Tag Archives: prank

Hand to face prank

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/13/12
Primary Language: English
Language: French

Something she learned as a kid, my informant remembers this piece of folklore from middle school. The way it works is someone says that if your hand is bigger than your face, you have cancer. Then, when you put your hand up to your face to check, they push your hand into your face. It’s painful and annoying and it makes my informant remember why she hated things like that when she was younger, tricks kids would make up to hurt others. Because the kid the prank is pulled on fails to realize they’re being tricked, it becomes almost acceptable to hurt them. The pain comes as a result of the person’s failure to realize it’s a trick. This is why many people accept it when they get hurt from a prank like this, versus if someone randomly just hit you in the face, in which case you might less readily let it go. My informant remembered being a kid and not differentiating between the two cases, though. When a peer did this to her, her response was to kick him in the leg. The prank is something she hasn’t forgotten because it serves as a reminder of that human desire to hurt others and be in positions of power over them, where it becomes acceptable to hurt them. My informant dislikes that quality of humanity but finds it interesting that it exists and that things children do often reflect it.

The prank also acts as a kind of initiation into the group of people who know it. Once it’s been done to you, like a college hazing ritual for example, you want to do it to the person who doesn’t know about to get revenge upon whoever did it to you. And once the prank’s been done to you once, it can’t be repeated unless you forget how it works. This makes it not seem as bad, since even if it hurts you, it also teaches you what it is so you feel like you gained some knowledge from the experience. Humans learn from pain, and this is an example of that. The prank’s existence also shows how children like to push limits to see what’s socially acceptable. Mature adults would be less likely to perform this prank because it is against social codes to malevolently trick someone like that.

Paper Stretcher

Nationality: Caucasion
Age: 40s
Occupation: Handyman (Formerly Printer)
Residence: Altadena, CA
Performance Date: Apr 14
Primary Language: English

The informant worked as a professional printer for over twenty years at several different shops in the Los Angeles area.

The Story:

Well, used to be, when I was printing, they, ya know, we’d get the new guys, and obviously, you know, we’d need to, to go get something or, ya know, we’d send them on errands here and there. And, uh, every once and a while, we’d we’d tell a guy to go get a paper stretcher. Ya know, and uh we’d tell ’em “Oh, ya know, go check the sheet-fed department for a paper stretcher.” And they’d take off and twenty minutes later, they come back. “Ah I can’t find it. I’m looking for it ya know, all over the place.” And ya know, sometimes the other department would send them to another department to go get it and, usually we’d see how long they would go with it. But uh, obviously, ya know, he got the clue after a while, after he, ya know, couldn’t find it that uh, there was no such thing. [chuckles] And uh, paper does a lot of stuff but it doesn’t stretch.

The prank was fairly common at all of the shops the informant worked at.
They pulled the prank on new workers because “The older guys, they knew what was up.”

This is a perfect example of occupational folklore, and a liminal phase prank. It is assumed that once you can’t be fooled by the prank, you know what paper is capable of, therefore making you an experienced printer.

Cornell Halloween Legend

Nationality: American, Polish, Russian, a little bit of French
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ithaca, New York
Performance Date: March 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: None

“So, um, there’s a legend that, and I’m pretty sure it’s true, that one time on Halloween, the Engineers, it might not actually be the Engineers, I don’t know who did it, but I think it’s the Engineers because they’re the only ones smart enough to actually do something like this… one Halloween, they got a huge pumpkin on the top of the clock tower and no one really knows how they did it because the clock tower is pointy and really tall and has one hundred and sixty-one stairs. And so now, every year for Halloween, as tribute to that, Cornell lights the face of the clock tower orange and makes it look like a jack o’lantern… like makes a jack o’lantern face in it. I’ve heard the story from Orientation Leaders. I don’t remember if they said it was Engineers, but I think it is.”

 

The informant was very adamant that the group of students who supposedly pulled off this prank consisted of Engineers. Her tone was very insistent. This makes sense because she is an Engineering student. Her version of the legend reflects how highly she thinks of her own major at Cornell. It’s interesting how the school has turned this prank (or legend of a prank) into a folk tradition by lighting up the clock tower every year to look like a jack o’lantern. The school seems to greatly value the prank or (legend of the prank) and thus feels the need to keep this story alive through this annual, symbolic practice.

