell whether something online is real, especially with artificial intelligence making it increasingly easy for anyone to create fake images, video, audio and text. Read the whole article here.

February 3, 2024February 3, 2024

Officer, They Just Keep Popping Up!

It’s a bird, it’s a drone, it’s a… excuse me?

Drones dropping colorful sex toys on Oklahoma City suburb rooftops, traffic lights, by KOKH Staff, January 11, 2024

MOORE, Okla. (KOKH) — A strange prank has taken over a suburb of Oklahoma City.

The Moore Police Department informed FOX 25 that it has been made aware of several adult toys being placed on buildings, businesses, and intersections near SW 19th St and S Telephone Rd. Crews had taken the objects down by midafternoon on Thursday.

The sex toys are being placed in high areas with drones, according to reports from residents. According to the police department, sightings from residents started surfacing on Wednesday.

Read and see more…

November 23, 2023December 15, 2023

Happy Holidaze!

May all your wishes come true!

November 23, 2023December 15, 2023

Who Are You Kidding?

Fox News reported on October 16, 2023: Bigfoot and Sasquatch: Longtime resident reveals legends, pranks after latest ‘proof’, By Chris Eberhart, October 16, 2023.

Whoa! This doesn’t hold a candle to the escape of Big Foot from Peppe Scaggolini’s (a.k.a. Joey Skaggs’) Tiny Top Circus in 2014. Hailed as the world’s only pataphysical circus, Big Foot was caged and on exhibition in Washington Square Park when it escaped and unfortunately got lost in the New York City subway system. Scaggolini is still offering a $1,000,000 reward for its capture and return.

September 27, 2023December 15, 2023

The Steak was Real but the Restaurant was Fake

The only item on the “To Go” menu was the restaurant itself.

How NYC’s fine-dining elite got pranked by Gen Zer’s fake steakhouse — complete with milk servers, ‘celebs,’ and wedding proposal by Hannah Frishberg, September 25, 2023

This Manhattan restaurant is a tough reservation to book — because it doesn’t exist.

The foodie gentry who gathered for their dinner at Mehran’s Steakhouse this weekend believed they’d at last gotten off the years-long waitlist for a highly exclusive, 100-year-old chop house, which finally had an available table at its Lower East Side location.

In reality, what some 140 diners experienced this Saturday evening was an elaborate prank pulled off by a 21-year-old AI startup founder — and some 65 of his friends.

The practical joke of a white tablecloth institution was born during the pandemic, in 2021, when Mehran Jalali’s 16 housemates decided to commemorate the biweekly steak dinners he’d cook them by marking their Upper East Side home as a chop house on Google Maps.

The mostly teenage roomies all left glowing reviews for the newfound institution, leading to intrigued strangers showing up at their door seeking steak.

Mehran then made a website for their solidly booked, “revolutionary steak experience” and, by the end of 2022, had accrued a 2,600-person waitlist. Read the whole article here.