Practical Joke

A practical joke or '''prank''' is a situation set up to produce what the perpetrator imagines to be a humorous physical outcome at the expense of the target. Since the set-up or deception is generally eventually revealed to the victim, the butt of the joke is thereby made to feel foolish or victimized. It can be argued, therefore, that there is an inherent strain of cruelty in most practical jokes. They are also distinct from Slapstick or knockabout, where the goal is to make physical events appear miscalculated, inept, or accidental. The term ''practical'' refers to the fact that the joke consists of someone doing something (a 'practise'), rather than the common sense of the word ('useful or sensible'). Well-known practical jokers include the illustrator Hugh Troy and the publicist Jim Moran .

Types of practical Joke s include:

False signalling, such a 'kick me' note stuck on someone's back, an 'automatic door' sign on a normal swinging door, or dropping an empty carton on someone's foot after pretending it is heavy;

Removing someone's clothing so that it exposes a private body part or their undergarments, particularly in public

Surprise disruption, employing (for example) trip-wires, Whoopee Cushion s, peanut butter on the inside of a car door-handle, punctured ketchup packets under the toilet seat, or a three legged podium for a public speaker;

Visual deception, such as water-filled Balloons , plastic wrap on a toilet seat, 'apple-pie beds' which have had the top blanket artfully folded back so the victim cannot get all the way in, loosening the tops of salt shakes so when they pour the salt it all comes out, fake flowers in the lapel which squirt water, rubber fruit and guns which unfurl a flag saying 'bang';

Fool's errands such as sending someone to buy striped paint or read-only CD blanks (see also: Snipe Hunt );

);

Spontaneous impersonations, such as taking an order for takeaway food from someone who has actually dialed a wrong number;

Verbal and typographical pranks, such as printing a block of text so that the first letters of every line spell out an irreverent message (see also Acrostic ), or teaching someone a purportedly useful phrase in another language which is actually an insult.

Practical jokes are features of various kinds of holidays, such as April Fool's Day , Halloween , the Day of the Holy Innocents (in Spanish-speaking cultures). They also feature in various rites of passage, such as Stag Night s.

The ''Trapezium'' of Xenophanes was cited by Aristotle as a notable compendium of practical jokes, but only a few fragments of this work have survived.

The American humorist H. Allen Smith wrote a 320-page book in 1953 called '' The Compleat Practical Joker '' that contains many examples of practical jokes. A typical one, recalled as his favorite by the Playright Charles MacArthur , concerns the American painter and bohemian character Waldo Peirce . Peirce was living in Paris in the 1920s and made a gift of a very small turtle to the woman who was the Concierge of his building. The woman doted on the turtle and lavished it with care and affection. A few days later Peirce substituted a somewhat larger turtle for the original one. This continued for some time, with larger and larger turtles being surreptitiously introduced into the woman's apartment. The concierge was beside herself with happiness and displayed her miraculous turtle to the entire neighborhood. Peirce then began to sneak in and replace the turtle with smaller and smaller ones, to her bewildered distress.

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