Buzz
Ravi Kochhar
While most rebellious students stick to wrapping trees in toilet paper or making prank calls, these 11 legendary school pranks took creativity and audacity to unprecedented heights, cementing their place in the annals of mischief.
1. Lady Liberty Takes a Dip
In 1978, two University of Wisconsin students ran for student government under the humorous Pail and Shovel Party banner. Surprisingly, they won. True to their word, they aimed to fulfill their campaign promise of relocating the Statue of Liberty from New York to Lake Mendota near campus. Initially dismissed as a joke, their plan became reality when, one February day, Lady Liberty’s massive green head and glowing torch emerged from the frozen lake. The duo claimed a helicopter mishap caused the statue to crash through the ice, but the truth was even more ingenious: they had constructed the statue from wire, papier-mâché, and plywood, then carefully positioned it on the icy surface.
2. The Ultimate Card Stunt
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While no college offers a degree in pranks, the California Institute of Technology comes pretty close. Renowned for its ingeniously crafted pranks, Caltech’s 1961 Rose Bowl Hoax stands out as a masterpiece of mischief.
In 1961, the Caltech football team had no shot at playing in the prestigious Rose Bowl. Undeterred, a group of students hatched a plan to steal the spotlight. They discovered that the Washington Huskies cheerleaders had organized a halftime card stunt, where fans would hold up colored cards to display pro-Husky messages. During a visit to Disneyland the day before the game, a Caltech student swiped the master plan for the stunt and replaced it with their own clever version.
At halftime, the Washington fans began their card routine. The first 11 displays went as planned, but chaos ensued with the 12th stunt. Instead of the Huskies’ dog mascot, the cards revealed the unmistakable outline of Caltech’s beaver. The 13th stunt spelled “HUSKIES” backward, and the grand finale displayed massive letters across the stands—and on TV screens nationwide—proclaiming CALTECH.
3. A Parking Spot Like No Other
Erik Nygren
MIT, much like Caltech, is renowned for its bold and technically brilliant pranksters. Over the decades, students have adorned the 15-story Great Dome with everything from a fake cow and a piano to a small house and even a giant nipple. In 1994, they outdid themselves by parking a campus police car—complete with a dummy officer in the driver’s seat—on the dome’s curved roof. The team disassembled the car, used a roller system to transport the pieces up the building, reassembled it on the roof, and even got the car’s lights flashing. As a final touch, they issued a parking ticket, humorously noting the vehicle was in a no-parking zone.
4. Politicians as Animals
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While most college pranks have minor repercussions, a group of students in Sao Paolo, Brazil, made history in 1959 by getting a five-year-old rhinoceros named Cacareco elected to city council. The four-legged candidate won by a landslide, securing 100,000 votes—one of the highest tallies for a local candidate in Brazil’s history at the time. The students printed ballots with Cacareco’s name and convinced thousands of voters to cast them. “Better to elect a rhino than an ass,” one voter famously remarked.
After Cacareco’s victory, the zoo director where she resided demanded she receive a councilman’s salary. However, the election was annulled before any payments were made. Today, Cacareco’s legacy endures in the phrase “Voto Cacareco,” used in parts of Brazil to describe a protest vote.
5. The Fiery Underwear Prank
As the Olympic Torch approached the end of its 1,695-mile journey to Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, it had already endured numerous obstacles, from heavy rains to scorching heat that nearly overwhelmed the runners. But the most unexpected challenge occurred in Sydney. Champion runner Harry Dillon was set to deliver the torch to Mayor Pat Hills. As 30,000 spectators awaited Dillon’s arrival, a runner sprinted into the city, handed the torch to the mayor, and vanished. The mayor began his speech, only to be informed that the torch was a fake—crafted from a painted chair leg and a can filled with kerosene-soaked underwear.
The prankster, Barry Larkin, a University of Sydney student, had delivered the fake torch as part of a plan with eight classmates to mock the over-serious reverence for the Olympic tradition. The mayor took the joke in stride, and when the real torchbearer arrived moments later, the crowd erupted in applause. Larkin was later greeted with a standing ovation at his university and praised by the headmaster.
