The Top 3 Improv Everywhere Pranks on Complete Strangers A comedy article
by Luke McKinney 11,088 110 03/06/2010 02:49 AM 3008 views
Professional pranking group Improv Everywhere is dedicated to organizing joy and happiness for random people, making them the exact opposite of every other organized gang in New York. Many of their pranks revolve around finding a random person, and giving them the best and weirdest day of their life. Here are the Top 3 Improv Everywhere Pranks on Total Strangers.
1. Ted's Birthday
Improv Everywhere achieve the impossible: loading a bar with hidden cameras and microphones, filling it with pranksters, starting a drinks tab, and then making it even more fun.
They target a random bar patron, designate him "Ted" and inform him that today's his birthday. The professional pranksters bravely soldier through a difficult opening with every joker's worst nightmare: a self-confident friend of the victim who won't be bluffed or bullShakespeareted. (It is one of the few times you get to see Improv Everywhere founder Charlie Todd truly improvising in a difficult situation.) Fortunately, he's outgunned: "Ted" only has one outspoken New Jersey ally, while Improv Everywhere has the bar filled with more hired staff and surveillance equipment than a Bond villain base.
Ted goes from disbelieving to dissembling in very short order, pretending to be Ted -- on the grounds that if a New York bar is suddenly going to start being awesome, friendly, and full of free drinks, he's going to ride it right over the disbelieving laughter of his outspoken amigo.
The Improv Everywhere actors refer to his fictional breakup with his mythical girlfriend "Lauren" -- who then arrives! In no time at all, he's discussing what went wrong with their relationship, and whether he should get back together with her. Eventually the event ends, and he's left wondering if it's him or the entire world that's gone schizophrenic today (and not liking the odds).
2. Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce
In proof that pranking can make everything better, Improv Everywhere upgrades a Salvation Army street collector (something some people will go great lengths to avoid). A team of thirteen handbell ringers, actually the Christ Church Union Methodist Bell Choir, were dispatched to ring in the joys of the season for one and all.
There was less reaction from the original collector than you'd think, until you realize that a lifetime of being utterly invisible to the bulk of humanity have rendered him slower to react to external stimuli than most.
3. Random Wedding Reception
In the sweetest prank since Willy Wonka dipped a ton of sugar in sugar for a joke, Improv Everywhere provided a full wedding reception to two random knot-tiers leaving the City Clerk's office.
This prank was pure Disney, from the utterly improbable levels of happiness/kindness of strangers, to the divine coincidence that a job fair had left four white tents up in a public park which Improv Everywhere were able to extend the rental on. It's a wonderful demonstration that pranks should bring joy and happiness, spreading smiles and stories and stuff.
And this a story one couple will enjoy for the rest of their lives.
Luke McKinney is married, and has birthdays, and ignores Salvation Army bell-ringers, so he's technically a target for all three of these. He also writes for Cracked and J is for Jetpack.
Love it. You really captured the essence of IE: harmless pranks that leave everyone laughing (or, at the worst, confused). The fun of watching their stunts is not always the reaction from other people, but the fact that you're in on the joke.
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Their frozen Grand Central one is my favorite. The one where they showed up to the random Little league game would have also been a good choice for the list. Also the Mbius strip was really unique.
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