Definition
A school prank is a prank primarily occurring in a school setting. The effect and intent of school pranks may range from everyday play and consensual bonding behavior to crimes including hazing, bullying and assault, including sexual assault.
Common pranks
Circle game
The central theme in the Malcolm in the Middle "Dinner Out" TV episode is the circle game (also known as hole-tempting or ball-gazing), whereby a person gets someone else to look at their hand while forming a circle below the waist. If he or she looks, the prankster gets to hit them. However, if the target of the prank is able to put a finger (usually the index finger) through the hole without looking at it, they win the right to punch the maker of the hole instead (additional stipulations may apply, e.g. that the target must break the hole, or that the hole maker still wins the game if they can trap the target's finger etc.).
Debagging
Debagging (also known as "flagging", "depantsing", "pantsing" and various other names) is the act of pulling down a person's trousers and sometimes also the person's underwear, which reveals the person's genitalia. The most common method is to sneak up behind the intended victim, grab the trousers', shorts', or skirt's waistband, and apply a quick downward tug before the victim is aware of the debagger's presence.
Flat tire or flat foot
The heel of the victim is trodden upon, which may cause the victim to fall. Stepping on the rear portion of the shoe as the foot lifts and thereby removing it is also a "heels" variant known as a "flat tire" or "score". A variant is to kick their heel forwards as it lifts.
Indian burn
This is a prank done by grasping the victim's forearm firmly in both hands, and then twisting the hands in opposite directions about the victim's arm, causing the tender skin to stretch, making it red and sore. Known primarily as a "Chinese burn" or a "snake bite" in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, "buffalo skin" in India, "snake bite", "Chinese Sunburn" or "Indian rub" in Canada, or "Indian burn" and "Indian rug burn" in the United States (except in some midwest states such as Wisconsin where it is known as a snakebite), "Indian burn" in France, "policeman's glove" or "hundred needles" in Hungary, "barbed wire" in the Netherlands, "needles" in Romania and Bulgaria and "Brennessel" ("stinging nettle") in Austria, Switzerland and the southern parts of Germany, "thousand needle stings" in the northern parts of Germany, "manita de puerco" (pork's little hand) in Mexico, "little fire" in the Czech Republic, "thousand needles" in Sweden, "Nettle" in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Russia, "French cuff" in Norway and Denmark, "kuuma makkara" (hot sausage) or "nokkonen" (nettle) in Finland and again "snakebite" in Flanders.
Kancho / Dongjim
Kancho is a prank played in Japan; it is performed by clasping the hands together so the index fingers are pointing out and attempting to insert them sharply into someone's anal region when the victim is not looking. It is similar to the wedgie or a goosing. Kancho means "enema". In South Korea it is known as "ddong-chim" This prank is also played in Scotland, in this case known as a 'fishy' or 'jobbie jab'. In Australia is known as a 'Hopoate'.
"Kick me" sign
A note (commonly reading "Kick me") is attached to the back of an unsuspecting victim. This prank may be performed with Post-it notes or other items, such as paper and tape.
Mooning
"Mooning" is displaying one's bared buttocks to someone, so-called because the buttocks are generally not suntanned, so resemble a full moon. It is commonly performed out of windows of moving buses and cars.
Noogie
Sometimes called a Monkey Scrub, Hippo Handing or Russian Haircut, a noogie is performed when the middle knuckles of the fore and middle fingers are rubbed vigorously against the surface of the scalp, stretching the skin and pulling the hair. A headlock may be applied for more exact or prolonged execution. This will trap the victim. An open-hand variant known as the Dutch Rub is performed with the heel of the hand.
Shoe-lacing
This prank involves the tying of a victim's shoe laces together, typically while the victim is seated and distracted. The laces may also be tied to a nearby object such as a chair leg. This may cause the victim to unexpectedly trip or stumble when attempting to get up and move. This prank may be combined with a taunt or additional prank designed to provoke the victim into getting up and running after the prankster, resulting in a more pronounced effect. A related but more destructive prank involves secretly cutting the shoelaces with scissors.
Short sheeting
A prank done at boarding schools, college dorms, camps or on excursions where children sleep in full beds (also common in the military services). A bed sheet is untucked at the head end of the bed and folded, making it look as if it is two sheets (an undersheet and top sheet). The victim will find that he or she cannot get into bed (as doing this "shortens" the bed length). Also known as a 'wallet bed' (lit en portefeuille) in France and as an 'apple-pie bed' in the UK. An apple-pie bed sometimes involves sewing up the sheets with a needle and thread so that it is impossible for the prankee to get in, and requires a degree of effort to make the bed usable again.
Spitball
A "spitball" is a clump of paper that the prankster has chewed and steeped in his saliva, to be thrown, spat, or blown at a person or object. If not removed from some types of surface, they dry and harden into a sort of paper cement. Small spitballs are often propelled by placing them in a straw or the shaft of a disassembled hollow pen and blowing through the other end. Larger spitballs are sometimes flicked with the fingers, a flexible ruler or through the use of a rubber band. Sometimes, whole sheets of paper are crumpled and inserted into the mouth for a period of up to five minutes to form a large spitball that is usually thrown manually.
Swirly
The act of holding the victim upside down and dunking his or her head in a toilet bowl while flushing. Instances of swirling have been prosecuted in courts.
Towel snap
Also known as a "towel whip", "towel whipping", a "rat-tail", or "rat-tailing", or "kangaroo tail" in Australia, the prankster twists a towel along the diagonal (typically dampened to hold its shape), making it into a whip with a towel corner at the tip. The prankster then "snaps" the towel as if cracking a whip, striking the victim with the end tip of the towel and causing pain. This prank is usually performed in communal showers, where wet towels are plentiful and bare skin provides opportunity to maximize the pain inflicted.
Wedgie
A wedgie (sometimes also known as a "gotchie" or "grundy" or "melvin") is any one of a variety of pranks involving pulling the victim's underwear up so that it wedges between the buttocks and may even be performed to the extent that the victim's underpants are torn off. A wedgie may be performed by one attacker, or by a group. On April 6, 2006, Fox News reported on an Albany, New York teacher who was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child by giving the 10-year-old pupil a wedgie.
In 2007, eight-year-old second graders Jared and Justin Serovich came up with "wedgie-proof" underwear â€" with a tear-away waistband â€" at the Central Ohio Invention Competition 2007 where their invention got them into the finals.
Wet Willy
A prank whereby an assailant moistens one of their fingers with saliva, quietly sneaks up behind a victim and inserts the finger into the victim's ear hole. While the wet willy is primarily an elementary school prank, it is occasionally seen in higher institutions of learning.
See also
- List of practical joke topics
- List of hazing deaths in the United States
References
Further reading
- Steinberg, Neil (1992). If at all possible, involve a cow : the book of college pranks. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-07810-2.Â
