I'm all for anything that makes shopping more entertaining. Read the rest

Animal handlers in Australia played a fabulous prank on a Scottish reporter visiting to cover the bush fires there: a meeting with a terrifying, dangerous drop bear.

""F*ckin' Aussies!" - Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park tricks Scottish reporter into handling dangerous 'drop bear'.

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The Good Liars -- the comedy duo of Davram Stiefler and Jason Selvig -- redecorated a Brooklyn armed forces recruiting center with posters featuring Donald Trump Jr and the slogan, "I'm not enlisting but you should" with the strapline, "There's weak, and then there's Trump weak." Read the rest

Last week, we posted about pigeons wearing cowboy hats in the Las Vegas Valley. Pigeon rescue group Lofty Hopes reports that they've finally trapped one of the animals, named Cluck Norris. The hats appear to be glued on the pigeons' heads. Lofty Hopes are still seeking a pink-hatted bird they've nicknamed Coo-lamity Jane.

Nobody has yet identified the birdbrain who put the hats on the pigeons.

(8 News Now) Read the rest

In Prescott Valley, Arizona, David Keller was annoyed by the number of people he believes are falsely registering their pets as service animals so they can take them anywhere they want. So he visited a site called USAServiceDogRegistration.com and registered a hive of bees as his service animals. Of course, as service dog trainer Jaymie Cardin told AZFamily, these sites "don't mean anything. You can go pay for a registry on one of those web sites, and basically, you're just paying for a piece of paper and to put a name on a list."

From ADA.gov:

There are individuals and organizations that sell service animal certification or registration documents online. These documents do not convey any rights under the ADA and the Department of Justice does not recognize them as proof...

Also, Federal Law states that only dogs and miniature horses can be officially recognized as service animals.

In any case, Keller called his prank a success due to the, er, buzz it generated. "(These sites) are making people believe all animals are service animals when they're not," Keller said. "And there's a clear difference."

image: "Western honey bee" by Andreas Trepte (CC BY-SA 2.5) Read the rest

On Monday, Manatee County, Florida students were evacuated from a school bus after someone sprayed too much Axe body spray. WFTS reports that "according to school officials, the bus carrying Buffalo Creek Middle School students had to remove students off the bus because of the strong odor."

And from the Parrish Fire District's Facebook page:

Early this evening our District along with MCEMS responded to a reported hazardous materials incident on board a Manatee County School Bus. Crews arrived on scene to find fifteen students with mild respiratory irritation. All students were triaged and prioritized according to their initial complaint. It was a unified command decision to call out secondary bus to be dispatched to pick up the stranded students and remotely transport to the local High School for a limited access lot to provide security and accountability for parents to pick up students. Manatee Co. School Board reps along with the Sheriffs Office set up a coordinated pick up area.

At this time, the incident is being ruled a prank, as a deodorant / aerosol body spray was discharged on the bus. This is still a active on-going Investigaion in which bus cameras will be reviewed and further interviews conducted.

All 30 students on the bus were accounted for and treated and released with refusals to be be transported by EMS.

(Thanks to Florida bureau chief Charles Pescovitz!)

image: "Large collection of Axe products" by Dannycas (public domain) Read the rest

Pablo Rochat tweeted: "I made life-size AirPod stickers and stuck them on the ground, all over the city 🤡"

pic.twitter.com/d6CncPEPlI

— Pablo Rochat (@PabloRochat) November 17, 2019

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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

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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.

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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.

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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)

Read the rest

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