We’ve all played pranks and have tried not to die of laughter afterward. Well, these pranks went south and some people died – for real.
Just last year, Nishanthan Gnanathas was on a riverboat cruise in Portugal with some friends. His pals decided it would be hilarious to push one of their number overboard. Nishanthan became the unwitting target.
Alas, when Nishanthan went overboard, he stuck his head off the side of the boat. After hitting the water, he never resurfaced.
This initiated a search for the body up and down the coast; Nishanthan’s remains were found some days later. The death was ruled accidental, and the family of the deceased opted not to press charges.
But the lesson is clear: before ‘praying’ someone, ask yourself, “Is this likely to result in death?” Death isn’t very amusing.
If you’re looking to put a new spin on the age-old bachelor party, don’t do what Gianni Catanzaro’s co-workers did. Instead of exotic dancers, tequila, and grown men crying in a hotel room, Gianni’s friends decided to break new ground.
The ‘party’ began when they showed their affection for their co-worker by punching him in the testicles. And it only went downhill from there.
After making it more difficult for Gianna ever to reproduce, his colleagues then celebrated his impending nuptials by stripping him to his underwear, duct-taping him to a fence, and throwing eggs at him. Then they poured gasoline around him and set it on fire.
Demonstrating considerable skill, Gianni worked himself free. Unfortunately, he fell into the fire and suffered burns.
Gianni had to postpone his wedding and honeymoon. To add insult to (literal) injury, he was also fired shortly after this incidence. What a great work environment that must have been.
This one is from Reddit:
“I changed my moms Internet Explorer icon on her laptop to a program with a command to open the browser, and then automatically type ‘I eat donkey balls’ every 8 seconds.
“I expected she would either 1) realize I’d done it, or 2) call me in to fix it. I had done it the night before, knowing she wouldn’t be turning her computer on until the morning, when I wouldn’t be around.
“She immediately drove to the store where she had purchased the laptop to see if they could fix it. They thought it was some kind of virus and tried get rid of it. They decided to reset to factory settings, which fixed it for a $40 service charge. She still thinks it was a virus.”
altruisticnarcissist
Another Reddit answer:
“Last April Fools Day, my buddy and I went to a department store and picked up a bunch of stuff that looked like a murder kit. Rope, duct tape, two hatchets, a shovel, a cooler, gloves, full body tarp suits, regular tarp, bleach, and cleaning fluids.
“Then we put our actor faces on. I put all the stuff on the conveyor belt while my friend stood behind me, arms crossed, stone cold stare and completely silent the entire time. Meanwhile, I acted very sheepish and afraid. I actually made my body shake nervously for extra effect. As the cashier is ringing up the items, I watch the puzzle pieces fit together in her head and a look of terror wash over her face.
“Her eyes widened, and after she rang everything through, it took her a good minute to say anything. We just sat there staring at each other. Finally, she asks “Will that be all?” With a crack in my voice, I say, “Y-yes maam. Then I quickly looked down, grabbing for my wallet. I pretended I forgot it in the car (we weren’t paying for all that stuff) and turned to ask my friend if I could go get it. He sighed angrily, raised his hand like he was about to hit me, which I want expecting. Then he got real close to me, and whispered gibberish in my ear. I began to fake panic and started saying, Im sorry, over and over again. Then we walked out and began to question our mental health
“We later found out the cashier had an anxiety attack and had to go home after we left. Apparently nobody could convince her it was just an April Fools joke. She said it seemed too real.”
SquirtisMayfield
In 2012, Randy Tenley decided to dress up like Bigfoot and go walking along the side of the road. He must have figured he would get a couple quick laughs freaking out passersby.
Sadly, two teenagers happened to drive by, and they were somewhat more startled by the sight of a Sasquatch than Mr. Tenley had anticipated. They decided to run the monster down with their car to be safe, killing Tenley in the process.
Paul Goobie isn’t going to win any prizes for “funniest practical joke.” But in the “most deranged” category… he’s in with a shot.
Somehow, Mr. Goobie managed to get hold of a dead chihuahua. (Let’s just hope the poor creature was dead when he found it.) He then decided to tie the dead dog to the number of one of his co-workers.
When this co-worker went to drive home at the end of the day, he did so with a dead chihuahua dragging behind him. It took him several miles to realize that something was wrong. Of course, other drivers were honking and gesticulating at him, but it so happened he was hard of hearing.
