CPD investigating serial prank caller

Hotels across the country have been hit with prank calls in recent days, all following a consistent theme. The caller claims to be a representative from SimplexGrinnell, a company that installs and maintains fire alarm systems, and convinces an employee that there is a problem with the alarm and it needs to be "reset" by pulling on an activation handle. When the alarm goes off, the caller is told that every overhead fire sprinkler in the building will activate unless they "disable" the sprinkler system by striking an automatic sprinkler head, which triggers the sprinkler. In the case of the local hotel, the caller also said that smashing windows would deactivate the alarm.

The prank is similar to one found on pranknet.org in which the caller identifies himself as "dex". Conway Police Department was contacted by a Tennessee woman, Jericho Batsford of Knoxville, claiming that she knows the identity of the prankster "dex" and could confirm that "dex" was responsible for the call and was willing to cooperate with authorities in bringing criminal charges against him.

Batsford said she had been a fan of "dex," and has participated in prank calls with him under the alias "jericoNtn." When the nature of the calls changed from harmless to harmful, she doesn't think of it as a funny pranks and practical jokes anymore. Batsford said "dex" is a man in his mid-20s that has no job and makes some money selling CDs of his prank calls. She knows his identity because she once wired him money through Western Union.

Her information has been received by the FBI, according to Special Agent Jason Pack of the bureau's National Press Office. Though he couldn't confirm that the FBI was considering the calls a federal crime. Local law enforcement is pursing the leads also and actual representatives from SimplexGrinnell have spoken with 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden about pursuing charges against the caller also. There are difficulties in prosecuting someone from another country, Vaden said, but whether or not "dex" can be caught remains to be seen.

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Serial prank caller target hotels

A frantic man urges hotel desk workers or guests to set off a fire sprinkler, sound an alarm or bust windows. The calls have all been similar pranks. Eight cases have been reported in four states in recent days and authorities say felony charges could be filed against whoever is making the calls. Fire Marshal Ed Paulk of Alabama said four hotels have been targeted by the calls since last week, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage.

"It's happening all over," said Fire Marshal Ed Paulk of Alabama, where four hotels have been targeted by the calls since last week, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage. "We're actively trying to track this and find out who is doing this."

Rupesh Desai, General Manager of a Comfort Suites in Daphne, said a prank call about a fire alarm resulted in $10,000 in water damage last Friday. Around the same time, a caller convinced guests to bust windows at a sister hotel in Saraland, about 25 miles away because of a natural gas leak that didn't exist. A man was even convinced to drive his truck through a door of a hotel lobby in Nebraska, supposedly to turn off a fire alarm. And in California, a duped worker activated a sprinkler at the front desk, dousing computers, phones and other electrical equipment.

Trying to prevent more people from being fooled by this shocking pranks, trade groups are telling member companies and hotels to remind workers about basic emergency procedures like calling managers or security companies before doing anything drastic. Paulk said investigators suspect more than one person is behind the calls, and some could be inspired by Internet sites about phone pranks.

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Hotel prank brings police investigation in York

A shocking pranks that led damage to a hotel is being investigated by the York Police. It involves a phone call, a porn site and the fire alarm. The fire department was dispatched to Hampton Inn Hotel for a fire alarm activation but there was no fire.

It was the end of May when someone pulled this prank at York Hotel. The clerk told authorities she pulled the alarm because she got a call from somebody posing as an employee of the alarm company that the hotel's using and told her to set it off. The prankster directed her to go to a company site to know on how to disable alarm system which ended up being a porno site.

The clerk was told she would get a $20,000 fine if she called the fire department for the false alarm. The caller then convinced both the clerk and a guest to break a window to stop the alarm. One of the guests even agreed to help break out the front window using his truck to do so.

The alarm still did not shut off. Finally, somebody called the fire department. Police said the prank is not funny. They are trying to figure out who is responsible. It is a call that could land somebody behind bars. There are reports of similar pranks being pulled in other states with some causing as much as $50,000 in damage. Damage to the Hampton Inn was around $300. Police said the person responsible could be charged with a misdemeanor and spend up to 1 year in jail.

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Evacuation on "I Love You, Man" movie house prank

Newington Firefighters were called at 9:09 p.m Sunday after a smoking device in Regal Cinemas was set off by someone forcing the fire system to kicked in. The entire building was evacuated as a precaution.

Fire Lt. Tom McQuade said that a device similar to a smoke bomb was set off in a theater playing "I Love You, Man". It seems someone was trying to pull of a stupid stuff prank. He said it was fortunate there were no injuries involved in the incident and that the smoke did not cause moviegoers to panic. Firefighters in the theater discovered thick smoke that hung in the air like fog, according to McQuade.

After most of the smoke was cleared from the theater, firefighters cleared the cinema at about 10 p.m. and turned control back over to Regal Cinemas staff. The staff elected to close that particular theater down for the night and open up the rest.

Some evidence was recovered at the scene, and that Newington police are investigating the incident. An employee at the cinema said questions about the incident would have to be directed to the corporate offices of Regal Cinemas.

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Solid skimble-skamble skit for sick children

Last night after a week of outrage, ABC finally announced that it had demoted the senior manager who approved "Chaser skit about sick children" going to air. The Chaser lads were brainstorming potential skits when the unfathomable idea of ridiculing the last wishes of dying children floated and eventually was not dismissed immediately.

