Tag Archives: prank

University of Toronto Prank Club – Legendary Group/Legendary Event

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Language: English

Text

Informant: You may have heard this from (OTHER PERSON), but in some colleges and universities, there are groups that will do, like, prank things. At MIT its called, like, “Hacking,” but they are sort of just random prank things. U of T engineering has something, like, this… allegedly, it is called the “Brute Force Committee,” BFC. One of the main things, or I guess evidence you see of them on campus is there logo on a sticker in some very absurd places so, you know, in one of the engineering buildings there is like a big open area in the middle of the building and, you know, on the far side from the walkway, up multiple stories, you’ll see one of their stickers. And so clearly, somebody did something dangerous or did something funky to get a sticker. So there are some of those things. But, um, the bigger things are, of course, the actual pranks that they do. And a lot of them are, you know, pretty low-key little pop-up things. At one point one of the buildings in one of the hangout areas they had one of those mini basketball arcade game things, just like fun stuff. I’ll say one more thing and then I’ll tell the story for them. But during Frosh week again, one of the evenings we are out and about, and this is how we are introduced to them. I wish I remembered more of the details but there’s like this whole ceremony where we get walked around and get told some stories about their background and like U of T history and they gave us all candles and we all had to blow them all out. And the thing I remember most distinctly about this was we all had our masks on and we couldn’t blow the candles out.

Me: They did not plan ahead (laughter)

Informant: No. It didn’t work. But it was, like, you know, a very community building, interesting thing. But anyway, they do a bunch of random pranks, but the legendary one that I believe has happened twice in the last like 10 years is with our rivalry with Queen’s University which is with engineering… university in Canada, specifically the engineering people. One of their Frosh traditions is that they have this mud pit and then like a metal pole and they cover it in grease and the freshmen try to climb it…It has like a base obviously so it’s self standing, it’s very messy. But, the story is that we have stolen it a couple of times and basically ransomed it for, what I think the story is, is like some different like tasks, more than, you know, it’s all for fun in the end. But stealing this… pole thing… that is meant to be, like, a freshman event from this rival university. And I believe there are things they’ve stolen from us in the past, just, like, the engineering society people… like we have these little cannons, beer cannons too? It’s, like, a thing, I don’t entirely remember why. And I believe those have been stolen from us before so there’s a little bit of back and forth that I think has gone on with these things.

Context

The informant is from Seattle, Washington and studies engineering at the University of Toronto (called “U of T” by people in Canada). They heard this in 2021 in the week before classes (called “Frosh week”) where freshman are meant to get to know each other and also learn about the school and it’s traditions. This group is limited to just the engineers of U of T, other students at the university don’t have connections to it. The informant said they believe that BFC stole the pole twice but they are less sure about the cannon stealing by Queen’s College. They added that might have these beliefs because they think U of T is better than Queen’s College and therefore more likely to have actually achieved these pranks. The informant does say that the ritual associated with telling the story acted as community building for them.

Analysis

This legendary group and story work to bond new engineering students to both each other and their school. By hearing this story during Frosh week in a very ritualized way, they connect to the rest of the new students as well as students before them in the engineering program. They also feel a deeper connection to their school, first by hearing stories about the history and second by engaging in a rivalry with another school.

The story helps to define the role of the person hearing it. As an engineering student at U of T, the informant is meant to see this prank as a success and a win against another group, their rival university engineering program. By creating this rivalry, it helps to solidify where a new student exists. They are part of the U of T group, not the Queen’s College group. Belief in the story also helps to define the role. As the informant showed, they believe in a the part of the story that showed the superiority of U of T over their rival college. This was at least partially because of their connection to their own university where they feel like they can believe the legends from their group but not the ones from another.

Engaging in humorous but still technically illegal prank like stealing a pole that belongs to another university is a way for young adults to stay playful and childlike while in a rigorous and academic environment. Adding fun to their college experience allows them to relax after studying. Toeing the line of legality allows them to push the boundaries of the law and institutional rules while still being safe given the humorous aspect of the prank.

