With the recent premiere of the second “Jackass” movie and the word “punked” embraced as another word in the English language, pulling pranks has transformed from a practice into an art form. So it is no wonder that someone has written a how-to book informing others about the fine art of pranking.
John Austin’s book, “Prank University: The Ultimate Guide to College’s Greatest Tradition,” serves as a textbook of sorts for its fictional namesake college.
It showcases a collection of 100 different hilarious stunts to pull on unsuspecting friends. The jokes range from classics, like the doorbell ditch and house egging, to the impressively creative, Kool-Aid shower and baloney-covered automobile.
Austin glorifies pranksters as sly, cunning craftsmen and provides step-by-step instructions for even the most inexperienced pranksters. The college years are exalted as the prime time for pranks, and dorm rooms as the prime place. And when it is written by a former toy designer, it is guaranteed that fun is involved.
If there was ever a real “Prank University,” Ohio State sophomores Troy Wood and Joey Marinucci would be the perfect candidates to enroll. The 19-year-old students spent their first year in the dorms creating devious, yet harmless, plans to booby-trap their friends’ rooms.
“I just like the idea of doing ridiculous things to people unexpectedly,” said Marinucci, a political science major from. “It adds a random fun to life.”
One particular victim of the duo was Drew Lagergren, a 19-year-old sophomore biology major. While living in Bradley Hall her freshman year, Lagergren mistakenly left for her chemistry class with Wood and Marinucci still in her room, pretending to sleep. With access to an endless supply of free toilet paper provided by the dorm’s front desk, the pranksters covered the’ room from floor to ceiling. To top it off, the guys bought 500 sticky notes and stuck them all over her computer, desk and bed.
When Lagergren returned, she was shocked by what she had discovered. “Drew was just standing there staring at her room,” said Wood, an international studies major. “She knew it was us right away. It was probably the biggest waste of toilet paper ever, but it was definitely worth it.”
Wood and Marinucci did not stop there; in fact, they even tricked the same friend, just days later. This time, they upped the ante by utilizing Prank #24 in the book, “Dixie Surprise.” The prank has a difficulty rating of five, making it one of the hardest tricks listed in the book.
The two students took hundreds of miniature Dixie cups, placed them inches apart on Lagergren’s dorm room floor, and filled them with water. It became virtually impossible to walk anywhere in the room without knocking over the cups and spilling water everywhere. Author John Austin describes it as, “a horrible Dixie cup nightmare.”
Wood said that pranks can go too far. He is sure to prank only good friends and to use only lighthearted, fun stunts. “Drew is so insanely nice,” Wood said. “So she is the perfect person to prank. She thinks it’s hilarious and never gets mad.”
Another good person to prank, according to Wood, is Kory Flath, a junior in finance. One late night, when Flath had fallen asleep, Wood, along with about a dozen others, took a permanent marker and wrote all over Flath. Soon, his body looked like a graffiti-covered wall, or as the author labels it in Prank #100, “Strawberry Tattoos.”
Flath said he was branded with signatures from a ton of his friends, along with a few from people he did not even know. His friends drew beauty marks, a handlebar mustache, glasses, a soul patch, sideburns and countless other scribblings all over his body.
“They colored on my eyelids, toenails and fingernails,” Flath said. “They even made a Rolex watch on my wrist, which was funny because everyone kept asking me what time it was the next day.”
Flath was a good sport about it and even went to Chipotle the next day still coated with permanent marker ink. “Right when I walked in (to Chipotle) everyone there was busting out laughing,” he said. “The people couldn’t even serve my food they were laughing so hard.”
I wasn’t mad,” Flath said. “I thought it was funny. There was no physical harm, except when I had to scrub my eyelids.” Because it took three days for Flath to wash clean the markings, Wood said it was a very successful prank.
Marinucci said if there were a real “Prank University,” (and if it were free, of course), he would definitely consider joining. “I may have a leg up on the classes there,” he said. “But I have much more to learn. There is a subtleness to pranks that makes it funny or over the top.”
With all of their pranking success, perhaps Wood and Marinucci could join John Austin as professors of Prank University.
