#tbt: Ivy League Pranks

Harvard's new History Tudor. Do the readings if you want to keep a-head. By Wikimedia Commons

Our 300th favorite day of the year, April Fool’s Day, just came and went. We hope your girlfriend isn’t actually pregnant. If she is, congratulations! It’ll be a January baby! Aside from the classic “I’m not rooming with you next year”—our roommates were totally kidding about that one—there have been many other pranks throughout H-Y-P history. We warn you: these Ivy Leaguers set a low bar.

1. On April 1, 1982, harried Comparative Literature students at Princeton were busy turning in their senior theses when three “mysterious” extra theses landed in Professor David Quint’s mailbox. The theses included "Strength and Wealth: Dostoyevsky's Bionic Hero," and "Six Million Ruble Man," by K. Brothers, Princeton class of '82. We can only hope that the actual theses turned in that day contained just as much bullshit.
Grade: Needs Review.

2. At Harvard in 1996, Jonathan E. Simpson '99 thought about pranking his roommates by setting their clocks one hour back, but then realized “it's too serious to miss class here at Harvard”. Someone lived in the age before lectures were taped. Jonathan, wherever you are, we hope that lecture 6 of your sophomore spring English class still comes in handy.
Grade: F.

3. In 2001, the Yale Daily News published a joke column entitled, “Confessions of an Jewish Asian Worshipper.” Replete with what some students defended as hilarious and “blatantly outrageous” statements like “Asian women are sluts,” and “Asian men are impotent,” we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and just chalk it up to racism.
Grade: F, please see the Ad Board.

4. 2002 was a slightly better year for Harvard. In a fake Yard Bulletin, freshmen “interested in history were told to contact Henry VIII, the department’s new Head Tudor.” Apparently, the Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 loved the prank. “I laughed. Everyone I showed it to laughed,” he said. We bet he showed it to no one. 
Grade: Unsat.

5. In 1992, freshmen received information that they could call a phone number in order to find out their Housing Day placements early. The calls were directed to the Harvard Crimson’s business office and were probably the only unsolicited calls ever received there. Although some were suspicious that the Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, was to blame, Lampoon Narthex Stephen G. Lookner '93 quashed such rumors. "I don't think it's funny. I think it's stupid,” said Lookner and everyone who has ever read The Lampoon Magazine.
Grade: A-, show yourself, prankster, and claim your prize.

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