Other pranks described, such as putting a sticker somewhere that would be impossible to reach normally, act as a way of proving oneself by doing something impressive to others. That sticker is now impossible to reach by anyone and therefore impossible to take down. This makes it a lasting legacy of this person (possibly making them a legend within the committee itself).

BFC and the pranks described are a very modern legend in that there is some evidence for their existence both on Google (articles or descriptions of them) and physical proof of stickers or other active pranks. Despite the evidence for their existence however, it is very likely that these stories are exaggerated through retellings. This is even more likely given that they are about rivalries between colleges meaning that each student has incentive to exaggerate how good their school is.

Indian Wedding Ritual: Sisters Demanding Money

Context: The informant, AV, is an 18 year old student with parents who immigrated from India, specifically Gujarat. She’s been to multiple weddings in India, and observed this at her first cousin’s wedding. She remembers being somewhere around 5th grade-aged, and so she recounted what she remembered, with a general explanation. She doesn’t know if this is an Indian ritual or just a Gujarati one.

Text: AV said “When our cousin got married, he didn’t have any sisters, so me and my sister stood in front of his horse and didn’t let him through until he promised us money and silver chains. We were really young so I don’t remember it as well, but I remember it happening” and explained that essentially, when either your brother or a close cousin who has no sisters is getting married, you’re supposed to stop them from going into the wedding. They usually enter on a horse or in a car and they’re meant to walk into the venue, but before they can, you physically get in front of the horse/car, stop him, and tell him he’s not allowed to pass. He then is supposed to bargain, offering you money or gold or silver to let him pass. When it’s enough, you let him pass — usually now, it’s ritualized in the way that you push back like three times and on the second or third time you let them through.

Analysis: This ritual feels somewhat similar to the pranks traditionally played on couples during weddings, as a way of disrupting that liminality, except it’s specific to the groom and his side of the family. It’s a ritual for the groom to also leave the family; as the groom goes to the bride, the sisters will no longer be the most important women in his life, and they cede that position in a joking ritual that requires the groom to bribe them, proving how much he wants the bride. It’s a wedding ritual that rearranges the structure of the families that will be combining, and visually reorders the groom’s priorities. For the sisters, it’s also a form of letting their brother go, knowing that their relationships will fundamentally change, but disrupting that transition with this joking ritual.

R2D2 “Hack” at MIT

Text: In May 1999, MIT students pulled a prank that involved making a building resemble R2D2.

Minor Genre: Prank, Practical Joke

Context:

When the Phantom Menace opened in May of 1999, students on the MIT campus colored fabric panels to make a building resemble R2D2, a beloved droid from the Star Wars universe. According to L, who witnessed the building, “MIT is very proud of its prank culture.” Such pranks were common on campus and encouraged among students. They were dubbed “hacks” among those involved, and “hack culture” was widespread at MIT. Part of hack culture was to “do no damage,” which is a potential reason why the administration allowed for such a mischievous culture to thrive.

When the R2D2 “hack” took place, L described that “campus was buzzing. It was the kind of feeling like ‘it’s cool that I go to a school where people do stuff like this thing.’” The prank made national news because it happened at a time when “everyone was going crazy about the Phantom Menace.”

Analysis:

“Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People: The MIT Gallery of Hacks” is a website created by those involved in “hack culture” intended to document the history of pranks at MIT. The website describes the meaning of the word: “the word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and ‘ethical’ prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!).” (https://hacks.mit.edu/) Although hacks are not officially sanctioned by the university, the culture built on clever practical jokes has had a significant impact on broader MIT student culture.

The R2D2 hack described by my mother is officially catalogued on the MIT Gallery of Hacks as the “Great Droid.” It stood in place from May 17th through the 18th in 1999 on the Great Dome building. The “Great Droid” is a prime example of how pranks can utilize popular culture to inspire excitement and a sense of unity within a community. It also provides insight into the values of MIT as a whole; due to its overall high level of safety, the hack received praise from an MIT security officer and the administration initially declared they would allow it to remain in place for three days. The MIT “hack culture,” therefore, was based on intellectual and thorough planning to create large-scale, harmless pranks.

