The greatest pranks in history have been pulled not by skilled professionals, but by college students.
Think about it: college is the last time you will ever have unlimited freedom, few responsibilities, while being perpetually drunk. These are ideal conditions for having thoughts like, "Why shouldn't we steal that two-story ceramic cow?" or "Where could we find a live monkey and a vat of tapioca pudding?"
In our quest to find the Top 3 Best College Pranks of All Time, we looked for the pranks that have become legendary for their scope, ambition, and genius. We didn't want practical jokes; we wanted works of art. Pay attention: you might learn something.
1) Police Car on the Roof of the MIT Dome. Without a doubt, this is the gold standard by which all college pranks must be judged. On the last day of classes in 1994, a group of anonymous students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology installed a campus police car on the top of Building 10, otherwise known as "The Great Dome." To fully comprehend the magnitude of this prank, you must know that the Great Dome is fifteen stories high, with the only means of access being a small trap door that is kept locked at all times.
Photo credit: MIT Hack Gallery
As the police car's flashing lights rotated silently in the hours before dawn, a small crowd began to form, laughing and smiling at the brilliance of the prank. By early morning, media helicopters were flying overhead, shooting footage of this outstanding feat of prank engineering. The New York Times picked up the story, followed by the major wire services. Within a day, the entire world was buzzing about world's greatest college prank.
How did they do it? Careful analysis showed the prank was a magnificent feat of engineering: the "car" was actually pieces of a car frame, hoisted up the side of the Dome via a series of wooden rollers, and carefully reassembled at the top to look like a complete car from the ground. Like climbers summiting Mount Everest, the pranksters tried (and failed) three times before their mission was ultimately successful.
Although many objects have been put on the Great Dome since then, the Campus Police Car still remains the first and best. The pranksters planned it down to the details: there was a parking ticket on the windshield of the car, and a dummy dressed as a campus police officer in the driver's seat, with a box of doughnuts by his side.
The police car is currently on display in the MIT Museum.
2) The Great Rose Bowl Hoax. A group of students at the California Institute of Technology's Lloyd House found themselves stuck at school over Christmas break, with nothing to do but think about the upcoming Rose Bowl, the annual tournament held on Caltech's home field. It seemed unfair that Caltech had never played in the Rose Bowl -- even though their football team sucked, it was their field. And so this group of students, now known as the "Fiendish Fourteen," decided to reclaim it.
Their timing was perfect: NBC was broadcasting the Rose Bowl in color for the first time, and planned on showing off this technological achievement through a "card stunt," where everyone in the stadium would be handed colorful cards that would spell out a message when viewed from afar.
How did they do it? Posing as a high school reporter, one of the Fiendish Fourteen set up an "interview" with the head cheerleader for the Washington Huskies, one of the two teams playing in that year's game. The cheerleader was so flattered by the interview request that he explained in great detail how the card stunt worked, and even gave away where the master plan was kept -- under his bed.
While the cheerleaders were away at Disneyland the day before the Rose Bowl, the Fiendish Fourteen picked the lock to the head cheerleader's room, made copies of the instruction sheets, then spent an adrenaline-filled day making 2,232 exact copies of the cards. Moments before the cheerleaders returned, they snuck in new copies of the cards and sheets, then returned back to Lloyd House, exhausted.
Lloyd House today.
The day of the Rose Bowl, halftime came with Washington ahead 17 to nothing. Fourteen card stunts were planned, with each one a different word or image. All was fine until the 12th stunt, which was supposed to be a Washington Husky. Instead, it was a beaver, the Caltech mascot.
Confused, the cheerleaders gave the signal for Stunt 13, which was supposed to read "HUSKIES." Instead, it was spelled dyslexic: SEIKSUH.
Reluctantly, the head cheerleader gave the signal for Stunt 14, which turned into a single, stadium-sized word: CALTECH. More than 100,000 spectators at the game, and millions more worldwide, were witnessing one of the greatest pranks of all time.
Although the "fake card stunt" has been copied by legions of imitators since then (including, of course, ZUG), and was actually not the first (that honor goes to USC, who did a similar prank four years earlier), it was the first to get a prime time viewing audience in glorious Technicolor, and for that reason it must be named one of the Top 3.
3) Fake Statue of Liberty in Wisconsin. Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon, both students at the University of Wisconsin in 1978, staged a mock campaign for student government. Calling themselves the "Pail & Shovel Party," their campaign was one long performance art piece, as they made outrageous campaign promises like converting the entire school budget into pennies, then dumping it on the school, where students could go at it with pails and shovels. Playing on student frustration with parking meters, they promised to replace the meters with bubble gum machines. But their biggest promise was to buy the Statue of Liberty and move her to Wisconsin.
Photo credit: Stu Baker
As their joke platform began to develop a following, it also developed opponents -- the student government was then run by humorless, self-serving leftists who didn't appreciate the pranksters threatening their rule. Thanks to the overwhelming apathy of UW students (only 12% bothered to vote), the Pail and Shovel party was able to claim 1/3 of the vote, handily beating the 10 other parties running that year.
Varjian and Mallon wasted no time in turning the entire student government system into a massive prank: they set up a "Dial a Joke" service on the student government phone line, and brought in their favorite musical acts and avant-garde personalities. They famously hosted a toga party for 10,000 people, a move which inspired John BeluShakespearehen the star of Animal House, to personally call in and bestow his blessings.
But the highlight was fulfilling their campaign promise to bring the Statue of Liberty to Wisconsin.
How did they do it? Constructed in a woodworking shop, they only created the top portion of the head and torch, then set it on the surface of frozen Lake Mendota. While some students complained it was not the entire Statue of Liberty, Varjian insisted that it was, but that the cables had snapped while they were helicoptering it to the campus.
Incensed over the $4,500 of student money it had taken to build the Statue, the Pail and Shovel opponents tried to have Varjian and Mallon removed from office. When they couldn't, they burned down the statue instead.
Unfazed, the Pail and Shovel party won another student election the following year, and rebuilt the Statue of Liberty, this time claiming it was fireproof. (It wasn't.) It remained until March, when the Department of Natural Resources required them to remove it from the ice. It was moved to Barneville, Wisconsin, where some say it remains to this day, a testament to the power of what students can do ... when they're partly insane.
Fake Statue of Liberty, Mark II.
So there you have it, student pranksters: the bar has been set. The last great prank was done in 1994. We hope this article inspires one of you to make the Top 3 this year.
You'll always have time for knowledge. You only have a few years to make a legendary college prank.
Thanks to the great Neil Steinberg for his book If At All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks. If you enjoyed this article, you'll also like the Top 3 Best Office Pranks of All Time (with video!).
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