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Pranks
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[[Category:History]]
College campuses are traditionally sites for creative mischief of all kinds, ranging from ho-hum classics such as toilet papering a room to [http://www.harvardsucks.org/ stunts of such ingenuity and large-scale coordination] that they raise the bar for the rest of us forever. On this page we shout those instances of this brand of triumph that we are proud to call our own. We keep in mind the need for discretion as we write, lest our champions face persecution for their actions or critical points of access become barred to us.
''She's only programmed to be very nice <br> But she's as cold as ice <br> Whenever I get too near''<br>-- ''Yours Truly 2095,'' Electric Light Orchestra
* In the middle of October, [[Brian Hirshman '06]] noticed that [[Johannes Pulst-Korenberg '06]] was away from his keyboard. Brian deftly set Johannes's keyboard layout to [[Dvorak Keyboard Layout|Dvorak]], which is different then the standard QWERTY layout that most people use. Johannes quickly found that his keystroke input was more or less unusable, and demanded that Brian change it back. Johannes vowed revenge, and got some on [[Halloween]] (see [[#Pranks Involving Rooms|Pranks involving rooms]]).
* ''Williams classic:'' Many [[Berkshire Symphony Orchestra]] parties ended with the host's desktop background set to a tiled image of someone's [[WSO Facebook]] picture, guaranteeing confusion when they woke the next morning.
* One time freshman year, [[Mark Alexander Kelly Matthews '07]] left his computer unattended. This was a big mistake. He returned to find Creed playing on a loop on his computer loud enough that his entire entry could hear it. It was his fault for having a Creed song in the first place.
* The sound scheme on a computer can easily be altered so that a a relatively uncommon event (like Windows Critical Stop) or excruciatingly common event (like Menu Open) will be accompanied by a prerecorded sound, preferable one of distinct embarassment.
* I have only gotten this trick to work on the corner desks in sawyer: if you have a mouse and are sitting next to someone who is working without a mouse at their laptop, connect your mouse to their computer when they get up. it will be quite confusing for them if you can move the mouse in close to, but not quite the direction they are trying to go on their screen
* In December of 2005, [[Brian Hirshman '06]] had to turn in a background chapter of his thesis to computer science professor [[Duane Bailey]]. Brian used the [http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/ random computer science paper generator ] in order to do so. Good times ensued.
* There is a program called [http://osx.portraitofakite.com/index2.htm? FlyakiteOSX] that puts a Mac OSX-like interface on PCs. You can prepare a nice surprise for your PC-using roommate, when s/he comes back from a grueling tutorial session or something.
* During Winter Study 2006, Sean McKenzie '08 was walking back to his room in Pratt when he discovered his entire room had been recreated in a patch of snow on the lawn outside Mission. Rather than deal with the large effort of carrying all his possessions including desk, bed, and dresser up the four flights to his room, Sean decided to simply get into bed and deal with the whole mess in the morning.
* Over Halloween night, [[Dan Burns '06 ]] struck back with a vengeance. He turned Brian's room literally upside down. He took the bed and turned that upside down. He took the bookcase and turned that upside down, then proceeded to take the books on the bookcase upside down. He turned Brian's desk upside down, and everything that was sitting on top of it upside down. To top it off, he even went into Brian's closet and turned Brian's clothes upside down, tying shirts to the hangers to make sure that they would stay upside down until Brian returned.
* Cover the outside of someone's doorframe with newspaper, duct tape, TP, etc. Or stretch a piece of clear packing tape, sticky side in, across the doorframe at chest level. Wait for the victim to wake up and try to leave their room. If newspaper or some other continuous material (i.e. dozens of stretched facebook images of a person feared by the victim) is used to cover the doorframe, the intervening space between the paper and door can be filled with small objects that will spill into the room when the door is opened (note: particularly effective if you happen to unearth your victim's secret cotton ball phobia). This technique was used to great effect by Lisa Lindeke '06 against [[Esa Seegulam '06]] in his freshman year.
* During the [[Winter Study]] of 2003, Robert Hahn '05 traveled to the remote Galapagos Islands, leaving his key in the care of trusted suitemate Matthew Spencer '05. Teaming up with nearby friends Justin Brown and Jenny Simons Jenni Simmons '05, these three filled the room floor to ceiling with red balloons to await. They were sure to make their move only the day before Robert's return, so that minimal deflation would occur before he arrived to appreciate it.
* Steal all of someone's clothes except for their tuxedo and then send them on a campus-wide treasure hunt to locate said clothes, creatively prolonging said treasure hunt so that the victim is forced to wear said tuxedo to breakfast the next morning. For more information, contact [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06lds Lisetta Shah '06] or [http://wso.williams.edu/facebook/view?unix=06eac Eric Cheung '06].
* Cover the room's floor with dixie cups filled to the brim with water. Leave just enough space for the door to open, but nothing else. The victim will have to remove the cups one by one.
