Not sure you’ll choose the perfect holiday gifts for your loved ones? It hardly matters when you use one of these goofy satirical packages.

“Hilarious Prank Gift Boxes Printed With Items of Questionable Taste That Hide the Real Gift Inside”
by Lori Dorn
Laughing Squid
December 4, 2018

Prank-O, a Minneapolis-based comedy company, has a hilarious line of fake gift boxes known as Prank Packs. These gift boxes are printed with items of questionable taste while hiding the real presents inside. Such absurd items include a Plant Urinal, a “Crib Dribbler”, “My First Fire”, “Bathe and Brew”, “Tech Neck”, “Tweet Printer” and “Sizzl Bacon Scented Dryer Sheets”, just to name a few. Read more.

An ode to a political prankster
by Tom Lawrence
Black Hills Pioneer
June 12, 2018

Even his name, Dick Tuck, which rhymes with Puck, was perfect.

Because Dick Tuck was a Puckish presence in national politics for decades, using wit and wile as weapons in political battles. The Democratic trickster died May 28 at 93 … unless this was another of his pranks. I really wouldn’t put it past him.

Tuck’s primary target was another Tricky Dick, aka Richard Nixon. From Nixon’s bid for a Senate seat in 1950 until his presidential re-election campaign in 1972, Tuck was a thorn in Nixon’s flesh, poking and prodding him with stunts, pranks and mischief.

Why? Tuck had a deep dislike for Nixon, and not just because they were polar opposites politically. He felt Nixon was unethical and unprincipled — a good read, it turned out — and Tuck was determined to do whatever he could to hamper his rise.

It rarely worked, however. Nixon won the Senate race in 1950, defeating Democratic incumbent Helen Gahagan Douglas, whom he labeled “the Pink Lady,” unfairly and inaccurately accusing her of being soft on communism.

Tuck launched his political career during that race when a college professor who knew he was interested in politics asked him to aid the Nixon campaign. He forgot to ask which party his student favored.

Amazingly enough, Tuck was allowed to organize a Nixon rally. He booked the largest hall he could find and did not publicize the event. He then introduced Nixon with a long, rambling speech that ended by telling the scant few people in the audience that the candidate would discuss the International Monetary Fund.

After the shambles of an event was over, Nixon went to the young organizer and said, “Dick Tuck, you’ve done your last advance.”

If only he had known what was in store for him. (more…)

Gadgetary advances be damned, phone pranks endure in both old- and new-school iterations and seem to be intertwined with the human drive to communicate.

The Atlantic publishes a thinkpiece on the history and uncertain future of the artform.

“Do People Still Make Prank Phone Calls?”
By Julie Beck
The Atlantic
April 1, 2016

Only a rube or possibly an alien would pick up an unknown phone call, hear the question “Is your refrigerator running?” and answer in the affirmative. And so only the luckiest of amateur mischief-makers would get the satisfaction of getting to drop the “Well, you better go catch it!” before cackling away into the sunset.

And yet, amazingly, this doesn”™t seem to be the oldest trick in the book when it comes to telephone pranks. In her 1976 paper “Telephone Pranks: A Thriving Pastime,” Trudier Harris reports that people “over 50 years old” remembered the old refrigerator gag, which, if they pulled it as teens, means it could”™ve been around in the 1930s or earlier.

But other corny jokes were also around before the “˜30s, according to another paper, ones like:

“This is May.”
“May who?”
“May-onnaise.”

Most middle-class families had home phones by the 1920s or so, according to Claude Fischer, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. And in the early days of the residential telephone, it was taken very seriously, as a tool for serious business, and so “children could trick unsuspecting adults fairly easily,” writes Marilyn Jorgensen in her paper “A Social-Interactional Analysis of Phone Pranks.” Read more.

“Sweden’s Giant Snow Penis Was Erased, So This Man Created an Even Bigger One”
by Ed Mazza
Huffington Post
January 22, 2016

The giant snow penis cannot be stopped.

Emilian Sava, one of the workers who had to clear a giant snow penis from a park in Sweden, felt so guilty about the act of phallic vandalism that he erected his own giant snow schlong, according to The Local.

And in what may be the world’s greatest display of penis envy, the new snow penis is much more massive than the old one.

The original penis was carved into the snow over a frozen moat in Kungsparken (King’s Park) in the city of Gothenburg. It quickly aroused complaints from members of the community. Read more.

It takes a special sort of engineer to look at a common port-o-let, think “this brave soul longs for flight,” and make it happen. Bob Bylander is that engineer.

On Saturday, December 13, a Porta-Potty took to the skies over Southwest Michigan courtesy of Bylander and his compatriots in the Michiana Rocketry Club, a/k/a the Throne Thrusters.

Watch the video:

via HuffPo

In what appears to be normal for this family: Just for fun, to scare the living shit out of his wife, Roman Atwood throws his son over the balcony. He succeeds in scaring the living shit out of her, and 10+ million people tune in.

Watch the video

How did he do it? Watch his behind-the-scenes video:

An unnamed 65-year-old Athens, Georgia woman who is probably not an accessory to homicide reported receiving an unusual text message.

