'I'm 45 and I still haven't forgotten': Out of pocket pranks that crossed the line

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jun 6, 2024 3:00 PM EDT

"It's just a prank bro" is a phrase usually only uttered by neer-do-wells, meanies, and numbskulls. If you have to say it's a prank (in a defensive tone), then you have failed in your job as a prankster. The best pranks are lighthearted and make the person laugh in the end. One of the best examples of this is the old fake present prank. You wrap a small gift in a huge box, with layers and layers of tape and paper that they have to get through. It plays with expectations, it's funny to watch someone be momentarily frustrated, and then they get a gift in the end. Everyone wins. 

That prank philosophy was not in mind in these out-of-pocket pranks. No, these went too far. A prank is no longer a prank if someone won't talk to you after it's over. But they are pretty fun to read about after the fact…

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  • 01
    "They gave me clown makeup"
    via Giorgio Trovato
  • 02
    Posted by u/pau665 17 hours ago What's the worst "prank" someone has ever done to you?
    via u/pau665
  • 03
    sweet_girlfriend. 17 hr. ago A girl wrote an elaborate letter pretending to be another girl in class and handed it to me. I was shocked to receive my first love letter and felt like garbage when I found out it was fake.
    via u/sweet_girlfriend
  • 04
    Creative Recover 16 hr. ago At school someone prank dated me once because apparently it would be hilarious to date a loser like me. What made it even worse was that they were someone I had something of a crush on (after that though? Not anymore).
    via u/Creative_Recover
  • 05
    Dear_Yesterday_ · 16 hr. ago Hate to answer this, but... My ex and I were expecting. I was young at the time and subsequently a bit naive.
    via u/Dear_Yesterday_
  • 06
    It was a few weeks from my due date and it was also about to be my birthday. We were sitting at the dinner table eating and he pulls out, what looks to be, a jewelry box. It looked a lot like an engagement ring box. I was speechless and could
    via u/Dear_Yesterday_
  • 07
    hardly breathe. This could have had a lot to do with the fact that I was 8 months pregnant... He gets out of his chair and onto one knee, smiling at me...he could barely do that for 3 seconds before he started laughing.
    via u/Dear_Yesterday_
  • 08
    Opens the box quickly pulling out, a VERY nice bracelet with a thoughtful charm of a bunny (Chinese zodiac) with my son's supposed to be birth stone (which I later learned was picked out by his mother). He tosses the bracelet carelessly on the table. laughing and says, "I'm just with you. I'd never marry you."
    via u/Dear_Yesterday_
  • 09
    I still haven't gotten over it 12 years later.
    via u/Dear_Yesterday_
  • 10
    • supersonic124 · 17 hr. ago A friend of a friend back in high school had this boyfriend who pulled the cruelest prank ever. He pretended he had died, had one of his friends call her and say he was in a car accident, and even got someone else to act
    via u/supersonic124
  • 11
    like a doctor from the hospital. She was absolutely hysterical, trying to find out which hospital he was at so she could go there. Later, she found out it was all just a prank to "see if she cared." It was awful. Needless to say, they broke up. Still, to this day, it's the nastiest prank I've ever seen in person.
    via u/supersonic124
  • 12
    OkWar7064 16 hr. ago. • This isn't as cruel or horrible as most of the pranks people have listed here but I got gifted a fake lottery ticket at a Christmas party a couple years ago that made me believe I had just won 50k. As someone with awful financial struggles, it wasn't a very funny prank to me
    via u/OkWar7064
  • 13
    socksnchachachas. 15 hr. ago When I was in elementary school, around 11 years old or so, I had one of the leads in a school play being put on to celebrate my school's centennial. While it was "just" a school play, there was added interest because of the celebration, and so there were more people attending, including folks from the local news station. It was a big deal for a small town.
    via u/socksnchachachas
  • 14
    Some of the girls in my class, who were what passed for my friends at the time, offered to do my hair and makeup for the opening night performance. Being eager to finally be accepted by my peers, I agreed. This was the '80s, when big, poofy teased hair was in style.
    via u/socksnchachachas
  • 15
    They gave me clown makeup. Like, not literally clownish, but ridiculous and over the top, especially on a child. And they teased my (long and curly) hair into a massive, hair-sprayed bird's nest. And I, not knowing any better and stupidly trusting my "friends," went out on stage like that. I looked ridiculous. There was no pretending otherwise.
    via u/socksnchachachas
  • 16
    I'm 45 and I still haven't forgotten.
    via u/socksnchachachas
  • 17
    JoeBourgeois 15 hr. ago Tossed firecrackers into the dorm bathroom while I was in there. Lost about 20% of the hearing in my left ear.
    via u/JoeBourgeois
  • 18
    randomwatts · 15 hr. ago In middle school, a group of girls brought a box of Miracle Grow and handed to me on the bus and made a show of it for everyone to see. Obvious joke at my expense for being short.
    via u/randomwatts
  • 19
    bluephotoshop 16 hr. ago I must have been 12 years old. My friends and I went trick/or/treating on Halloween. After a few hours, my paper bag was full. Then a bigger guy ripped it out of my hands. and ran off with it. I almost cried.
    via u/bluephotoshop
  • 20
    Slightball 12 hr. ago In high school, two classmates covered my white car in with flour in the middle of the night. It lightly rained that night and then the four dried like cement. I found rock hard flour on my car for years after that.
    via u/Slightball

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