Top 5 Greatest College Pranks of All Time | By Alison Lee Yeuh Chii
Illustration by Clarissa.
Pranks are a form of art where mischief-makers toe the line between either making or ruining some poor soul’s day. College pranks can come in many forms, from flash mobs to giant replicas of iconic landmarks, you can bet it’s never a dull moment on campus if you have a couple of pranksters running around.
Unfortunately, somewhere in the midst of social media taking over the Internet, the art of pranks has evolved somewhat into prank calls and cheap little tricks usually involving a Sharpie and an unassuming, probably unconscious, friend’s forehead. You see, the thing that most modern, self-proclaimed pranksters fail to understand is that the best pranks aim to bemuse rather than to embarrass. Getting this crucial detail wrong can often lead to conflict that may or may not end with an expulsion letter and/or someone’s fist in your face.
So if you’re into practical jokes, grab a pen and get ready to jot down some notes because it’s April Fool’s Day and we’re going to be reliving the glory days of pranks by reviewing the top five greatest pranks to have ever been pulled by college students.
Photo by Michelle Stocker on Madison.com.
No. 5: UW-Madison’s Flamingos
The year is 1979, imagine walking to your classes on the first day of school; the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and you find yourself face to face with little over a thousand bright pink flamingos on the hill leading up to your university, because that was precisely what thousands of students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison saw upon returning from their summer break. The prank was part of a series of campus pranks orchestrated by two of the most iconic pranksters in UW-Madison’s history, Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon, who led the university’s very own mock political body, the Pail and Shovel Party. The prank was as straightforward as it was ingenious, and it remains a tradition at UW-Madison to stick hundreds of pink garden flamingos on Bascom Hill every fall as part of their yearly “Fill the Hill” fundraiser.
Photo from hacks.mit.edu.
No. 4: MIT Fire Truck Hack
Without a doubt, the students who make it into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are some of the brightest of their generation; however, they are also arguably the craziest. MIT has a long history of pranks or ‘hacks’ as the students would call it (and for good reason since they are basically hacking reality), but placing a fire truck on the Great Dome is pretty hard to beat. The live-size vehicle found on the dome featured blown-up dalmatians, working lights and bold white letters on the side that read "MIT Fire Department". In case you were wondering, no, MIT does not in fact have its own fire department nor does it have a feasible route should you wish to sneak a 25-foot-long truck onto the roof of any building. According to anonymous pranksters, it involved catapulting parts of the truck with makeshift parachutes before reassembling it on the dome. Leave it to the engineering students to come up with a stunt this mind-boggling.
No. 3: Fake Chemistry Professor
Now most pranks take guts to pull off, but a senior from Rochester University took it to a whole other level when he strolled into a freshmen class claiming to be their chemistry professor. Armed with a leather briefcase and formal tie, Patrick Adelman from Rochester University's Chamber Boys radio show introduced himself as Professor Hafensteiner and gave the freshmen a scare when he warned them that over half the class would fail to get into med school. He had just begun explaining why he would not tolerate laptops during lectures when the real and very confused Professor Hafensteiner walked in. Without so much as a word of explanation Adelman ran for it as the class cheered and the freshmen learned a valuable lesson that day - sometimes the best pranks just involve an empty briefcase, a whole lot of confidence and knowing when to flee once the real professor comes round.
Screenshot from video by Skule Nite on Youtube.
No. 2: The Engineer Song: One Test More
Ask any student in any engineering program and they can assure you that finals are one of the most stressful periods of their school year. A group of engineering students from the University of Toronto certainly thought so and decided it would be the perfect time to prank their classmates with an impressive parody of Les Miserables’ One Day More. The elaborate setup involved the lead singers jumping onto their desks and belting the song at the top of their lungs with their professor eventually joining in on the chaos. Now who says lecturers can’t be in on the fun?
Photo by Jeff Miller on news.wisc.edu_An inflated replica made in 2019.
No. 1: UW-Madison’s Lady Liberty
If you thought flamingos were the best Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon could pull off, think again for we’ve finally reached the end of the list, and you can bet UW-Madison’s Lady Liberty went down in history as one of the greatest pranks ever pulled. Unsurprisingly, it all began with a joke the two pranksters concocted to run for student government. Their campaign involved making impossible promises, one of which was to move the Statue of Liberty from New York City to a lake situated near the campus, Lake Mendota. Much to the Pail and Shovel Party’s surprise they were elected and their leaders decided to make good on their promise. You could just picture the priceless looks on the students' faces when they came to school one frigid February morning, only to see a life-size replica of Lady Liberty rising from the frozen lake, torch blazing with her gigantic, verdigris encrusted head half submerged. The pranksters told everyone who asked that they had the statue moved from New York by helicopter when in fact they had the replica made from paper mache and styrofoam.
Now undoubtedly there are many more great pranks out there that did not make this list. Whether it’s growing watercress on keyboards or filling your roommate’s room with sticky notes the point remains that the best pranks can be pulled off without doing harm to any party involved. Knowing when and where to draw the line is crucial when it comes to pranks, so have fun and we hope this listicle will have you looking forward to your next April Fool’s Day.
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