Pranks

MIT Hack

Last night my friends and I were sharing stories of pranks we pulled when we were younger. I won't share any here, because I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is ("I pranked him to death. To death with a tire iron").

When I think of pranks, I mainly think of the good times I had in high school and junior high. Every once in a while I will revert back to my old ways, but my pranks these days are much more subdued and innocuous. They are mainly for my own enjoyment. Last month, for example, I was wandering around a building at Harvard when I noticed a large, complicated math equation. So I wrote some gibberish, put an equals sign with a number, and then wrote "- Will Hunting." Kind of lame, right? But it made me smile.

I can describe at least one high school-era prank, because I wasn't directly involved with this one (and I neither condone it, nor deny its hilarity inducingness). Here goes...


People from Utah will probably remember the hypnotist who used to do shows in Midvale. Well, one night some friends borrowed a wheelchair and one of them pretended two things: 1. to be paralyzed from the waist down (I know, so wrong) and 2. to be hypnotized by this phony. For a while, he did whatever the hypnotist said, reinforcing the idea that he really was hypnotized. Then, at just the right time, when the hypnotist was asking everyone on stage to pretend they were fighter pilots in the war, my friend did this (I know, so wrong):