http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/pranks/ en-us Mon, 1 Apr 2013 10:31:55 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3002841/posts The BBC has received a mixed reaction to a spoof documentary broadcast this evening about spaghetti crops in Switzerland. The hoax Panorama programme, narrated by distinguished broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, featured a family from Ticino in Switzerland carrying out their annual spaghetti harvest. It showed women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry. But some viewers failed to see the funny side of the broadcast and criticised the BBC for airing the item on what is supposed to be a serious factual programme. Others, however, were so intrigued they wanted to find... BBC Archives http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3002841/posts#comment Mon, 1 Apr 2013 10:31:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2994106/posts Four girls went "gallon smashing" at the Shaw's in Salem in Monday. How do you rate this in the annals of stupid teen pranks? (with video--which was not filmed at that market) In an evolutionary sense, we owe a lot to the adolescents of the species. The unnecessary risks they take helped our ancestors learn important lessons — like which plants were poisonous. But Monday in Salem there was an example of juvenile behavior for which I'm hard pressed to see the advantage. "Gallon smashing" is, well, just take a look at the YouTube video attached to this post. People... Danvers (MA) Patch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2994106/posts#comment Wed, 6 Mar 2013 18:09:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2990460/posts Tough guy Clint Eastwood has joined the ranks of Ashton Kutcher, Miley Cyrus and many other celebs as the latest victim of a prank known as “swatting.” A law enforcement source told TMZ that a 911 call sent multiple units rushing to Eastwood’s Los Angeles home this week. The prank call reported that multiple males armed with assault weapons were inside the actor’s home and people had been shot. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2990460/posts#comment Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:10:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2982566/posts I once took a coworkers phone apart and swapped the wires for column 1 and 2. He could still dial 9 for an outside line, but all calls with most numbers went to wrong numbers. Also super glued a full cup of coffee on his desk. One that did not work on me....I left my office and my office mate thought I went to the bathroom and thought I was in a stall. He soaked a hand full of paper towels and threw them over the door and splat onto "my" head. He was laughing when he ran into the... Vanity http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2982566/posts#comment Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:19:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2891913/posts BRENTWOOD (KCBS) — More than two-dozen high school seniors at Heritage High School in Brentwood were suspended for a prank the principal says “crossed the line.” The mass suspension includes barring students from walking with their graduating class at commencement in addition to not being able to take their final exams. At least 25 students have been identified so far, but the investigation continues. Some students said they need to take finals in order to earn their diploma. “We knew we’d get in a little bit of trouble, we didn’t think we’d get suspended for five days and not walk,”... KCBS-5 San Francisco http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2891913/posts#comment Tue, 5 Jun 2012 22:20:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2882126/posts Thankfully, our long national nightmare is over: Mitt Romney apologized on Thursday morning for pranks he helped orchestrate in high school that he said “might have gone too far,” including an incident in which he pinned down a fellow student and cut his hair.The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was responding to an article published a few hours earlier by The Washington Post documenting the episode with first-hand accounts from RomneyÂ’s classmates.“Back in high school, I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended, obviously I apologize for that,” Romney said in a live radio interview... Hotair http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2882126/posts#comment Thu, 10 May 2012 15:50:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2444939/posts MILWAUKEE - A prank turns to terror on Milwaukee's north side. It happened when a 21-year-old man thought it would be funny to scare his mother when she got home from shopping Thursday night. He put on a ski mask, confronted her behind their home and pretended to rob her. That's when she pulled out a .357 revolver and fired several times. Her son was hit at least twice by bullets, one of them to the groin. He is in the hospital this morning, but there is no word on his condition. Officials say they discovered two guns on the... WTMJ News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2444939/posts#comment Fri, 5 Feb 2010 14:09:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2365034/posts The art of driving through a puddle and splashing pedestrians is nothing new -- we're sure mammoths were running through puddles at high speed to splash cavemen even before the invention of the wheel -- but filming it and posting it to YouTube is. Well now drivers have been warned they could face criminal charges for carrying out a drive-by-drenching. Kerry Callard, 29, was recently caught after soaking a group of kids at a bus stop in Plymouth, Devon, and uploading the footage