On benevolent mischief

Do you know how hard it is to prank someone who is expecting to be pranked?! 

Let us set the stage: it was the week before April Fool’s Day, 2021. We were new baby Febs living in Forest and had been challenged by fellow baby Feb Annabelle to prank her for April Fools Day. We knew she was expecting us to do something to her room, so we had to think a little bit outside the box. Our solution: an Annabelle ‘go-link’! But where could the ‘go-link’ lead? Annabelle had a famed passion for Phineas and Ferb, so, naturally, we had the ‘go-link’ play the Phineas and Ferb theme song. We set our alarms for 6:00 a.m. and posted a QR code to the ‘go-link’ all over our dorm; then we waited… 

The best part?! We gently encouraged budding rumors that Annabelle had made the ‘go-link’ herself. 

Even though she had been expecting to be April Fool-ed, Annabelle had still been effectively pranked! Ever since this first victory, we have been insatiable pranksters, using our silliness to make our friends feel loved. In this piece, we will do a round-up of our favorite successful pranks — offering advice to hopeful prank-setters as we go — as well as letting you in on some of our silliest failures. 

Nicolas Cage 

It is comforting when normal, everyday, consistent things stay their normal, everyday, consistent selves. And it is often very amusing when those things are transformed, especially when they are transformed unexpectedly and without plausible explanation. Let us let you in on an exciting (and easily replicable) prank: the web infiltration of one Nicolas Cage. Have access to a friend’s laptop? In one smooth move, you can make every image on every webpage become an image of national treasure and star of National Treasure, Nicolas Cage. Just go to the Google Chrome store, add the extension “Ncage” (we of course disclaim all liability for all actions you take after reading this article, but, just for the record, we have never gotten any viruses from this extension) and lie in waiting for your victim to be shocked when all websites they traffic are peppered with unexpected images of Nicolas Cage in place of whatever images would otherwise have shown up. Prepare for phone calls from worried friends who think the CDC has been hacked, that Under Armour is now selling very overpriced Valley Girl posters, or that The Washington Post needs to hire photographers with more extensive range ASAP. 

“Moose This Fall”

Surely many of you are familiar with the Instagram account @middaffirmations. Most of the affirmations have to do with life on campus, dining or classes, but one affirmation, not like the rest, really stole our hearts. It read mysteriously and simply “Moose this fall.” We thought a 6 by 4ft printed screenshot would look splendid on our dear friend Thomas’s wall. And it did. In the context of Middlebury pranks, the poster printer really is your best friend: you can print giant images of your friends, as zoomed in or pixelated as you wish; you can print memes (or any manner of wall decor, for that matter); you could even create ‘wallpaper’ of any image by tiling it and then printing several. If you can dream it, you can print it! A note of caution, however: the poster printers can be cantankerous so DO NOT leave printing until the last minute.

The (Never-Been-Used) Plunger

What should you do when you have a brand new toilet plunger (or any very odd object, for that matter) and a friend who’s out of town for the weekend? Answer: hide it deep in their room, of course! If you’re lucky, they’ll return the favor, and a year-long chain of plunger-hiding will begin (this actually happened!). With fifteen committed participants, this is a prank that just keeps on giving. We highly encourage taking silliness as far as you want to, with no regard for what may seem “too silly” — there is no such thing!

An Unexpected Scavenger Hunt

Well, this one was actually not one that we planned… we were the prankees! On a recent Tuesday night, a friend of ours kidnapped all of our stuffed animals. He left behind a riddle which started us on a high-stakes scavenger hunt across campus. The clues led to several of our former hangout spots, where more clues were posted. Ultimately, the hunt led us to recover our stuffed animals from his common room! We often find that a stressful week can be bettered by the sudden, unexpected addition of things that make you laugh (such as pranks!). 

Books For Gralex

One of our very favorite pranks was not a prank at all, but a gift. (Thought you’d only learn about pranks in this article?! Get pranked!) Our dear friend Gralexander Frakoudes* ’24.5 is a man with hilariously specific and fervent hatreds, much like Alexander of the classic children’s book Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day. Gathering a group of friends, we embarked upon an epic journey to recreate the book. We created an exhaustive list of things that peeve Gralexander, rewrote the text, assigned each friend to draw a page and, finally, compiled the pieces to give to Gralexander for his birthday. It was a rousing success! The process was full of giggles and Gralex was surprised (and seemed happy to receive his present). All went according to plan. 

Prank Graveyard

At this point, you may be feeling a little bit intimidated by our pranking prowess. We understand: such incredible talent like ours is rare to come by. But worry not! — we, too, are mere humans, and we, too, have suffered our fair share of prank fails. We invite you to learn from our mistakes! 

1. Not thinking enough about how the prank will be received. First of all, a prank is not really a prank if the prankee gets hurt. Please, no cruel pranks! But there are plenty of ways to mess up without being ill-intentioned; for example, forgetting that pranking somebody in a double also means pranking their roommate. 

2. Accidentally telling the prankee about it ahead of time (seriously folks, double check who’s in the group chat). 

3. Getting a big crew of someone’s friends to dress up as them on a day when they plan not to see any of those friends.

4. Biting off more than you can chew. One of our best concepts was to plan an elaborate, public prank for each member of our friend group on April Fools with the obvious exception of one person. That was the prank — for one day, we would induce the paranoia of waiting to be pranked, of looking for the prank, and of never having your expectations met. The problem: it required that we execute five other pranks, and we simply did not have the time to pull that off. 

Though it is often unglamorous, communal living can be such a joy — for us, one of the greatest parts about living on campus for four years has been being in such close proximity to our friends. Taking the time to concoct elaborate plans to make someone laugh is one of the ways we celebrate being together.

Happy Pranking! :)

*Name has been changed to protect identity.

Editors’ Note: Katie Rosa is a member of the class of 2024.5. Claire Shapiro is a member of the class of 2024.5 and an Opinions Editor for The Campus.

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