When he finally realized what he was towing, he called the police. The dead dog trail led back to Paul Goobie, who was arrested and charged with unlawful disposal of a dead animal.
Unlike most dentists, Dr. Robert Woo has a sense of humor. But it turns out that doesnt necessarily do anything for his bedside manner.
While doing some work on one of his staff (who was, presumably, unconscious at the time), Woo got a brilliant idea. He would attach pig tusks to his patient/employees teeth. He took pictures of the woman with tusks hanging out of her mouth while she was still under, and then shared them with the rest of his staff.
When the woman in question saw the pictures, she decided to sue Dr. Woo for $250,000. But the ending of the story isnt all bad for Woo. He ended up suing his insurance company for $750,000 (and winning!) after they refused to cover his unorthodox sense of humor.
A word to the wise, though, Doctor: its only a funny joke if both parties are awake when it happens. Now, if youll excuse me, I have to go wash a permanent marker penis off my forehead.
Saran wrap was virtually designed for pranks. It can cover almost anything, it clings, and its deeply annoying if you have to peel off a couple hundred layers of the stuff.
But, as this story makes clear, you have to be super careful what you wrap. It can cost someone their life.
Seth Stonerock and Derek Greenlee were noted practical jokers. They loved to film themselves pranking people and post the results on Facebook. But one day, they took it too far.
Stone rock and Greenly had gone to an intersection with a four-way stop. Then they wrapped one of the stop signs in saran wrap until it couldnt be seen.
Tragically, two elderly sisters drove through the invisible stop sign, were struck by an oncoming SUV, and died.
Stonerock, who admitted to being the one who actually saran wrapped the sign, served eight months in prison of a four year sentence.
On August 25, 2000, news broke that a company called Emulex Corp was under investigation for its financial practices, and that the CEO of the company had resigned.
As you might expect, the companys stock value imploded. That same day, the price plunged from $113 to $43 per share. Investors were furious. How could this happen without then catching so much as a whiff of trouble?
It turns out nothing had happened. Emulex wasnt under investigation, and the CEO was staying put.
The following week, a 23-year-old man named Mark Jakoba was arrested for leaking the story to the press. He had been working at a little-known internet media company, and had made $250,000 on the stock market after Emulexs stock price dropped.
18-year-old Premila Lal and her younger cousin were alone in their empty house – or so they thought. They house was about to be sold, and the two girls assumed they were the only ones around.
Eventually, they realized that a family friend and Premilas older brother were there, keeping an eye on the property. So the girls decided that they would hide in a closet, jump out, and frighten the two men.
When the friend and the brother heard noises coming from upstairs, they naturally assumed that there were intruders in the house.
Armed, the two men began searching the place room by room. When they got to the bedroom, Premila and her cousin jumped out of the closet, and the family friend opened fire, killing her.
Ron Zero was working the night shift as a security guard at a toy store. One night, he decided to entertain himself by dressing a Ken doll up in girls clothes, and putting him back in his original package.
Eventually, a mother-daughter duo discovered the cross-dressed Ken, and thought they had stumbled upon a unique specimen. The cashier tried to warn them that this wasnt a limited edition or anything, but they made the purchase anyway.
The idea that this cross-dressed Ken doll was some kind of valuable anomaly spread and spread. The mother and daughter were ultimately offered $4,000 by a collector.
Ron Zero intervened, however, and confessed that he had fiddled with the Ken doll himself on a lark. He was fired for the infraction.
Are you ready? Because this is a sad one.
11-year-old Tysen Benz was shocked and devastated when he read a number of posts on social media which seemed to indicate that his girlfriend, 13, had taken her own life.
Inconsolable, taking these posts very seriously, Tysen decided to join his girlfriend, and hanged himself in his room.
Its enough to make you think twice about the things you say in jest, and who you say them to.
When Joseph Tellini and Ian Walker graduated from high school, they wanted to pay all those teachers and administrators back for four years of education and fun. So they decided to bake a special batch of brownies just for the staff. Special being the key word.
The brownies were chock full of weedy goodness, and within hours, nineteen teachers had to be taken to the hospital. Tellini and Walker got off fairly light; they were sentenced to community service.
As for those poor teachers, well… They got one last end-of-year field trip.
