…Exploring the role of the prankster as artist, activist and social observer and the significance of the prank in society.
Somebody Give This High Schooler An Award For Her (Fake) Harvard Rejection Letter
by Ryan Grenoble
Huffington Post
March 6, 2015
The “Harvard rejection letter” that went viral earlier this week? Yeah, it’s fake. But you should still read it.
Molly McGaan, the letter’s author and a student at Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, wrote the cheeky piece of satire for her school’s humor publication, “Citizen Poke,” and it viral — for obvious, hilarious reasons:
Read more about this here.
In the last two weeks, the Purge hoax has gone viral, causing alarm in numerous cities… again.
In July, 2014, after the premiere of The Purge 2 Anarchy (the sequel to The Purge, a sleeper hit movie in which for 12 hours all crime is legal without consequence), a humor website CreamBMP.com reported that “a group of teenagers re-enacting the plot of the film The Purge 2 in Chicago murdered over 112 people”. Read Chicago ‘Purge’ Murders on Snopes.com.
Then last week, a Louisville high school student tweeted what he thought was a joke: “Whos (sic) trying to get a Louisville Purge Started With Me?” and all hell broke loose. See this article posted by the Crimson Student Press detailing the story: Teen responsible for “Purge” hoax speaks up.
From there, both panic and humor have hit cities all over the country. See Additional Purge Warnings on Snopes.com.
From Huffington Post, May 15, 2014: High School ‘Vagina Inspection’ prank letter sent to families. Police investigate
A prank letter ordering students to attend a “mandatory vagina inspection” in the gym of a Minnesota high school has administrators — and police — looking for who’s behind it.
The letter (see below), written on official-looking letterhead for Prior Lake High School in Savage, Minnesota, was hand-delivered to the mailboxes of at least 50 families, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.
Senior pranks _ where do you draw the line?
by Martha Irvine
AP News
June 6, 2012
Chicago (AP) – Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to stash a dead fish somewhere to stink up the school hallways. Time to drop tennis balls on the heads of people in the lobby. Time to cover your soon-to-be alma mater with Post-It notes.
For high school seniors, it’s prank time – or “structured mayhem” in the words of Mindy Utay, a therapist who works with teens.
It’s a rite of passage as graduation looms, mostly harmless fun but sometimes a escalating into vandalism. This spring alone, windows at school have been smashed, walls and sidewalks spray painted, and paint poured down steps. Cars have been flipped. Property has been damaged from California to Kentucky to Maryland.
As a result, school administrators are rethinking exactly what constitutes a prank and where to draw the line – and finding that’s not always easy to do.
[Read on and watch Brigham Young University pranksters turn their friends’ living room into an Easter basket] Continue reading “Time for Senior Pranks… Again”
Miami’s New Piano Bar…
Teen places a burnt-out piano on a sandbar in Miami and lays low. Filmmakers come along and take full credit for it. Teen, realizing other people will get the credit, steps forward, but wishes people wouldn’t think of it as a prank. Says it’s art and he did it for a college application. So he committed a felony (dumping rubbish in the bay) to help his chances of getting into a prestigious university. And his parents were complicit. Lucky for him, the Miami authorities don’t seem to want to press charges. So, unless he removes it, the piano’s next incarnation will be as a reef. All well and good, but through all of this, no one says anything about the dolphin swimming across the bottom of this photograph by Karla Murray?
Here’s an interview with Nicholas Harrington, 16, on NBC’s Today Show:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
View more photos here.
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