to the web. The clip, called 'drowning school kids' was filmed by her partner who provided a... Asylum http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2365034/posts#comment Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:06:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2308784/posts AUGUST 4--At 4:15 AM on a recent Tuesday, on a quiet, darkened street in Windsor, Ontario, a man was wrapping up another long day tormenting and terrorizing strangers on the telephone. Smoking Gun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2308784/posts#comment Wed, 5 Aug 2009 16:49:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2295365/posts It was supposed to inspire pupils to write more creatively. But the arrival of a UFO at Southway Junior School also inspired something rather different - terror. Some of the seven to 11-year-olds were left in tears after a spaceship apparently crash-landed and a teacher was abducted by aliens. To make it look realistic, the school obtained sirens and flashing lights from the police and littered the grounds with debris from the 'spaceship'. Daily Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2295365/posts#comment Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:06:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2219928/posts 10. Tesco’s Whistling Carrots In 2002, Tesco ran a fake newspaper ad announcing the ‘whistling carrot,’ a carrot genetically modified to contain airholes on each side that caused the carrot to whistle when it finished cooking. 9. Lebanon Circle Magik Co.’s Mummified Fairy Lebanon Circle Magik Co., a studio specializing in sculptures and curios, posted a picture of what appeared to be a mummified fairy on its homepage in 2007. The site explained that the fairy had been found by pedestrian in rural Derbyshire, leading to an explosion of online speculation about whether the fairy was real. Even after owner... Now That's Nifty http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2219928/posts#comment Wed, 1 Apr 2009 17:03:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2213530/posts A teenager inspired by an ancient fertility symbol has painted a 60ft-long phallus on the new roof of his parents £1million house. Rory McInnes, 18, decided to give aerial observers an eyeful, with the aid of a tin of white paint, after watching a documentary on Google Earth. But the imposing member remained a closely-guarded secret for a year before it was 'discovered' by a helicopter pilot flying over the area, who let his passengers take photos. Fortunately for Rory, he was already safely on the other side of the world when his parents found out, on a gap-year in... dailymail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2213530/posts#comment Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:42:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2173584/posts Transportation officials in Texas are scrambling to prevent hackers from changing messages on digital road signs after one sign in Austin was altered to read, "Zombies Ahead." Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, confirmed that a portable traffic sign at Lamar Boulevard and West 15th Street, near the University of Texas at Austin, was hacked into during the early hours of Jan. 19. "It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for," said Lippincott, who saw the sign during his morning commute. "Those signs are deployed for a reason —... Fox News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2173584/posts#comment Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:29:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1997594/posts In a stealthy flurry of legal mumbo-jumbo, the Boulder County Commissioners have launched a proposal that would ban any April Fools jokes targeted at the “general Boulder County public,” including residents, visitors and employees within county limits. “If there was a way, we’d ban all statewide pranks, but we don’t have that authority,” Commissioner Will Tour said. “We had to settle for county-wide bans, but that should put a stop to them.” When pressed, Tour said that “them” referred to a certain monthly newspaper that had been a thorn in the commission’s side since it began concocting stories, but that... lhvc.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1997594/posts#comment Sun, 6 Apr 2008 17:06:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1828563/posts Whether they take the form of a comic image of a giant cat or a desperate plea from a sick child, chain e-mail messages and Internet frauds are elements of the online landscape that we've all encountered. No topic is off limits: a medical warning, a promise of free money, or a believably (or shoddily) Photoshopped image. But at the end of the day, they're just elaborate hoaxes or clever pranks--and we've collected 25 of the most infamous ones ever to have graced the Internet or our inboxes. Though some of these deceptions originated years ago, the originals--and dozens of... Yahoo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1828563/posts#comment Fri, 4 May 2007 20:50:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1755822/posts John and Joan Leising were quite upset last year when somebody stole the plastic infant Jesus statue from the lighted manger set outside their North Buffalo home. This year, they have the Jesus statue back - and a pretty weird story to tell at Christmas parties. "When we tell people about it, they just look at us and say, "Wow, that really happened?' " Joan Leising said. "Then, we show them the photo album." The Leisings, residents of Depew Avenue, take pride in their annual Christmas decorations. They have displayed a brightly lighted outdoor manger set - with statues