List of school pranks

A school prank—to be carefully distinguished from school bullying or assault—is a prank primarily occurring in a school setting. The effect and intent of school pranks may include everyday play and supposedly consensual bonding behaviour. Genuine pranks can involve elaborate planning and teamwork, and they are generally harmless to all concerned, since they will not involve property damage, bullying or physical harm to anyone. When the prank has run its course, the prankster is expected to restore matters to the status quo ante, i.e., the way things were before the prank took place.

If not checked, vigorous but usually inoffensive bonding behaviour, however, can easily progress into physically or psychologically abusive hazing “traditions” of military units and fraternities. While much hazing amounts to severe bullying, its more extreme forms, as well as physical abuse, assaults and sexual assaults, are overt crimes.

Common pranks

A practical joke or prank is a mischievous joke played on someone, typically causing embarrassment, confusion, or discomfort, and is generally lighthearted, reversible, and non-permanent. An extraordinary example of these relatively harmless pranks is the history of University of British Columbia engineering undergraduates, who regularly arrange stunts like suspending the body of a Volkswagen Beetle from major bridges in Vancouver and elsewhere. Often these so-called practical jokes are thoughtlessly mean-spirited or cruel and may harm the victim and engender a lack of empathy in the perpetrator. Attitude to specific jokes is not constant and jokes that were once thought amusing may no longer be seen as such.