Maxim Declares the Golden Age of the Prank
posted by ModeratorFiled under: Pranksters, Sociology and Psychology of Pranks
The Art of the Prank
by Spencer Morgan
Maxim.com
June 29, 2009
From coast to coast, intrepid bands of merrymakers are staging hoaxes, stunts, and practical jokes like never before. Welcome to the Golden Age of the Prank.
This is for participants only,” announces a heavily bundled Charlie Todd through his trusty gray bullhorn. “If you didn”™t come to take your pants off today, you”™re in the wrong spot.” It”™s a frigid January afternoon in New York City”™s Foley Square, and hundreds of fearless pranksters are braving the elements to get together and shed their trousers for the eighth annual “No Pants! Subway Ride.”
Todd, a baby-faced 30-year-old from Columbia, South Carolina, is the mastermind behind this gathering, and on his command the assembled crowd scatters for the nearest subway entrances”¦and collectively drops trou. Even in a city like New York, riding the subway sans pants is a guaranteed eye-opener, and today is no exception: Straphangers stare, chuckle, even take photos. Around 1,200 men and women have come out clad in boxers, briefs, boxer-briefs, and bloomers, not just in New York, but in 21 cities across the globe. (“Three hundred take to the subway””shameless and pantless,” the Toronto Sun would inform its readers soberly the next day.) The mission ends with a group of agents celebrating in Union Square, making snow angels, still pantless. Improv Everywhere has struck again. Mission accomplished. (more…)