of... Buffalo News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1755822/posts#comment Tue, 19 Dec 2006 18:27:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621416/posts CUTTING-EDGE artificial intelligence it was not, but a student prank still managed to get the better of some human intelligences last week, when a computer-generated piece of gibberish was accepted as a genuine scientific paper. Sick of receiving spam emails requesting submissions to the 2005 World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics - which charges $390 for each attendee - students Jeremy Stribling, Daniel Aguayo and Maxwell Krohn of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote a program to generate a nonsense paper. Starting with skeleton sentences, pools of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and a random assortment of computer science... New Scientist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1621416/posts#comment Tue, 25 Apr 2006 22:24:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1618228/posts See for example this thread first. A man off’ring door-to-door tests (for free) upon women’s breasts should make it quite clear to all who can hear: Don’t trust uninvited house-guests! grey_whiskers http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1618228/posts#comment Thu, 20 Apr 2006 13:19:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606931/posts Time to dust off the whoopee cushions and hand buzzers. April Fools' Day is here and there's no better place for wisecracks and shenanigans than at work. In its annual April Fools' Day survey, CareerBuilder.com found 33 percent of workers have played a practical joke on a co-worker and 17 percent are planning office tricks for this year's holiday. Although it might be thrilling to finally one-up the office funnyman, pranks also help beat something that's no laughing matter: workplace stress. More than half of workers reported working under stress in another CareerBuilder.com survey. Stress and worry on the job... Careerbuilder.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1606931/posts#comment Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:17:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1549042/posts (CBS)PALO HEIGHTS Possibly a sick prank or a grisley threat, someone left a lamb's head on a doorstep in the southwest suburbs.CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports the package had a note: "With hugs and kisses from Santa." cbs2chicago.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1549042/posts#comment Fri, 30 Dec 2005 03:04:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1518732/posts Good morning...Wednesday is here!!! Let's have a good laugh to get through it http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1518732/posts#comment Wed, 9 Nov 2005 15:13:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1405832/posts A real-life supermom used a bottle of breast milk to douse an amputee yesterday after his wheelchair was set ablaze by punks on a Staten Island bus, cops said. The nursing mother's fast actions helped save Vietnam vet Francis Abrams, 57, from becoming a human torch, and stopped the fire from engulfing the S-54 bus, police and the victim said. "It was put out with breast milk," said a police source, who was awed by the bizarre incident that happened just after 11 a.m. Abrams, who lost his left leg in Vietnam, said he was minding his own business as... New York Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1405832/posts#comment Wed, 18 May 2005 19:33:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1405851/posts The valedictorian at Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School was scratched from the graduation ceremony, where she was to give a speech, because of her involvement in a senior prank. Ashley Isaac, 17, was one of 27 students involved in the senior prank that took place overnight May 4. School officials said eggs were thrown on the school, toilet paper was strewn about, and words were written on windows in mustard, ketchup and syrup. A sign had been hung that read, "Seniors 05-05-05." She said Principal Mitzi McLaurine told her it would not "send the right message" to allow her to... AP via AL.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1405851/posts#comment Wed, 18 May 2005 20:01:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1363742/posts Okay, I'm a guy who likes cracking jokes, and witty comebacks. In all modesty, I do it quite well. With a reputation as a funny guy in my family (and outside of my family as well, I've made that impression on quite a few), I decided to appoint myself to do the best April Fools tricks. The trick we've done in the past is to take tape and tape up the switch to the refridgerator/freezer, so that it strikes the unknowing person as being off when they first open the door and the light does NOT come on. One year,... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1363742/posts#comment Wed, 16 Mar 2005 05:00:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354412/posts One of my co-workers is a saver. About 15 years ago, our insurance company used a new password each week to identify company representatives. About a year ago, my co-worker found a file with all the passwords. He showed it to all of us and we all agreed there was no reason to keep it, so he threw out the file. We have a sales convention every year and a top management person would leave company-wide e-mails to update us on information for the convention. A couple of days after my co-worker threw out the file, I called a top... Minneapolis Star Tribune http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354412/posts#comment Wed, 2 Mar 2005 19:21:15 GMT