* [[Image: Lobster_Party.jpg|right|thumbnail|Lobsters playing [[beer pong]] and poker on the [[Log]]'s patio.]]Every fall, [[Dining Services]] serves an excellent [[Harvest Dinner]], at which the most anticipated and beloved dish is surely the lobster. Though a ticket system attempts to ensure that each student can get only one lobster, in 2002 a few [[Deviants|Deviant]] mischief-makers managed to collect enough from helpful friends to arrange a little tableau at the Log, where a number of noise complaints had been called in earlier that semester. Four lobsters were posed playing a hand of poker, and others were set up playing beer pong (using apple juice in the cups, so as to not break open-container rules =) ). The perpetrators called in two noise complaints from public phones, using the names "Red Skelton" and "Rod Stewart." This would have been the end of the story, except that Security looked up the name "Stewart" in the student directory and headed over to Lehman, where they woke up a very confused freshman named Robin Stewart and interrogated him until they understood that he had absolutely nothing to do with the prank.
* In the fall of '03, before the Harvest Dinner, several enterprising freshman from Lehman Hall decided to replace the dining hall's publication of "How to eat a lobster" that had been placed in all the dining halls in preparation for this great feast with the equally informative brochure "How to eat a human." As the format was the same, many people did not notice. Political motivations, though absent, were suspected.
* For April Fool's Day 2002, some students raided the central clocktower on campus. On the east face they placed a large yellow sheet with a smiley face spray-painted on it; on the north face were two plexiglass mickey-mouse hands, attached to the tips of the clock hands; on the west face were two plexiglass replicas of the clock hands, but facing in the opposite direction.
[[Image:B-@Amherst.jpg|right|thumbnail|Amherst gets a B+ from some visiting "professors."]]
* In the Winter of 2005, a small group of studentslead by [[Brian Hirshman]] ’06, [[Odd Quad|Odd Quadders]] and [[Deviants]] all, visited [[Amherst]] on the morning of a fresh snowfall, and graded our ancient rivals in the white canvas on their athletics fieldin reaction to Amherst students burning an "A" into Weston field. For a more detailed account, click [https://alumni.williams.edu/200/a-is-for-awesome/ here]!
== Pranks of Rumor and Legend ==
''Did they happen? We'd like to think so, but though stories of the below pranks circulate by the proverbial water coolers, they may be actual triumphs of students, or mere sources of inspiration for future triumphs.''
* This prank happened at a high school far away from here, but it is perfect for a country school like Williams. As a senior prank, students released three chickens on school grounds, each wearing a little shirt with a number on it. The numbers were 1, 2, and 4. The rest of the day involved the administrators and facilities people frantically searching every corner of the school, dismantling heating ducts and cooling vents, in a search for the elusive (and nonexistantnonexistent) chicken number 3. This prank is also rumored to have happened at a seperate separate high school, except involving rented llamas. Llama 1, llama 2, and llama 4. Llamas just make it so much better.
* This prank also happened at a high school far away from here. The school had recently built a new library that had a large staircase leading into it. The senior class led a cow up the stairs into the library. Cows can only walk up stairs; they are incapable of walking back down. Hilarity ensued.
* This prank happened at the Harvard Football field a couple years ago. Taking a page from the playbook of behavioral psychologist Pavlov, an MIT student spent one summer training hundreds of pigeons to flock to the Harvard field whever whenever they heard a referee's whistle. The student did this by going to the field every day to blow a whistle as he scattered bird seed all over the field. Eventually, just like Pavlov's dogs, the pigeons learned to associate the sound of the whistle with the promise of food. When Harvard's football team eventually came back to train during the fall season, they found that just one whistle-blow would cause hundreds of pigeons to descend onto the field, making the field unplayable.
* This prank happened at a friend's brother's girlfriend's cousin's high school in Alabama. Some creative seniors bought an old car from a junkyard and managed to cut it in half. They then wrapped the two halves around the school's flagpole and welded them back together. Hooray!
Please include only pranks that were actually attempted, though unachieved, and not pranks that were merely planned. Sure, we've all ''imagined'' awesome pranks -- the list of those would be endless -- but the real ''thrill'' of hearing a good prank story is being, in your mind, right there beside the people who carried it out.
* The Great Pumpkin Steal: During [[Halloween]] 2005, a giant pumpkin was placed in each dining hall, each weighing over 150 pounds and over a yard in diameter. Several [[Cross Country Running|students]] successfully stole one of these pumpkins out of Driscoll Dining Hall one evening without the dining staff noticing. The pumpkin was found several hours later in the back of one of the students' cars. While they were unable to place the pumpkin on top of Schow, as was planned, they did manage to amaze Security with their ingenuity and skill. Remarked [[Dave Boyer]], "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen. Don't do it again." The editors note that, technically, the pumpkin was within the "one piece of fruit" limit for dining hall take-out.