Best Practical Joke

Duke

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What was the best practical joke you ever played on someone, or had played on you?
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Way back when I was in highschool I had the perfect plan for a practical joke. The real ingenious part was that while the joke was directed at my friends they would not suspect anything as I was making myself the butt of the joke.

It was prom season and the awkward social pressure was on for me to find a date. I had exactly zero interest in going to prom but the more I protested the stronger the pressure got on me. I had to figure a way out so I came up with a crazy plan, but it required finding the right person to ask.

There was one young lady I knew who was the absolute best! She was (probably still is) sweet and kind, very pretty. I also knew that she had a boyfriend who did not go to our school so nobody within my circle of friends knew about him, which made her perfect for my plan. I was going to ask her to prom and have her turn me down as harshly as she could. I approached her about this and because she was such a wonderful person she told me that she wouldn't do it, she just couldn't be that mean to me. I spent a week begging her to reconsider and finally she agreed.

The next step was to tell my friends that I would go to prom but only if I found the right girl to ask. This was the tricky part because it required me leading the conversation in such a way that they would make the suggestion to ask the person I had pre-arranged. If they suggested anyone else the plan wouldn't have worked. To make everything work my friends had to believe that picking "Ms Perfect" was all their idea.

I did my best Jedi mind tricks and my friends came up with the exact name I wanted. I acted nervous and told them that she was way out of my league (she probably really was). One friend tried to reassure me by saying "You have a sense of humor, girls like that!" So I agreed to ask her to prom but my friends had to be right there for moral support because of how nervous I was. So they followed me over to where she was standing and sort of clumped together in a group about 5-6 feet behind me. I approached her and the conversation went like this:

Me:Hey
Her: Oh, um. Hi.
Me: I was just wondering, um
Her: yes?
Me: Yeah, I was um just wondering um if you would want to go to prom with me?
Her: Are. You. Serious?!
(At this point I heard gasps coming from my friends behind me. It's that same unmistakable gasp a teenage boy makes when they see someone get hit in the groin)
Me: Um. Yes?
Her: Why would I EVER want to go out with you?
(Another round of gasps)
Me: Because I have a sense of humor and girls like that in a guy?
Her: No way! You're a freak!

At which point she walked away.

On the inside I was grinning ear to ear, but I had to put on the saddest face I could manage and go back to my friends. Their jaws were wide open but they were also laughing hysterically. I got "Dude! That totally sucks! I can't believe that just happened" mixed with laughing and apologies for laughing. However they all did agree that after a rejection like that they wouldn't even mention prom to me ever again. Mission accomplished!

A week later she asked me to come clean because since the rejection she was getting dirty looks from my friends every time she saw any of them. So I put my arm around her shoulder, walked her over to my friends and told them the whole thing was a joke. It actually took a bit of convincing because they still thought that having me ask her to prom was 100% their idea so there was no way I could have set it up ahead of time.
 
My best practical joke was in retaliation for a joke (which can't be detailed on a family oriented forum) played on me by my best friend in college, a EE who graduated a year ahead of me. I had him convinced he didn't actually graduate, and fearing for his new job.

Getting College of Engineering stationary was the first step, that was easily done because the college had changed its logo and literally threw out boxes of the old stationary. I had actually picked up a bunch of it, including envelopes, to use as scratch paper and to do homework problems on. I then had a secretary where I was working (in Texas) as a co-op student type up a letter I wrote (claiming to be his former academic advisor in the EE department) telling him through a bureaucratic screw up it had been overlooked one of his elective courses had not been accepted/credited when he transferred to UC from Case Western after his freshman year there. The beauty of this was the advisor was a Brit, so I was able to sprinkle in a few Brit expressions/spellings to make the letter even more believable. I mailed it back pre-addressed to my brother and had him drop it in the mail at the UC post office, so it had the correct post mark.

The letter advised him to investigate a three hour social science course he wanted to take at a local college (he was in Rhode Island), and to send the particulars to the advisor. It also advised him the College was obligated to inform his employer of his graduation status, and that, while "we" were sorry for the oversight and any associated inconvenience, we'd work with him to get the problem corrected as soon as he completed the three hour course. "We" also "hoped" his employer would understand.

My friend immediately called his advisor, an absent minded professor type, who said he didn't remember sending the letter, but didn't deny it. He asked him to send him a copy (through the mail, no email in 1979), and while standing in line to copy the letter at work, he finally noticed my lower case initials denoting the person who'd typed the letter. That's when he realized he'd been had. He called me that night, not real happy but relieved. He also made me promise we'd never play anymore practical jokes on each other.
 
Two of our members here had me believing they were father and son! CHARLEH! You really had me going. The stinkers.
 
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