Shay Bradley from Ireland died October 8, but at his funeral he came back to life. "Hello? Hello?" he said as his coffin was being lowered. "Let me out, it's fucking dark in here!" He goes on, knocking from within the coffin, and then serenading his friends and family. Apparently, Bradley had always loved pranks, and pulled this last one on the day of his funeral.

According to Mashable:

Bradley's daughter, Andrea Bradley, posted the video to Facebook...Kiernan said that Bradley was concerned about scaring the younger ones, so his grandchildren and his wife were in on the joke. "Everyone else was shocked when [they] first heard it," said Kiernan.

"Everyone else thought it was real and you could hear 'is that Shay is that Shay' but gradually as things went on people [realized] he had prerecorded and everyone (apart from the priest and woman beside him) were in hysterics," Kiernan told Mashable. "It was beautiful to hear his voice and it just made me happy as that was him, so funny and always making others laugh, he’s such a bright character, he would be loving this right now"

How Bradley died and the details in planning the prank weren't disclosed. Read the rest

On Saturday night in Auburn Hills, Michigan, someone hacked an electronic billboard on the I-75 highway to play a porn video. It ran for at least 30 minutes before police were able to get the billboard owner to shut it off. No word on who was behind the porn prank but that is definitely one way to deter speeding.

Video evidence below. And here's a NSFW tweet with more.

(WDIV Local 4)

So apparently someone was playing porn on a billboard off I-75............nice pic.twitter.com/HuwZkXiLmI

— Chris Robertson (@needaproject) September 30, 2019

Joshua Garnes of Huntington, West Virginia had an ongoing problem with porch pirates swiping boxes outside a house he's renovating. Read the rest

For this funny advertisement, CleanMyMac dressed up a fellow as a public pile of trash and when people dropped their litter on his back, he sprung up to surprise them.

Read the rest

On Sunday morning in Henrico County, Virginia, dozens of residents woke to find old TV sets dumped on their lawns. One person reviewed their home security footage and reported the following:

"It was a guy dressed in a jumpsuit with a TV for a head," said Adrian Garner. "It’s the weirdest thing. He squats down, puts the TV there and walks off. It’s really weird."

From NBC12:

“We have a team of officers out here working together, collecting the TVs. We’re upwards of 60 TVs so far," said Lt. Matt Pecka of Henrico Police Division.

Pecka says the culprits could face charges of littering on private property or illegal dumping, but some residents recognize the absurdity in the situation.

Read the rest

This 13-minute Vice documentary is about a fellow named Josh who made a fake meth lab in his house as a way to prank his friends. Josh also made a TV news station website that looked just like the real local news site (he cloned the website and bought a domain that looked legit) and ran a realistic video that showed his meth lab being busted and his mug shot. Then he posted the link to the video on Facebook.

The problem was, he did such a good job that his friends and family believed it and freaked out. The news station also threatened to sue him for $150,000. In the end, the lawsuit threat was dropped, but some of his friends and family members think that he may have gone a bit too far.

Image: YouTube/Vice Read the rest

Watch twins Niko and Marko Martinovic use their natural born prank powers for good. (LifeOfTwinz)

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While some who saw this variable message sign in Houston though it had been hacked, it's actually a roadside art installation by Brooklyn artist Justin Brice Guariglia. Read the rest

We knew it was a matter of time before someone tested Facebook's claim they won't remove so-called 'deepfakes,' aka convincingly real faked videos like that recently viral clip of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, edited to appear 'drunk'. Read the rest

My friend John Law is a legend of San Francisco's underground with an incredible resume of culture jamming brilliance. In the 1970s, he was an integral part of the Suicide Club, a Dadaist group of urban explorers and adventurers that eventually led to Law's co-founding of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man, and the Billboard Liberation Front. Over 40 years, he's also co-founded or contributed to Communiversity, Dark Passage/Ars Subterranea, Seafoam Palace LLC, SF Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, Survival Research Laboratories, SantaCon/flash mobs, Madagascar Institute, SEEMEN, Laughing Squid, and The Bronx Pipe Smoking Society. And he's still keeping the SF Bay Area's high weirdness torch burning even amidst the city's massive (and mostly unfortunate) transformation.

