Pranking ourselves

On Jan. 2, 1961, people around the nation gathered in front of their TVs to watch the live broadcast of the Washington Huskies playing Minnesota’s Golden Gophers in the Rose Bowl. For the half-time show, Washington’s marching band had distributed flip cards to a designated section of Huskies fans that, held up on the cheerleaders’ signal, would cycle through 15 different designs. But when the Huskies fans lifted their cards for the 12th design, the picture looked strangely like a beaver rather than a husky, and the 13th design spelled “huskies” backwards (“seiksuh”). But then came the 14th design: Proudly, in front of a live nationwide audience, the Washington students held up cards that spelled out “Caltech.” Washington fans had just become the butt of what the Museum of Hoaxes has since declared the greatest college prank of all time.\nPranks have had a long and distinguished history in college life. But on Oct. 31, the Christian Science Monitor noted a worrisome trend in the practice of modern hoaxing. Students are now asking permission from campus authorities to pull pranks and abiding by university-imposed rules in conducting them – sometimes even accepting funding from universities that see pranks as a marketing tool. This has been rationalized as a necessary step in a society where concerns about safety and terrorism have been pushed to the forefront. Instead, this goes against the very purpose of pranks.\nNow don’t get us wrong – a good prank should not harm individuals, only the status quo. Pranksters should think carefully about the consequences of their actions and exercise caution in their conduct. But pranks are also anti-authoritarian by their nature. Done right, they ruffle the feathers of the humorless, deflate the egos of the pompous and humble the powerful. They should be an innocuous means for individuals to challenge the rules and routines by which we are forced to live. Thus, asking permission from the authorities makes the gesture hollow and meaningless. It’s like declaring oneself a world traveler on the basis of touring the international pavilions at Disney’s Epcot Center. Have we really reached a point where we are so afraid of the authorities, where our perception of our college experience is so relentlessly careerist and where we are so quick to avoid criticism that we are no longer willing to accept the meager risks involved in pulling off a college prank?\nYou might be tempted to ask, “What’s the big deal, we’re just talking about stupid college pranks, right?” \nBut this behavior is indicative of a larger pattern of unquestioned deference to authority that is becoming a hallmark of our generation. Just as we submit applications for pranks, we protest in designated free speech zones, call our parents about the smallest of problems and are generally apathetic toward events around us. We must rise above this lameness and truly embrace our anti-authoritarian, fun-loving roots. If we sink so low that we let the powers-that-be regulate even such “anti-social behavior” as pranks, the joke will be on us. And it won’t be very funny.