Secret Finger Jutsu

Text:

LP reports that in elementary and middle school it was popular to prank fellow classmates with the “secret finger jutsu,” typically learned from the anime, “Naruto.” This involves folding both hands together with the index and middle finger out, sneaking up behind someone, and stabbing their buttocks with the extended fingers.

Context:

LP is a college graduate who grew up in Beverly Hills, CA, attending the public schools in the area.

Here, LP was describing what pranks he would witness in elementary and middle school. He recalls that after one boy, who had watched “Naruto” and learned the behavior from the show, started doing it, the prank was adapted several other members of the group, even those who had not watched the show and did not know its origin. This was practiced exclusively by boys to other boys, LP reports. While he did not take part in the prank itself, he says that he was wary of situations where he might be vulnerable to those who do, especially climbing stairways.

Analysis:

The “secret finger jutsu” is directly linked to the influence of the anime, “Naruto,” meaning it comes from an official source. However, its implementation into the social dynamic of American school children was largely unstructured. Its spread and adoption by other members of the group underscores the rapid transmission of folk behaviors within a peer group and the pressure to be aware of these fluid changes. The gender specificity of this prank suggests certain expectations within this community about which behaviors are acceptable among boys and which may cross the line when it comes to girls. In accordance to Freud’s theory of repression and sublimation, boys in this peer group were using the shared humor learned by this TV program to act on aggressive urges in a way that simultaneously relieved them of said urges and affirmed their standing in the social order.

Joota Chupai – Shoe Stealing

Nationality: USA
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: California, USA
Performance Date: 2/21/23
Primary Language: English

ZN describes a prank/game that is commonly played at weddings in their culture. They are a second generation immigrant from Pakistan who lives in the Bay Area. Their family is Muslim.

ZN.) So, when a couple gets married – a bride and groom – the bride’s family, usually like the younger siblings or cousins of the bride, will steal the groom’s shoes and then they’ll go hide them somewhere and the groom’s family has to try and get the shoes, but they never do. And then the groom has to buy the shoes back from the bride’s family because they’re like, ‘oh you’re taking away or our sister or cousin,’ or whatever. It’s like, ‘we’re taking your shoes’ and then the groom is like, ‘I’ll pay you a lot of money for the shoes.’ So, then It’s like a huge, like, bargaining thing and the groom will be like, ‘Oh how about like $200’ and then the bride’s family will go like, ‘No we want $1000.’ The groom will be like, ‘No, but I’m broke. I won’t have any money to pay for my new wife’s food,’ and they’re like, ‘no give us more money.’ Anyway, so then they usually settle on, like, $500 or something, and then with our family, the entire family the of the bride will go to like Ihop after the wedding and we’ll spend it all on Ihop, like, pancakes and hot chocolate

Me.) Where do you usually see this? Is it your family specifically or have you seen any version of this at other weddings for the shoe stealing?

ZN.) I don’t know if it’s a South Asian, or maybe just Muslim Pakistani, thing but the shoe stealing is like a common thing.

This seems to be a practice of the game Joota Chupai, literally translating to ‘Shoe Hiding’. This wedding tradition is most often observed by Desi groups (south Asians) in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other surrounding countries. In this game the bride’s family will steal the groom’s shoes, which in Hindu culture, they must have to leave or enter the wedding venue. The groom’s family will try to find the shoes to get them back to the groom, usually to no avail, and then the bride’s family will demand money to return the shoes to the groom. This tradition allows the two families to have some fun during long wedding ceremonies and brings them closer together through competition. Even though the tradition seems to stem from Hinduism, it seems that Muslims from the surrounding regions picked up the tradition as well, showing cultural mixing within the area despite religious tensions. JK, another South Asian individual hailing from Gujarat, India had this to say about the game:

JK.) It’s played all over India. Everyone does it at weddings, so it’s not a Hindu or Muslim thing, it’s everyone.