Mark Drewes wasnt exactly breaking new ground with his prank of choice: ding-dong ditch. For you uptight folks, thats just randomly ringing someones doorbell – then running away.
However, when Drewes rang the doorbell of Jay Levin, he was messing with the wrong man. Levin assumed that Drewes was some kind of intruder rather than a bored kid, and shot him dead.
What would you do for a Klondike bar? Would you kill your family? – Family Guy
Dont worry, this story doesnt involve a guy killing his family for ice cream. But it does involve a pretty messed up attempt to win some Kanye West tickets.
As part of a dare to win tickets to one of Kanyes shows back in 2008, a woman called her husband live on the radio and told him their 9-year-old son was actually another mans child.
The prank backfired, however, when the man made a startling confession of his own. Ive been sleeping with your sister for the past year! he shouted. And he wasnt just pranking.
On top of all this humiliation and betrayal, they didnt even give the lady her hard-earned Kanye tickets. So, not a great day for her overall.
Another Reddit prank:
“A friend got in a prank war in nursing school. They decided to put a fake skeleton from their class lab into a girls bed while she was out one night. They hung out in the joint bathroom when they heard her come in expecting to hear her scream. She came in but no scream.
“After a few minutes they went into her room and turned on the light. She was lying in bed stroking the skeletons head with a strange look on her face. Turns out she had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of school a short time later.”
seeking-hope
When I was about 15, I wrote a really corny love letter to my middle-aged French teacher in terrible French and signed my friend’s name. The whole thing was ridiculous. It was a direct translation, so all the grammar was terrible and it had lines like, “I love you more than the desert misses the rain, my sweet. I snuck the letter into her bag, and then at the end of class, she grabbed my friend and told him to stay behind.
About 20 minutes of maniacal chuckling later, my friend came up to me with a confused, somewhat traumatized look on his face. It turns out that, without even mentioning the letter to him, the teacher had declared that she also had strong feelings for him. She explained how she couldn’t keep her eyes off him in class, had entertained fantasies about him, and had no idea that he felt the same way, but that their relationship could go no further. My friend just stared at her in stunned silence until she eventually signalled him to leave.
GenericPie
I don’t prank people that often, so mine is a little tame. But when I was in 7th grade, I pulled a chair out from under this girl I liked at the time. You know, the one where you’re like have a seat and then they go to sit down, totally expecting a chair to be there. But then you pull it away and it’s totally not there, so the person drops right to the ground? I thought it’d be funny, but she dropped pretty hard and ended up fracturing her tailbone. She never liked me back.
almosdef33
We had a super religious, slightly off-kilter kid in my Freshmen college dorm. Being such a “cool” kid, I had brought a jumbo box of condoms to impress the rest of my friends during the first week of school (I used all of one).
Because this kid thought all forms of birth control were evil, I thought it would be hilarious to put a condom filled with shampoo on his pillow. I told my buddy the idea, and then he actually did it. It was pretty funny; the kid ended up freaking out and yelling at everyone.
But a few weeks later, there were some unintended consequences. I came back from a party one night and didn’t want to sleep in my room because my roommate was also very odd. I crashed in the lobby and lay down on the couch. Suddenly I felt something move beneath me. I jumped up scared and realized in my drunkenness I had laid down on top of someone covered in a blanket.
Guess who was sleeping on another of the couches covered only in a towel (which I had initially mistaken for a blanket)? That’s right! Religious kid.
He had no idea I was involved, so he told me that ever since the condom on the pillow event, he had become paranoid and had been locking his room whenever he left it, even to shower. He forgot to bring his key that night so he was forced to crash on the couch in just a towel because his roommate was out of town.
I felt terrible. I got him some clothes and a blanket from my room and crashed with him in the lounge (on separate couches). After that, I went out of my way to make sure no one messed with him anymore because I realized he didn’t get that people were just joking, which made it bullying.
wuroh7
When I was in high school, a friend of mine decided to do a little prank to a teacher: he came to school in his pyjamas with his pillow under an arm, and waited until everyone was already in class. And then he rushed in the classroom yelling, “I’m sorry, I overslept today!”
Pretty simple and innoccuous, right?
Except that the teacher for some reason went white as a sheet when she saw him. Her eyes diluted, and she nearly fainted.
