PRANK?

Type "college prank" into YouTube and you will be greeted with hundreds of videos. Most will be really, really dumb. Many won't even be pranks at all. Some will make you furrow your brow, shake your head, and fear for the future of our country. But a few of them push the art of the prank to new heights. Being able to share videos online has encouraged the best college pranksters to make their stunts more elaborate. It also allows us to share in their glorious inanity.

"Drinkin' Time"


The needlessly long set-up is annoying, but the prank itself makes the wait worthwhile. The victims are a group of prospective students on a tour of Dartmouth College. In the video, the tour guide is droning on when suddenly there comes a primal scream: "It's drinking time!" Students stop their conversations, drop their books, and begin running down the street. Then a character called Keggy the Keg appears. And a marching band. Credit for the prank belongs to the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern Humor Society, which, according to its Web site, has been around since 1908.

Start-up Sound


The setting is a library, and the prank involves a computer start-up noise that crescendoes into a symphonic resonance. It's a subtle stunt, and it's unlikely that most of those present even knew what was going on. But thanks to YouTube, we can all enjoy its quiet, goofy charm.

Upside-Down Room


According to the video, this Brandeis University prank took nine days, 12 people, and 600 screws. I believe it. Attaching all of your roommate's possessions to the ceiling is hard work.

A Lecture Musical


Another offering from Prangstgrüp, and arguably the best college prank on YouTube. In the middle of a classroom lecture, in front of maybe 200 students, a young man stands up and begins singing. The song is a Broadway-worthy ditty about the need for professors to inspire their students. As the song continues, other students stand up and start singing too, in what is obviously a carefully choreographed scene. Brilliant.

Fun With Yellow Books


Filling a dorm room with crumpled paper or carefully wrapping every itemdown to the toothbrushes and alarm clocks is a time-honored college prank. There are numerous such videos online, but this one, at Tufts University, is particularly well done. The real fun is watching the pranksters do their work, which suggests a general truth about pranks: The anticipation is often better than the actual thing (this is also true of life). The roommate's reaction is perfect. He is mildly upset but mostly good-natured. Other videos prove that if you react poorly to a prank, you end up looking like the jerk.

She was a seamless alloy of Southern belle, New England bluestocking, and Chinese tai-tai. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek played her role to 105.