Author Topic: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers  (Read 5679 times)

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Offline IDEngineer

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #50 on: August 09, 2020, 09:49:35 pm »
Oh man, so many from which to choose.

#1: Back when hard drives were just being offered (only by third parties) for IBM PC's - yes, this was back in the early 80's - a coworker was relentlessly bragging to everyone about how awesome his system was going to be working and how fast it would compile his then-favorite language, Pascal. None of the rest of us were worthy, etc. It was finally too much for a room full of Engineers... a very dangerous situation in which to put oneself!

I recruited a couple of guys to work the sting. For the first one, I wrote a telephone script that had him impersonate an employee of the company shipping him the hard drive system. He got an outside line and called back through the switchboard so that our target's phone would give its distinctive "incoming outside call" ring. Partner #1 flawlessly convinced him that he worked for the drive subsystem company and then proceeded to tell him that all was well, his drive would be shipping soon, and that the only glitch was they'd discovered a minor incompatibility with just one application: Microsoft's Pascal compiler.  :)

I was watching the victim from across the room and his excitement when he first answered the call from his "vendor" turned to complete dead silence when the bomb was dropped. Then accomplice #1 went for the killshot, and told him that not to worry, THEY had a solution: Their own Pascal compiler which was 100% compatible with his new drive system and would only cost an extra $1K.  >:D

The victim hurredly ended the call. Accomplice #2's desk was right next to his, and while the victim did his best to hush the whole thing up it was quite natural that his neighbor would have heard the whole thing so he hammered him until he admitted what was going on. Naturally a crowd had gathered at this point, and once he told us that his precious drive system wasn't compatible with his existing Pascal compiler I blurted out "Man, your money's GONE". Everyone else snickered and honestly we pretty much destroyed this guy... he knew he's overbuilt his position and then to have the air let out of his balloon so publicly bordered on cruelty. But it didn't actually cross the line, so we enjoyed every minute of it!

To let him in on the ruse, we set the script for the call on his desk figuring that once he read that he'd know he'd been set up. Instead, he thanked his neighbor (accomplice #2) for the transcript of the call! He was so bamboozled that it didn't occur to him there was no way he could have known what was actually said on the other end of the call. Finally we explained the whole thing to him and after a sheepish moment of self reflection, he openly admitted he deserved it. He took it well and toned down his attitude from then on.


#2: I was working at a super small startup, just a handful of men and women, in cheap rental office space. A couple of women had the ladies' room all to themselves, while all of us guys shared the one men's room (which was a single toilet+sink affair). The exhaust fan was deafening, such that when you were inside you couldn't hear anything and so you'd mentally drift off with your own thoughts.

One of the technicians disappeared into the bathroom and settled in. The doors opened out, so we carefully and quietly removed the hinge pins from the door. We heard the toilet flush, the door handle rattled, and then the door simply fell forward from its top and crashed onto the floor in front of the bathroom. The guy was thunderstruck, frozen in time, as his brain tried to resolve what had just happened to him. Never mind that literally everyone on the other side of the door was laughing to the point of tears....


#3: Same technician, same bathroom. He'd been in there a while, and someone pointed it out to the rest of us. He'd been in there plenty long enough to get "mentally complacent". So we all gathered around the door and on a signal, we all pounded our fists repeated on the door for a few seconds. It must have been like a string of firecrackers going off right next to his head. There was a moment of silence, then he shouted "Thanks, it helped!"  :-DD


#4: Another technician, at a different company, assigned to keep our PC's running. I resented this because I didn't like people tweaking my (then-DOS) systems. But he insisted he needed to swap out the power supply on my perfectly working tower. OK, if you insist....  >:D

He left the tower in place under my work table, managed to get the cover off, and left the power on while he very slowly and very carefully reached toward the motherboard with DMM probes. He was being just a bit too careful, if you know what I mean, indicating that he was a bit nervous about whatever he thought he was doing.

He got one probe in place. Then, just as he touched the second probe to whatever point he was seeking - I clapped my hands once, as loudly as possible, and made a "BZZZZZZZZZT" sound.

The effect was astounding. The entire table lifted off the ground as his head jerked up and whacked the bottom of it. He dropped both probes within the case (which thankfully didn't touch anything important). Then he collapsed into a heap on the floor under the table.

I was on the floor with him, laughing so hard I could not stand up. He composed himself for a moment, and then admitted "OK, I had that coming".
 
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Offline aargee

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #51 on: August 10, 2020, 12:30:24 am »
I did hear that at the last of the Gemini (small cars) on GM Holden production plant here in Aus some disgruntled line worker stood on and crushed a drink can so it formed a circular disk, then proceeded to enclose it in the welded door frame.
When the car was delivered, they had all sorts of grief with the customer bringing the care back, every time you would stop or accelerate you would hear a "rrrr-clunk".
They eventually replaced the door and cut open the old one to find what the problem was.
Not easy, not hard, just need to be incentivised.
 

Offline Mr. Scram

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #52 on: August 10, 2020, 12:33:38 am »
I did hear that at the last of the Gemini (small cars) on GM Holden production plant here in Aus some disgruntled line worker stood on and crushed a drink can so it formed a circular disk, then proceeded to enclose it in the welded door frame.
When the car was delivered, they had all sorts of grief with the customer bringing the care back, every time you would stop or accelerate you would hear a "rrrr-clunk".
They eventually replaced the door and cut open the old one to find what the problem was.
That's the third variant of that story in this thread.  :-DD
 
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Offline eti

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #53 on: August 12, 2020, 12:21:29 am »
Imagine working with Dave  :) - I'd pay someone to layout a fake brochure, and then send off an order for a print run of "Solar roadways monthly", and then have them delivered to work, "FAO Dave L. Jones"  ;D
 

Offline IDEngineer

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #54 on: August 12, 2020, 01:32:22 am »
I remembered another one. Not at work, but still hilarious.