“Athens woman possibly target of phone prank”
by Police Blotter staff
OnlineAthens.com
September 3, 2014

A 65-year Athens woman reported to Athens-Clarke County police that on Monday she received a text message from an anonymous person who said, “Hey baby I disposed the body. What do I do?”

Police said they traced the text message to a phone number belonging to a 61-year-old Colbert woman who claimed she knew nothing about it. Read the full story here.

An ambitious prankster sometimes needs an assist from co-conspirators with some leverage. But those people may have more to lose.

British pop singer Lily Allen has a long history of orchestrated controversy and publicity stunts, but her latest online jape may have put jobs at risk.

According to The New Zealand Herald, Allen landed at Gold Coast airport in Australia and apparently convinced security personnel to cuff her and pretend to arrest her. She posted this picture to her Instagram account with the tag “#uhoh.”

This photo of Lily Allen in handcuffs has been removed from Instagram.

It got thousands of “likes,” but it’s gone now. And airport authorities say the incident is being “investigated internally.” Allen, for her part, is in the clear and free to continue spreading her unpredictable brand of sass.

Submitted by Emerson Dameron. Editor’s note: This is reminiscent of Alan Abel’s 1990 Lottery Ticket Hoax.

Man Fools More Than 500,000 Facebook Users Pretending To Be Lottery Winner
by Justin Lafferty
allfacebook.com
November 30, 2012

As we learned earlier with the ubiquitous “In response to the new Facebook guidelines“ posts, Facebook users will share just about anything “” especially if they”™ve got a shot at $1 million. Recently, a Facebook user named Nolan Daniels posted a photo of himself with the $587.5 million-winning Powerball ticket, with the caption, “Looks like I won”™t be going to work EVER!!!! Share this photo and I will give a random person 1 million dollars!” More than 500,000 people have shared the photo. One problem, though: the ticket isn”™t real.

Gawker pointed out that the numbers on the ticket would be in order, citing the Powerball FAQ:

The tickets print the white ball numbers (the first five numbers) in numerical order.

It”™s plain to see that the numbers on Daniels”™ faked ticket appear to read: 4, 22, 29, 23, 46, 5.

Other than that, the real winners have already come forward.

The bride wore a blindfold
by Alison Mutler
WindsorStar
September 4, 2012

‘Kidnapping’ ritual booms in Bucharest

AP: A white limousine screeches to a halt, and a bride, resplendent in frothy gown and veil, is hauled outside by her abductors.

It’s one of Romania’s more colourful customs: bride-napping.

And the tradition of snatching the bride from under the nose of groom and guests with the wedding party in full swing is getting bigger, brasher and an increasingly common sight in the Romanian capital, the Balkans’ undisputed party town.

Every Saturday night, brides from Bucharest and beyond are dragged away in a mock abduction by friends and driven to a top tourist spot where they are “held hostage” – all the while pouting, dancing and striking provocative poses for the cameras. (more…)

From Wil:

A presentation of JustForLaughsTV, the official Just For Laughs Gags YouTube channel:

Submitted by Trent Hales:

And, submitted by Emerson Dameron: “The reactions to this staged unearthing of a treasure chest are worth more than gold.”

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] (more…)

Video posted by Nilda Afra Pinto:

Happy April Fools’ Day from The Art of the Prank!!

Here’s a list of goings on around the world. We’ve been adding to this post throughout the day:

MODERATOR’S NOTE: This blog post could go on and on. There’s oh so much more out there. Enough, you say! Well, we agree.




And, since the New York Annual April Fools’ Day Parade went off without a hitch and the revelers have just reached Washington Square Park, the after parade festivities are about to begin. So, get out, get some fresh air, and join in the fun!

Tom Tom announces a new navigation voice guaranteed to keep babies happy in the car:

On the 1st April 2012, we will announce the results of months of meticulous research in our NavLab. Our experts have found a solution to stop babies crying in the backseat. For a safe and stress-free journey, let Darth Vader entertain your baby in the backseat. A TomTom navigation voice, guaranteed to make your baby happy!

TomTom makes babies laugh

Sir Richard Branson to launch “Journeys to the Centre of the Earth” through Virgin Volcanic

Only 500 people have been to space, only three people have been to the bottom of the ocean, but no one has ever attempted to journey to the core of an active volcano. Until now. Using patented carbon-carbon materials pioneered for deep space exploration, Virgin is proud to announce a revolutionary new vehicle, VVS1, which will be capable of plunging three people into the molten lava core of an active volcano. In its first three years of operation, VVS1 will target the five most active volcanoes in the world: Etna, Stromboli, Yasur, Ambrym and Tinakula.

Read more at http://www.virginvolcanic.com/

Google rings in April Fools’ Day with over a dozen April Fools pranks in addition to those already mentioned, including:

The Google Fiber (bar)

and

Google Street Roo – exploring the outback one bounce at a time: Over the next four weeks, more than a thousand Big Red kangaroos will be equipped with a 360-degree head camera that will automatically capture images when the marsupial is on the move during daylight hours.



Conan O’Brien takes over Mashable.com

Conan O’Brien Buys Mashable, Ousts Pete Cashmore as CEO

(more…)