Starting tonight, celebrate John's contributions to the counterculture with SIGNMAN: John Law, a three-month long retrospective of Law's life of art (and art of living). The exhibition at Oakland's Pro Arts Gallery will include "rare documentation of events, pranks and explorations, neon art, and multi-media installations." Complementing the exhibit through the summer will be public programs that include lectures, film screenings, book signings, and, I would bet, some unexpected surprises.

SIGNMAN: John Law (Pro Arts Gallery)

(above photo: John Behrens)

Read the rest

On November 16, 2017, the crew of a Navy EA-18G Growler jet delighted sixth graders, launched a meme, and pissed off prudes everywhere by drawing a penis in the sky with their engine exhaust over the state of Washington. Their prank caused quite a stir in the Navy, even leading to an "official information dispatch" to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. It's still unknown how much trouble the pilots got themselves into but the Navy Times has just received a copy of the full report thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request. The cockpit transcripts are fantastic. From the Navy Times:

“You should totally try to draw a penis,” the (pilot's cockpit partner, an electronic warfare office [EWO]) advised.

“I could definitely draw one, that would be easy,” the pilot boasted. “I could basically draw a figure eight and turn around and come back. I’m gonna go down, grab some speed and hopefully get out of the contrail layer so they’re not connected to each other....”

“Balls are going to be a little lopsided,” the pilot advised.

“Balls are complete,” he reported moments later. “I just gotta navigate a little bit over here for the shaft.”

“Which way is the shaft going?” the EWO asked.

“The shaft will go to the left,” the pilot answered.

“It’s gonna be a wide shaft,” the EWO noted.

“I don’t wanna make it just like 3 balls,” the pilot said.

“Let’s do it,” the EWO said. “Oh, the head of that penis is going to be thick.”

German actress-model Palina Rojinski responded to the lewd and rude commenters on her Instagram by delivering a perfect prank. With help from German TV show Late Night Berlin, Rojinski turned the sexist creeps into the, er, butt of a joke. The image above that she posted brought out the usual male buffoonery but, as you can see below, all was not quite what it seemed.

View this post on Instagram

Danke Bernd, @damitdasklaas und @latenightberlin Wir hatten unseren Spaß! Ihr auch? Der ganze Prank #Busengate LINK IN BIO

A post shared by Palina Rojinski (@palinski) on Mar 26, 2019 at 12:06am PDT

(via PetaPixel) Read the rest

The “Baby Trump Balloon” was flown by activists to protest President Trump's proposed border wall, during the President's visit to the US-Mexico border to make the case for more racist policies against brown people. Read the rest

From Drayton Valley, Alberta, Canada comes this devilish prank. A woman noticed that her sister was selling a porcelain doll through Facebook's marketplace so she secretly bought it and sneaked it back into her sister's basement. She then lured her sister into the basement. "I thought that her reaction would be confusion," said the woman in the YouTube description, "but then she screamed and ran, scaring my daughter too. She did get really mad at me, but she does think it's funny now." Read the rest

Well played, IRLrosie! Read the rest

Students at Mackie Academy secondary school in Aberdeenshire, Scotland created a piece of high art on the playing field. While the act occurred last year, its documentation -- which was actually the real prank -- apparently lives on in Google Earth.

“I’m sure there is lots of penises drawn in lots of places around the school and many other schools across the country, but this really is impressive," said one former student.

(The Scottish Sun)

Of course, they weren't the first students to play this particular, er, long game. For example: "Suspected high school prank goes unnoticed by APS for years" Read the rest

Watch these poor jewelry shop clerks come close to a heart attack as they leap over counters chasing down customers who are running off with jewelry – except they aren't.

A viral prank in China, jewelry store "customers" try on expensive merch, then sprint towards the exit door. As the store employee chases after them, the prankster then casually stops in front of a display near the front door, as if that had always been their intention. Although not so nice, it's hard not to chuckle at how well the frantic employee transitions into an about face and casually walks away.

How did this prank start? According to Oddity Central:

The jewelry-stealing prank craze is believed to have been inspired by an Indonesian influencer’s shoplifting prank, which went viral in Asia last month. Harvinth Skin posted a video of himself trying out a pair of expensive sneakers at a sporting goods store and then pretending to run out wearing them, only to then sprint back, making it look like he was just trying them out. The shop assistant can be seen running after Skin, and then breathing a sigh of relief after realizing he never meant to make a run for it. Chinese pranksters just upped the stakes by essentially pulling off the same prank at jewelry stores.

You can see the Indonesian shoplifting prank at the end of this video. Read the rest