6. Outsmarting Captcha
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When your college mascot is a concrete brick named Wally the Wart, winning Victoria’s Secret’s “Pink Collegiate Collection” contest to feature Wally on stylish lingerie becomes a mission. That’s exactly what Harvey Mudd College students thought in 2009. The contest allowed only one vote per day, favoring larger schools, but its weak security gave tech-savvy pranksters an edge. A group of Mudders created a program to bypass CAPTCHA, casting a vote every 2-3 seconds. With fewer than 800 students, HMC surged to the top with over a million votes. The pranksters didn’t stop there—they manipulated the rankings so the second through fifth schools spelled “WIBSTR,” a dorm motto meaning “West Is Best, Screw the Rest.” HMC was disqualified, leaving Wally’s lingerie dreams unfulfilled.
7. The Ultimate Basketball Hoax
In 1972, Steve Noll and his friends at the College of William and Mary loved college basketball but despised the All America team selections by sports journalists. Frustrated that their star player, Mike Arizin, was overlooked, they created the Association of Collegiate Basketball Writers and invented the Leo G. Hershberger Award, named after a fictional New York sportswriter. They meticulously analyzed player stats, designed an official-looking certificate, and crafted stationery with the slogan “Serving the Sport.” After announcing the award to the Associated Press, it made headlines nationwide. The pranksters kept their secret for 40 years, revealing the hoax in 2013. Most winners were amused, and Arizin felt “sort of flattered.”
8. Tetris on a Grand Scale
Some pranks evoke laughter, while others inspire silent admiration. The massive, playable Tetris game that illuminated the 21-story Green Building at MIT in 2012 falls into the latter category. MIT pranksters had envisioned this “Holy Grail” of hacks since at least 1993. A dedicated team spent over four years preparing for the feat. They installed custom LED lights in 153 of the building’s windows, wirelessly connecting them to a podium where players controlled the game. This wasn’t for the faint-hearted: losing caused all the blocks to tumble to the bottom, visible to all of Boston across the Charles River.
9. The Unexpected Announcement
Aquinas College economics professor Stephan Barrows had a strict rule: if a student’s phone rang during class, it had to be answered on speakerphone. However, he didn’t anticipate prank calls. On April 1, 2014, students orchestrated a call to Taylor Nefcy during class. As per the rule, Nefcy put the call on speakerphone.
“Hi, this is Kevin from the Pregnancy Resource Center,” the caller announced, as Nefcy’s friends secretly recorded the moment. “As requested, I’m calling to let you know your test results are positive. Congratulations!”
Professor Barrows, who had been smiling moments earlier, suddenly grew uneasy and urged Nefcy to end the call. However, Nefcy allowed it to continue, and Kevin explained that since the father was “no longer involved,” the center would offer free counseling and maternity services.
Barrows tried to intervene, prompting Nefcy to politely tell the caller, “Thank you, I’ll call back later.” Barrows then began a heartfelt apology, but Nefcy cut him off, saying, “It’s okay, I’ve been expecting this call.” She added with a smile, “I already have a name picked out: April Fools.” The class erupted in laughter, and the video quickly went viral.
10. Veterans of Future Wars
In 1936, Congress passed a bill allowing World War I veterans to receive their bonuses early due to the Great Depression. With another war looming, two Princeton students formed the Veterans of Future Wars, demanding $1,000 payments for draft-eligible men. They argued that since they’d likely be drafted soon, they should get the money while they could still use it. The idea resonated, leading to 500 campus chapters nationwide. Their satirical salute—an outstretched arm, palm up, toward Washington—became iconic. Eleanor Roosevelt praised the prank as a “brilliant jab at hypocrisy,” but many veterans were unamused. VFW Commander James E. Van Zandt called them “cowards,” though he was proven wrong when the founders and most members served in World War II.
11. A Prank That Stopped Traffic
In 2006, students at Austin High School in Austin, Minnesota, devised a prank that exploited their school’s unique layout. A bustling street divides two campus buildings, and students can traverse it via a crosswalk or an underground tunnel. On the day of the prank, 94 students began crossing the street at a set time, using the crosswalk. They then looped back through the tunnel and repeated the process, creating an endless flow of pedestrians. Traffic came to a standstill for nearly 10 minutes as drivers waited for the students—including one dressed as a cow and another as a chicken—to finish their endless crossings.
