Pranks can be light-hearted and funny. Pranks can also be mean-spirited and destructive. I have been involved in both kinds of pranks, I am sorry to say. When I was in high school, I willingly participated in a destructive prank, whose details I won’t divulge. I am not willing to spill the beans on that. It was all fun and games as we secretly pranked away during the cover of darkness. Reality hit in the daylight, when I witnessed the victim of the prank cleaning up the destruction. His face wasn’t angry, it was sad and dejected. I felt like crawling in a hole, when I realized that I had caused the distress. How could I do that to someone?
On a lighter note, I have been involved in other, more casual pranks that end in a good laugh. Sending a co-worker a bogus message, short-sheeting a friend’s bed, and other silly things meant to break the boredom or surprise the person. A few years after graduating from college, there were a number of weddings in my inner circle of friends. As a wedding gift, one of the girls had received a prank gift of a woman’s vibrator toy. Needless to say, the ‘gift’ was re-gifted numerous times, showing up inappropriately as a gift at all kinds of wedding showers, family gatherings, and the like. Every soon-to-be bride was targeted, and found herself opening a package with the vibrator enclosed. The prank was funniest if the surrounding people were older and more conservative.
The biggest prank that I have been involved in, occurred when I was in college. I was the victim. I went to college at a small school in SC where most people knew each other, or at least knew of each other. In the late 70s, early 80s, remember, there was no internet, no computer access at all. Publicity for my college, and all colleges, was done in print form. Brochures and catalogues advertised colleges. I was walking across the campus one day, when I noticed a few people crowded around with some camera equipment. As I walked past, one of the professors, whom I knew, called out to me and asked if I would mind posing with him for a photo. I was a little reluctant, because I looked, well, not put together, but I figured, what’s the harm, so OK. We posed as if in conversation with each other while the photographer snapped a few shots. Then, I went on my merry way.
I was surprised, a few weeks later, when someone brought me a tri-fold brochure from the administration office which had that picture on the cover; the professor and I standing on a sidewalk talking. Yikes! There I was, advertising the college. That’s the kind of thing I would want to shove under a stack of magazines, not be distributed to prospective students. You can imagine my surprise, a few days later, when I walked into the cafeteria and saw, on the entrance sign, a small paper doll of me, cut out from the brochure cover. And another one at the door of my academic class. And another one on the ‘Welcome to the Library’ sign. As the days went by, more and more little Gwens showed up all over campus.
In the classroom, a little Gwen was resting on the blackboard. The professor pushed her to the side so he could write on the blackboard—didn’t take her off, just pushed her down the chalk tray, to give himself more room to write. Another professor pulled down a rolled-up world map to find little Gwen standing on Africa; he left her there. Little Gwens were positioned on drink machines, and on signs that reminded students to throw their trash away, beside the IN doors, beside the OUT doors, on tables, in chairs. Wherever you went on campus, you were greeted by a little Gwen.
In the hallway in my dorm, there was a small bulletin board used for various announcements. Pinned onto the bulletin board was a little Gwen, surrounded by paper doll clothes, which someone lovingly used to dress her to depict the weather for today. Rainy day? Little Gwen wore boots and carried an umbrella. Hot day? Little Gwen sported a sweet bikini. Little Gwens popped up everywhere – academic buildings, students activity buildings, hallways, gyms; every building had one or more little Gwens, standing around in fake conversation. Everyone noticed and everyone took it in stride. It lasted for weeks. Even as the prank died down, little Gwens lingered here and there for a while.
It was years before I discovered the culprits. A very good friend had been walking through the administration building, when she saw a big stack of the newly printed brochures. On impulse, she grabbed the whole stack. She, and a few other friends, proceeded to cut out the little Gwens, and then recruited some others to help position them around campus. Basically, they walked around with a pocketful of little Gwens, and when the mood struck, they would add one to the décor. Other people, then, began moving them around campus, just because, and it took on a life of its own. I guess it went as viral as it could, in pre-viral times.
I had almost forgotten about the whole thing, until a few years ago, when I opened a drawer to look through some old memorabilia, and I found a couple of little Gwens. I’m so glad I saved them. It really was a clever, hilarious prank. I would have enjoyed it so much more if it was someone else’s picture. But, that’s the beauty of pranks; if you’re going to dish it out, you’ve got to be able to take it.
I haven’t pranked anybody in a long time. It might be time to start thinking about it again. I need to keep my eyes open for a good opportunity. Any ideas???