It turned out that some years ago, she had taught a kid with who one day actually came to class in his pyjamas, then threw himself out of the window.
So the prank was like a horrible flashback for her.
Sylbinor
This happened to my sister. Her close friend came out to her in high school as a joke for April Fools Day. Turns out, my sister thought he was really gay and congratulated him for coming out. She told him she supported him, and she knew all along that he was gay. Awkwardness ensued when he told her it was a joke.
pumper911
In military school, I put a bunch of foot powder in someones pillow case. The idea being that when he flopped down on his rack, it would plume out of the pillow.
It worked. The drill instructors became furious and cussed us all out until someone finally copped to it. I waited a while, and then I admitted what I had done. They thought I was lying just to take the hit, so we wouldn’t get cussed out anymore. I barley got in trouble, and they started thinking of me as a leader.
So I guess that prank ended up having unexpected positive repercussions.
[deleted]
In my senior year of high school, some kid decided to put a couple of hits of acid in one of the gym teachers’ water bottles, and proceeded to tell all of his friends.
The teacher realized something was wrong when he couldn’t control his laughter and ended up going to the hospital. The kid was immediately caught because everyone knew what he did. He was arrested, permanently expelled from school, and had some serious criminal charges filed against him.
Anonymous
In middle school, I convinced my English teacher to give us a surprise test. I provided the test and got everyone in the class in on it except for one friend. Everyone finished the “test” in under 5 mins while my friend sat there panicking.
The teacher was great and actually made him turn it in early because he was the last one, then went through them all and made fun of his answers. We waited another 20 minutes before telling him it was a joke. We’re not friends anymore.
shahdawg
I worked at a hotel and gave a bogus message to the head of sales to call a local funeral parlour and ask for ‘Myra Maines’ which she then eagerly did.
What I didn’t know was that she had been trying to actually set up an account with them to refer people to the hotel (out of town funeral attenders, etc).
They didn’t get the account and I don’t work there any more.
chunkstyle_mm
A friend of mine bought a fake engagement ring proposed and everything then said “April Fools!” to her. She broke up with him.
777dr
Randy Wood was divorced. As divorced people sometimes do, he had a desire to get his ex-wife’s goat. So, one day, he called her out of the blue and asked her to come over to his place. “I have something to show you,” he said cryptically.
When the former Mrs. Wood arrived, she found ‘something’ alright. Randy was hanging from a tree in the front yard, his neck in a noose, apparently dead of suicide.
Presumably in a panic, she dialled 911. Paramedics, police, and firefighters rushed to the scene. But when they went to cut him down, they discovered that he was wearing a harness. He hadn’t hanged himself; his weight had been supported the entire time.
Randy burst out laughing. What a wonderful scare he had given his ex.
But he didn’t laugh for long. The stunt landed him with a $1,000 fine and a year in jail.
In many parts of the world, it’s traditional to celebrate your last day of high school by carrying off a hilarious prank. That way, years later, you can sit by the fireside drinking mulled wine and regaling your great-grand children with stories of your youthful hijinks.
No doubt that was Tyell Morton’s plan on his last day of high school. In an ill-conceived attempt at humor, he decided to break into the school through the window of the girls’ change room, and leave a sex doll in the showers.
That way, when the girls went to wash up, they’d see a sex doll, and hilarity would ensue. Classic.
Unfortunately for Tyell, someone saw him squeezing his way in through the window wearing a hoodie and gloves, and toting a big black box. This witness leapt to the conclusion that Tyell was planting a bomb, and sounded the alarm.
One evacuation, one bomb squad search, and $8,000 of taxpayer money later, Tyell was apprehended and charged with mischief. He received a suspended sentence and community service.
The doll was released without charge.
This story comes from Reddit:
“Some friends and I went to throw water balloons at a girls birthday party, and I was the get-away driver.
“After we threw the balloons and soaked a few people, we ran back to my car. Some of the guys from the party caught up with us and jumped on my car as I was driving away. I sped up fast enough so they couldnt jump off.
“I was going to let them off at the end of the road, but one of them decided to jump off before I slowed down. I was probably going 25 mph when he leapt off the top of the car. He ended up slapping the back of his head on the asphalt and got a concussion. He was in the hospital for a few days and I went to visit him.
“He ended up losing his sense of taste and smell and to this day hasnt completely recovered.”
Lepus_californicus