We have a close friend who manages the local "county fair", complete with the usual carnival rides area. She gives us a one-day all-access pass to the rides and we chaperone a squadron of 4-5 high school kids who are selected as the fair's "Teen Ambassadors" each year. I've loved amusement rides my whole life and still do, so it's a great deal for everyone. The rides are portable, they break down onto 1-2 tractor-trailers, and get freshly assembled and set up at each fair they visit (county fairs last 1-2 weeks on average).

The "carnies" who operate these rides range from super friendly to, um, not so much. We have to be polite to them no matter how they treat us, but it grates on you.

One year I was feeling particularly snarky so I came prepared. We finally encountered a carnie that deserved some pushback, so after we got off the ride I scattered a few old, used-looking nuts, washers, and cotter pins around the base of the ride. All carefully selected to be sizes you might find on a ride like that. Then we went off a short distance and waited.

The carnie loaded up the next wave of victims and got the ride going. Then he noticed the "spare parts" and absolutely freaked. You could tell he wasn't sure if he should slam the ride down, or slow it carefully, or what. The expressions panning across his face were priceless and very fast. Eventually he got the ride stopped and everyone unloaded. We walked away blue-faced from laughing. Probably the hardest those teenagers had ever laughed in their lives. I have no idea how long the ride was down while he inspected things. (I must repeat he was freaking out over extra parts, the ride and its passengers were perfectly safe the entire time.)

Funny thing is, I just saw this trick, perhaps 20 years later, in the movie "Ford vs. Ferrari". I don't know if it actually happened at Le Mans or if it's just a well known gag, but it was beautiful to see art imitate life.
« Last Edit: August 12, 2020, 01:34:36 am by IDEngineer »
 
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Offline BurningTantalum

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #55 on: August 12, 2020, 05:26:44 am »
In the late 80s I spent many months working in Shanghai. My mechanical colleague was called Johnny; he had a sun-tan, porn-star moustache, and a forest of chest hair setting off a gold medallion on a chain. For some reason that I could not determine the local workers did not like him at all, - I had worked in several countries with him and not had an issue before - behind his back they waved their little fingers downwards and called him 'shao ren' which is a fairly bad Chinese insult. I once caught one of them clowning an imitation of him in front of a crowd of hooting colleagues - he had a rice broom poking out of the top of his shirt and a cardboard porn-star moustache glued to his top lip.
Johnny's pride and joy was, or had been, a watch that he bought on one of our trips to Hong Kong, but recently it had been driving him mad running fast, then slow, then stopping altogether. One evening he said that the next time it gave him grief he would toss it out. At work he always took it off and placed it on a machine casting where he could see it, so the next day I said to him that if he disappeared behind the machinery I would let the operatives see me bash it about to see what their reaction was. He duly wandered off and I picked the watch up with my little finger and dangled it about, much to the amusement of the grinning workers. I then dropped it on the floor and stamped on it; their smiles froze slightly and they looked a bit nervous. I picked up the watch and put it on the casting then proceeded to bash seven bells out of it with a hammer. The workers backed slowly away clearly thinking the this 'Long Nose' had gone insane, then bang on cue Johnny sauntered round from the rear of the machine. At this point I departed from the script somewhat and quickly thrust the hammer into the hands of the nearest worker. He squeaked like a kid's toy as Johnny glared at him as I pointed to the shattered watch and the cowering worker. Quick as a flash, and before I could stop him, he wrenched off his own watch and placing it on the debris-covered casting proceeded to smash it to bits with the hammer. Johnny looked at me and said "That went 'orribly wrong, didn't it?" and we both burst out laughing, eventually holding onto each other for support. The workers just stared in amazement. Johnny and I went to find a company driver to take us down Nanjing Lu to the nearest jeweller's shop where we bought a pair of the best watches we could see. We presented one to the hapless worker. We were sure that none of them knew why I had smashed up Johnny's watch, why he wasn't angry with me, and why I had tried to frame the poor worker for the crime. After we finished the work our company received a communication from the import export corporation thanking us both for our diligent and skilful work, but adding that the workers did not always understand our cruel sense of humour.
BT
« Last Edit: August 12, 2020, 05:30:29 am by BurningTantalum »
 

Offline james_s

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #56 on: August 12, 2020, 06:00:15 am »
I almost forgot about this one. Back around 2004 I worked in an office that had a pair of sinks in the restroom with those sensors that turn the water on when you put your hands under them. The evening before April 1st I stayed a little later than usual until most of the guys had left for the day and I got under the counter and swapped the solenoids between the two sinks so if you put your hands under the left sink the right one would turn on and vice versa. The next day someone sent out an email to the whole team commenting that someone had turned washing your hands in the men's room into an aerobic activity. That night I waited again and quietly switched them back, nobody ever accused me and to this day I've never told any of them it was me. I still snicker when I think about it.
 

Offline james_s

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Re: Best pranks/stunts pulled on friends or co-workers
« Reply #57 on: August 12, 2020, 06:05:14 am »
One year I was feeling particularly snarky so I came prepared. We finally encountered a carnie that deserved some pushback, so after we got off the ride I scattered a few old, used-looking nuts, washers, and cotter pins around the base of the ride. All carefully selected to be sizes you might find on a ride like that. Then we went off a short distance and waited.

Hah!  :-DD That's genius! I don't know whether I wish I had thought of that when I was a kid or am glad I didn't!
 


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