 

Rite of Passage

Nationality: Irish, English
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Boston, MA
Primary Language: English

“Since it was our senior year we decided that we had to do a really memorable senior prank.  We knew that we could get in big trouble, but some of my friends were going to community college and didn’t care if they got caught.  So, we decided to prank the deans because we wanted to get revenge against them for all the detentions we had gotten over the past four years, and decided to glue the door to their office shut and trap them inside.  We picked a day when we knew the deans were going to be going through a lot of paper work and would be in the back of the office, and we had people stand guard to distract any teachers that might walk by.  Then, three people in the group wore sunglasses and put their hoods on (so they couldn’t be recognized) and really quietly opened the door and started putting glue around the entire frame.  Then they shut it and put more glue to seal the crack between the door and the wall.  We brought a blow dryer so we could try and make the glue dry faster, but we put it on a lower setting so it wouldn’t make so much noise.  Then we waited a couple hours for the deans to try to leave for the day, and when they tried to open the door it was completely stuck shut.  They had to call a repair company to come and saw the door off so they could get out!”

Analysis: Laura was one of many high school seniors that tried to play a senior prank before graduation.  It is a rite of passage traditionally done by seniors during their last days at school, and it is often a chance to one-up the seniors of the previous year. Many seniors are discouraged from playing a prank because they might be prevented from receiving their diploma or walking on graduation day if they are caught.  For Laura and her friends, however, the risk of getting caught was not as big because many in the group were going to community colleges that would not revoke their acceptances if the students got in trouble.

Usually senior pranks are aimed at teachers or at underclassmen and are a way for seniors to demonstrate their superiority as a graduating class.  Laura said that after the school found out about the prank, everyone said it was probably the best prank done in the history of the school.  She and her friends became small celebrities among the people that knew the identity of the pranksters.  Unfortunately, that news spread quickly and Laura said that within a few days she and her friends were called into the deans’ office.  They confessed but offered to pay for any damages.  Although the deans threatened to prevent them from participating in the graduation ceremony, Laura said she and her friends only had to help clean up the lockers at the end of the year.  She said that the risk of getting in trouble was worth it because they had such a legendary prank.

When I talked with Laura about the primary influences on her decision to participate in the senior prank, I thought that she would mention her two older brothers.  Both of them were involved in senior pranks, and it seemed likely that Laura would want to follow in their footsteps.  However, Laura said that she did not think about her brothers so much as the senior class that graduated before her.  She said that they their prank was pretty good so she wanted to try and top theirs.  This seems to show that rites of passage, such as a senior prank, are more connected to institutions they are associated with than with family members.  Regardless of whether her brothers would have done a senior prank, Laura knew she wanted to be involved because it was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

The context in which the prank takes place also helps explain why it is such a significant event. For instance, on a normal day, pulling a prank may get a few laughs but is probably looked down upon by others as stupid and a waste of time.  However, in the context of the situation, the prank is not only accepted by the student body, but expected and looked forward to.  It is a rare occasion when the seniors are united together for the goal of common mischief before everyone leaves for college.  Thus, even though Laura was not known as a trouble-maker, the senior prank was a rite of passage worth getting in trouble for because the chance would not happen again.

The senior prank is a rite of passage that has become so popular that it has even had movies and television shows depicting it.  For instance, MTV ran a special countdown of the “Top Ten Best High School Senior Pranks” and conducted interviews with administrators and students from each school to hear their opinions of the success of the pranks.  Though the pranks ranged from the silly, (releasing 1000 bouncy balls down a flight of stairs), to the incredible, (using a crane to hide the principal’s car on the auditorium roof), almost all the students agreed that the senior prank was an essential part of graduating from high school, and was almost as important as receiving their diploma.  Despite the seemingly immature nature of a prank, the senior prank serves as a transition between the childish realm of high school and the more mature world of college.  Therefore, the senior prank is also one last time for the seniors to be foolish before it is no longer acceptable.

