Informant:

“The year before us did a senior prank and it was great because it wasn’t actually a prank. So I guess somebody in that class had a 3D printer so they 3D printed a ton of these tiny 3D printed articulated slugs and they would just leave them everywhere. You’d constantly be finding these articulated slugs and snails and they were all over campus and it was so great. I was like, this is the best kind of prank because you didn’t have to harm anyone. It was just like, “Oh my god, a slug!”

Context:

A tradition for graduating seniors in America is to pull a senior prank on their school. In the days leading up to the last day of school, the graduating senior class will come together and act out their plan to prank the school. This particular high school pulled a harmless prank with 3d slugs.

Analysis:

Senior pranks can vary in execution. Sometimes the prank is to jump in the fountain, post post-it notes all over the principal’s office, or decorate a hallway with balloons and streamers. It’s one of the last hurrah’s for the graduates before leaving the school. Senior pranks act as a rite of passage for high school seniors. They’re done during the liminal space, or a waiting period, leading up to graduation. The students are close to becoming an alumni but not quite there yet. It’s a bridge between adolescence and early adulthood.