Practical joke device

A practical joke device is a manufactured prop or toy intended to confuse, frighten, or amuse individuals as a prank. Often, these objects are harmless facsimiles of disgusting or terrifying objects, such as vomit or spilled nail polish. In other instances, they are created as seemingly harmless items designed to humorously malfunction in such a way as to confuse or harm the target of a prank. The devices are frequently sold in magic or specialty shops, purchased over the Internet, or crafted for oneself. Perhaps the most notable such device is the Whoopee cushion.

Though commonly employed at events and gatherings, practical joke devices are sometimes seen in everyday life, either as a mechanism of play by children, or among adult co-workers in a work environment. In addition to commercially manufactured practical joke devices, everyday objects have been converted into joke devices by purveyors of pranks.

History

Historical accounts of practical joke devices date as far back as Xenophanes (570 - 480 BC), who wrote of such gags.

Gag

A gag is usually an item or device designed to prevent speech, often as a restraint device to stop the subject from calling for help and keep its wearer quiet. This is usually done by blocking the mouth, partially or completely, or attempting to prevent the tongue, lips, or jaw from moving in the normal patterns of speech. They are often less effective in reality than in crime fiction. They carry a strong risk of killing the victim by suffocation. The more "effective" a gag appears to be, the more hazardous it is: for example, duct tape is fairly effective but is hazardous if for some reason (e.g., the common cold) the subject cannot breathe freely through the nose.

The use of gags is commonly depicted in crime fiction, particularly in comics and novels. It is also often used in movies, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and its sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Very rarely, courts have been known to gag unruly defendants; Bobby Seale was the most famous case.

Occasionally a cloth over-the-mouth gag is used not to prevent speech but to keep dust and aerosols out of the lungs.

Gag (BDSM)

A gag is a device sometimes worn during sexual bondage and BDSM roleplay. Gags are usually associated with roleplays involving bondage, but that is not necessarily the case. The person who wears the gag is regarded as the submissive partner, while the one not wearing one is regarded as the dominant one.

People may wear gags for a variety of reasons. Some people derive erotic pleasure from a gag, either in a submissive or dominant role. When combined with other physical restraints, the wearing of a gag can increase the wearer's sense of helplessness and anxiety level within a BDSM scene, by depriving them of a means to influence the progress of a sexual activity through speech. Some people enjoy the feeling of surrendering the ability to speak to another person in an activity.

For some people, gags have connotations of punishment and control, and thus can be used as a form of humiliation. To some, wearing a gag without restraints is still an act of humiliation, as is an open mouth gag. Some fetishists are sexually aroused by the sound gagged people make when they try to speak, or by seeing a person drool uncontrollably.

Gag (medical device)

In the context of surgery or dental surgery, a gag is a device used to hold the patient's mouth open when working in the oral cavity, or to force the mouth open when it cannot open naturally because of forward dislocation of the jaw joint's intraarticular cartilage pad. Applications for medical gags include oral surgery and airway management. Gag designs, like other medical instrument designs, are often named after their inventors. Common examples of medical gags include the Jennings, Whitehead, and Hallam gags.

Uniregistry

Uniregistry is a Cayman Islands-based domain name registry that administers the generic top-level domains .audio, .auto, .blackfriday, .car, .cars, .christmas, .click, .diet, .flowers, .game, .gift, .guitars, .help, .hiphop, .hiv, .hosting, .juegos, .link, .lol, .mom, .photo, .pics, .property, .sexy, and .tattoo. In February 2012, the related company Uniregistrar Corporation became an ICANN-accredited registrar and launched under the licensed Uniregistry brand name in 2014.

History

Uniregistry Corporation was officially founded in 2012 by Frank Schilling, one of the largest private domain name portfolio owners in the world, and registered in the Cayman Islands. However, the domain Uniregistry.com was registered six years earlier and the company filed an intent to use the name in the Cayman Islands in 2010. Trademark applications for the "Uniregistry" mark and its stylized "U" logo were filed in 2012. That year, Schilling invested $60 million and applied for 54 new top-level domains. Uniregistrar Corporation became an ICANN-accredited registrar in February 2013. In January 2014, Uniregistry Inc. became a subsidiary in Newport Beach, California to house a West Coast service and support team. The registrar began operating under the licensed Uniregistry brand name in 2014. Uniregistry's registry infrastructure was designed by Internet Systems Consortium (ISC) and Uniregistry subsequently purchased its infrastructure in 2013.

Gift (Kanjani Eight EP)

"GIFT" is a triple-single released by the Japanese boyband Kanjani Eight—stylized Kanjani∞. The three singles are the band's 11th, 12th, and 13th singles. The songs were released during the Christmas period. Each single release, except "Green", contains two songs; Green has three songs. Each single has cover art reflecting the color theme of each single. GIFT was advertised as a gift from the group members to their fans. The three singles were sold at a special price of ¥888 and were a limited-press release.

The "GIFT" singles have seven Christmas-themed songs; some were written or composed by members of the group. Shota Yasuda designed the label for the single; Kanjani8 collectively photographed the backstage activities and provided creative ideas for the jacket design. Like the previous singles since "It's My Soul", member Tadayoshi Okura dresses as Santa Claus as the singles' joke for this release. He appears in the outfit on "Gift ~Green~", completing the group picture that spans the backs of all three singles.

Gift (Taproot album)

Gift is the first major label album by the rock group Taproot. It was released on June 27, 2000. "I" and "Again & Again" were minor Mainstream Rock singles. The album has sold at least 250,000 copies.

Music and lyrics

Described as a nu metal album, the album's lyrical topics are primarily about topics such as depression and disliking life. Taproot's vocalist Stephen Richards' vocals on the album Gift have been compared to vocalists such as Chino Moreno, Trent Reznor, Jonathan Davis and Mike Patton. The album consists of vocal styles such as singing, rapping, growling and screaming. The album features characteristics that have been compared to Tool, Incubus, Deftones, Glassjaw, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Outkast, P.O.D., Faith No More, Slipknot and Papa Roach.

Track listing

Notes