At my high school, my senior class was not unified enough to create a good senior prank.  A few different groups tried to prank the freshmen, but nothing was very successful.  The senior class before us did not do a good prank either, which may explain why our class was unable to perform very well.  It was disappointing because I have heard from friends at other schools about their senior pranks, and I feel like I missed out on a special part of the graduation experience.

Joke – Los Angeles, California

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Washington, D.C.
Performance Date: April 27, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Blue Moon Café Joke

There’s this guy, okay, and he’s really stressed out, like really really stressed out, like imagine the most stressed out you’ve ever been in your whole life.  You, you have it, in your mind?  Think like that time a billion wrapped up in a nice ice cube of stressed outness.  So umm, allright, so, he decides he’s going to take a vacae, decides he’s going to go to the Bahamas and get all vacaed up and have a nice vacae, okay, vaca-tion.  So, he goes to his boss first, he’s like hey, boss-man, what’s up dog?! Listen, here’s the dealio, I’m going to take a vacae umm I don’t care what you think, so give me the days off.  And the boss is like okay, dude whatever, where are you going?  And the guys like, I’m going to the Bahamas!  And the boss is like oh, the Bahamas are great, but listen, whe..whe..when you’re in the Bahamas, the one thing you must never ever ever ever do is go to the Blue Moon Café.  Dun dun dun.  So he’s like okay whatever, whatever, he goes home to his wife, he’s like hey, wifey-baby what’s shakin’ bacon, listen, here’s the dealio, I’m going to take a vacae, without you, umm, I think I need some alone time, some me time.  The wife is like okay, umm, where you going to go, honey bunny?  And, and the guy’s like umm you know I was thinking I’m going to go to the Bahamas.  And his wife’s like oh, the Bahamas, it would be fun to go there, oh, but listen though, listen, honey, when you go there, you got to promise me something, and I mean it, you can’t go to the Blue Moon Café.  He’s like okay whatever.  So he goes to, he’s like, you know what, when I get back from the Bahamas, I’m gonna be like thin and tan, from eating like umm chipmunks there, I dunno, there’s a weird diet and stuff there, so umm I’m gonna need a new suit!  So he goes to his local tailor, Mr. Sketchypants, and he’s like hey, Mr. Sketchypants, listen I need a new suit.  And the tailor’s like ohh that’s good, what do you need a new suit for?  And umm, and he’s like uhh I need it cause I’m going to the Bahamas!  And the tailor’s like ohhh the Bahamas!  I love zee Bahamas, but listen dude, the one thing you must never ever do when you go to the Bahamas is go to the Blue Moon Café.  You can’t do it.  So uh, so he, so he’s like okay, whatever dude, all right you guys this is kinda freaky in the leaky, insane in the membrane, but okay.

So he gets on the plane, he’s flying over the deep blue sea, he’s watching the stewardess, do this, you know like the mask, and let the little fucker fend for himself kinda dealio, umm, and umm while, he’s in the plane, suddenly, every hotel in the Bahamas burns to the ground, like what are the fucking odds, like, what are the odds?  You are more likely to get hit by lightning forty-nine times in a row than for this to happen, it’s, it’s freaking unbelievable, okay.  So he gets out of the plane, get’s out of the plane and lets laid by a couple of natives, they put leis on him.  And uhh, he’s looking for a place to stay and there isn’t one because they’re all like smoldering ruins, looking like freaking place that was burnt, Hiroshima, Hiroshima was bombed, can I not, is it too soon to use that?  The Lincoln assassination only just recently became funny, okay, umm, I need to see this play like I need a hole in my head…okay, so, um so he’s looking for a place to stay, suddenly, he see’s like this red walkway and this like silver awning and a beam of light, like a big ol’ beam of light shines down from the clouds and you hear the angels going ahhhh, and you see the words Blue Moon Café.  So, umm, he’s like, you know what, doesn’t look that bad, I’ll stay here for a couple nights, see if like the room service sucks, I’ll just, you know, get up and bounce.  He stays there for two weeks, he loves it.  Imagine the best place you’ve ever stayed in your life.  What’s the best place you’ve ever stayed in your life?  Cabo (audience answer).  Really?  Cabo was nothing on the Blue Moon Café.  The Blue Moon Café was like twenty times Cabo, fifty-nine times Cabo.

