Recently several of the editors of The Chimes were subjected to a practical joke or “prank,” if you will. There one little tree had the bejeebus TPed out of it. Since it was not real news, (it was just TP) they posted the pictures on their house blog rather than the Chimes Online.

While pranks can be fun and entertaining (as well as illegal, harmful, and funny), there is definitely an art to the practical joke. Many people are content to start off at the beginner level. Performing pranks that have been around and are established in their success rate. Toilet papering, saran wrapping, or poking 2000 plastic forks into somebody’s front yard are all examples of these. But these are the paint by numbers equivalent in this art. A real artist creates. So in the interest of funding the arts, I have decided to promote a prank contest.

This contest will be for the best prank that occurs between now and midnight Dec 1st. A winner will be chosen and notified on the second and receive the prize of entrance into Disneyland for themselves and two guests. The rules are as follows:

1. Must be an original prank. No toilet papering, etc. I should not be able to find it on the internet. If it is a variation of an existing style of prank it should be nationally recognized (for instance, if it is a prank wikipedia page it should make the silliness page or be mentioned in a respected form of journalism. I myself have changed the plural of platypus from platypuses to platypi based on a popular vote of people in the room of what they thought it should be (it lasted 6 days) and created a bogus page on the subject of student debt which only lasted 8 hours. Neither of which would have been qualified since they did not receive national recognition.
2. No illegal activities. All university rules and laws must be observed. (However you get bonus points if they make up new rules as a result, huge bonus points if they name the rule after you or the prank).
3. No harm (physical or emotional) must come to the victims.

It will be judged on the following criteria:
1. Creativity
2. Funniness
3. Efficiency vs Results. If a prank takes a lot of work to pull off and isn’t that funny, then it wasn’t a good prank. For instance, saran wrapping someone’s car takes a while to do, but only takes about 30 seconds to remove. Pranks of this nature will be disqualified.
4. Proof must be submitted, preferably via pictures or video.

You may submit the proof to james.browning@gmail.com
Happy pranking!