Pranks

Feeling evil? This pocket-sized device will wreak havoc with your friends’ TV, randomly turning it off without human intervention. Just make sure you let ’em know the truth before they call tech support.

Asylum intern Kyle Moffatt was insanely excited when he heard that Olivia Munn was dropping by for a photo shoot at their building. Asylum’s editors ask Munn to mess with Kyle, and she agreed.

If you’ve ever shopped at Costco, you’re familiar with those non-descript price tags on the shelves. Rob Cockerham coordinated a prank to swap them out with some slightly more entertaining ones.

Matthew Weathers of Biola University plays a harmless but funny April Fools’ prank on his math class by making it look like his shadow was messing with him and his computer.

Vandalism is bad, kids, but we can’t help but chuckle at TrustoCorp’s Subversive Street Signs; none of them endanger the public welfare while maximizing (and befuddling) public mindshare.

It’s a bit hazy ethically, but Little Billy’s Letters is indeed a prank-de-force; praised by master hoaxer Alan Abel, fictional Little BIlly gets real replies from presidents, celebrities, and more.

100 Star Wars fans is a tiny Comic-Con at best, but this Bristol Lightsaber Flashmob makes up for it with sheer Force of will; it took place 2/13/2010 at a shopping mall in England.

Chicago may be the city of Big Shoulders, but New York is the city of Strong Backs: Comedian Mark Malkoff gets carried 9.4 miles up Manhattan Island by complete strangers.

Part good-natured prank, part social experiment, Blu Dot Studio randomly leaves 25 of their chairs on Manhattan streets, tracks who “curb-mines” them, and then interviews them.

Watch as Operation Yule Storm takes place on 12/12 at 1212 hours in San Francisco; it tasked the 12th Nutracker Regiment with escorting Santa, Jesus, and other North Pole VIPs.

It may sound like the latest Steven Seagal flick, but the Guerilla Handbell Strikeforce has purely peaceful aims: it’s a 13-member choir that randomly helps Salvation Army bell ringers.

You can always count on the kindness of Knicks fans: Where’s Rob features Agent Lathan getting lost at a basketball game as a growing number of spectators try to guide him home.

Improv Everywhere continues its food pranks with I Love Lunch (watch Grocery Store Musical and Food Court Musical); it’s set in the Trump Tower atrium with a cameo by TTS’ Ann Curry.

Improv Everywhere’s Grocery Store Musical is a produce production you’ll go bananas over: a follow-up to Food Court Musical, it involved six actors and numerous hidden cameras.

A boon to Monty Python fans everywhere, Hand of Above is an art project in Liverpool which superimposes a giant hand over live crowd videos on a billboard: squish, poke, fling!

Improv Everywhere hits NYC again, but this time with pants: Subway Yearbook Photos is definitely one of their subtler, gentler pranks as they pose as official photographers for MTA.

Premiering in select locations starting 10/7, Yes Men Fix The World is our kind of movie: the Yes Men are pranksters that inject honesty into political and business spin machines.

Flash mobs can be annoying, but nobody can turn down Hawaiian music: staged by a San Francisco hula school, the Hit and Run Hula troupe does exactly that at an Apple Store.

From cost-cutting to head-cutting: pranksters reinterpret Ikea’s reputation for efficiency with SOKKOMB, an easy-to-assemble guillotine made out of solid pine with a stainless steel blade.

Improv Everywhere’s MP3 Experiment Six takes over New York’s Roosevelt Island with 2,000 folks listening to the same MP3 at the same time and following its goofy instructions.

Break out the balloon pants: this flash mob stunt for A&E’s Hammertime has a horde of dancers invading a Los Angeles clothing store and doing “U Can’t Touch This”; why, MC, why?!

Improv Everywhere’s pranks are pretty well-known, so we’re happy to hear they now have a book out: Causing a Scene is a behind-the-scenes look at their pranks over the past 8 years.

Greg Benson of Mediocre Films muscles his way in on a Free Hugs guy’s racket with his own $2 Deluxe Hugs; our favorite part is at 3:14: “So what can I get for, like, a 20?”

French prankster Rémi Gaillard (remember his Real Life Mario Kart) is back again with Real Life Pac Man; it’s disturbingly asinine a-la MTV’s Jackass, but we couldn’t help laughing anyway.

Sure, it’s a rip-off of Improv Everywhere’s pranks, but this Saatchi & Saatchi conceived ad for T-Mobile is top-notch stuff; it was filmed with 350 dancers in London’s Liverpool Street Station.

Improv Everywhere’s annual No Pants subway ride went off without a hitch (or britches) on January 10, with over 2,500 pantless riders in 22 cities around the world. Mmm, legs…

Best known for their No Pants and Best Buy pranks, Improv Everywhere’s Welcome Back is a bit more tame but still quite funny: watch as they welcome random strangers at an airport.