Um, okay so, he gets home, he flies back home, he first goes to his boss and he’s like hey boss-man, look I’m all tan, I’m wearing the little conch shells around my neck and I’m back!  The boss is like oh dude, they do the little handshake thingy, and then he’s like um hey dude, how was the Bahamas?  And the guy was like oh you know the Bahamas were great but you know what’s weird is I stayed at the Blue Moon Café and it wasn’t that bad.  And the boss was like WHAT?!  You stayed at the Blue Moon Café!?  You’re fired!  And he throws him, like throws him out of the office, like physically, like he throws him.  So um the guys like [whimper], his hair’s all messed up and weird, so he he he goes home to his wife and he’s like wifey-baby I’m back but I just got fired cause I went to the Blue Moon Café.  His wife was like what, you went to the Blue Moon Café, I’m divorcing you!  She had the papers, she makes him sign them, right there.  She burns all his clothes, including the ones on his body.  He’s now wandering the streets naked, wifeless, jobless, burnt, very burnt so he’s like [distressed noise].  So he goes to see his tailor, to get the suit that he ordered before.  He’s like tailor, please, Mr. Sketchypants, please give me the suit because I went to the Blue Moon Café and everyone’s mad at me.  And the tailor’s like what, you went to the Blue Moon freaking Café, what the bloody hell is wrong with you?!  Um, and he rips up the suit and is like I’m charging you for that too!  And throws him out of the thing.

So um now he’s like wandering the streets a broken wreck of a shell of a horrible cadaver of a man and um he uh decides to seek enlightenment, ding.  So he goes to his local priest, Father Billy Bob.  He’s like, forgive me father, for I have sinned, but I don’t know what I did wrong, and the father’s like uhh all right all right.  He’s like I don’t know what I did wrong, I went to the Blue Moon Café, everyone’s mad at me, what did I do wrong?  And the priest’s is like, if I were not, a man of God, I would Kevorkian your ass right on this spot and uh and he excommunicates him the guy, like throws some holy water on him and throws him out of the room.  He goes through a Jewish rabbi, a Hindu guy, and uh he’s searching for someone who will tell him the answer to this age old question why is everyone mad at him for going to the Blue Moon Café?

So finally, he hears tales of this one monk on top of Mount Kilimanfufu, and the monk will tell him the answer to any question he has in the universe.  This is just a well known fact, this monk is like ask Jeeves, only like times a billion.  So, he climbs up, like it takes him ten days and three hours and twenty-nine minutes and two seconds, and he gets to the top and he kneels down before the monk, he’s like please God, I’m gonna kill myself if you don’t tell me what’s wrong with the Blue Moon Café, his voice is all kinda cracking and weird.  So the monks like okay, I’ll tell you, but first I have to purify my soul for what I’m about to impart upon you.  So they row out in the middle of this big lake, this big lake, um, beautiful blue waters, limpid, like a baby’s eyes and um and and and and the monk prays for ten hours and finally, he stands up in the boat and he says the reason why everyone is mad at you for going to the Blue Moon Café is—and suddenly, this huge wave comes and knocks the monk overboard, and the moral of the story is don’t stand up in boats.

The informant likes to tell this joke as entertainment when people are bored.  It takes about a full ten minutes to perform and is packed full of crazy hand gestures and movement.  It has become a full blown performance for the informant.  She says people typically have an angry and annoyed reaction to the punch line of the joke.

I have included a video recording of this joke with my release forms.  I like this joke because it plays off of audience anticipation.  The performer tells the joke, as if she were dangling a carrot in front of our faces, we just want to know why the Blue Moon Café is so horrible a place to have gone to, but we never find out.  We continue to listen to the joke because of human curiosity.  I also enjoy the terminology used in the joke, “what’s up dawg, or dealio” for example.  This added terminology is probably one form of variation in the joke, as these greetings are often used in modern days with younger crowds.  Groups of people with different communication or greeting styles would probably change the joke to match their group.  I also find the reference to Ask Jeeves interesting; it assumes that we have knowledge of websites and shows modern pop culture’s influence on our folklore.