The first basis of a comedic value is whether it could make people laugh. You don’t need to have children to realize that there are unlikely to be any circumstances where making a mockery of sick children would be considered funny.

The satirical TV show was evidently suspended by ABC for two weeks which is good because it provided an opportunity to review why no red flag was raised before it screened.

On Monday night, the ABC’s Media Watch confirmed that the head of arts, entertainment and comedy at ABC television, Amanda Duthie, was the person who saw and approved it before it aired. She accepted responsibility for the decision to air the piece.

Hopefully this saga will make the Chaser lads reflect on the relevance of their work and what they are trying to achieve through it. Their intended funny pranks and stupid stuff stunts should stick to beating up more worthy targets people who are prominent in public life, including politicians and celebrities.

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Shocking chewing gum review

Are you a gum junkie that loves to pull pranks? or do you know someone that can't get their hands off a gum when they see one?

Try this Shocking Chewing Gum, a gag gift pack of gum that looks like a real pack of gum, but when your unsuspecting victim tries to take a piece, ZAAAAAP!!! It's perfect on a situation when someone or a fellow peer of yours asks for a gum after smoking a cigarette during smoke breaks.

Comes with a starter battery for millions of laughs and shocking pranks. Order extra batteries now and get 10% off.

Funny pranks ideas on pc

The simplicity is the real secret of successful pranking. Funny pranks should be quick to implement and even quicker to reverse, especially if you’re working for a company that doesn’t look kindly on time wasting.

Pranks that take an age to set up usually aren’t worth it. So, while it’s possible to grow grass in someone’s keyboard or go crazy with the toolbar buttons in Office 97, that’s an awful lot of effort for relatively little reward.

Keyboard Swap

The example on how to pull-off an office humor and pranks is to unplug your co-workers' mouse or keyboard from their CPU and plug-in your own to have complete control over the computer without him/her ever knowing. So now, whenever they move the mouse or type something. So do you..but of course it’s your input that controls what happens on-screen.

Add a wireless adaptor

Wireless mice are full of pranks potential. Install a wireless mouse adaptor on your target victim’s computer when nobody’s looking. Leaving their existing mouse connected. Windows can and would accept input from both devices, so wait until your victim’s doing something and then send their mouse pointer on an adventure.

Take (remote) control

Remote access software such as TightVNC enables you to control one PC from another. If installed on target victim's machine, you can take control of their PC from anywhere with an internet connection.

Edit AutoCorrect

Automatic text correction is a godsend text and it isn’t long before people start to rely on it. A few well- chosen edits of the AutoCorrect and AutoText options in Word can cause chaos. Either by turning correctly spelled words into typos or by triggering unwanted and inappropriate text whenever the user tries to type something.

Tape up the mouse

Today’s mice tend to be optical rather than mechanical. Placing a bit of tape will screw up its modern rodent’s sensor just as efficiently.

Make the mouse sleepy

Changing the mouse speed to its slowest setting turns even the simplest movement into an ordeal, while swapping the left and right buttons or reprogramming extra buttons can make the most Ghandi-esque gentle soul want to scream like a wounded gorilla.

Freeze the desktop

This trick is as old as computers themselves, but people still fall for it hook. All you need to do is take a screenshot of your victim’s desktop, hide all of their icons and then replace their wallpaper with the screenshot.

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Southern Lehigh HS senior prank of camping inside school walls

17 Southern Lehigh High School students suspended for five days for camping inside an enclosed courtyard and scaling the school walls. Unamused school officials by the seniors latest prank called for police involvement. Three of them may lose their National Honor Society membership.

Senior students leave their senior pranks mark before graduation since it's been a tradition for decades. Nowadays, security measures have been tough and officials have changed on how to react to pranks since the post-Columbine era.

''No question we live in the context of the times, breaking into schools and letting animals loose was a prank in the '70s and '80s. Today, that could be considered a terrorist act.'' Director of the National Association of Secondary Schools, Mel Riddile said.

There has been a long history of pranks at the school, a trend that has progressively become more dangerous.

Friday, Southern Lehigh Superintendent Joseph P. Liberati sat down with a few students and shared the school's perspective. It was followed then by a gathering of about 75 students protesting the punishment resulting from Monday's camping prank.

Riddile said educators are doing more to make expectations and boundaries clear as prank season approaches. A growing number of principals get students involved in school-wide decisions. Liability is another concern. While a prank may be conceived as harmless, things go wrong. Indeed, Southern Lehigh's solicitor, James Bartholomew, said students crossed the line from intended harmless funny pranks ideas and practical jokes to potentially dangerous trespassing when they entered the secured grounds.

Brett Ryan, one of the suspended campers who lost his National Honor Society membership, said the 17 seniors involved planned the overnight camping prank to be ''as harmless as possible.''

Liberati said he hopes to work with students to eliminate year-end pranks and, instead, create events that celebrate the camaraderie of students without risking injury.Despite the controversy, students don't predict the end of senior pranks.

The Big Bang Theory

An American comedy show full of practical jokes and funny tees, concerns two male Caltech prodigies in their twenties, one an experimental physicist and the other a theoretical physicist, who live across the hall from an attractive blonde waitress with show-biz aspirations.

It was first developed for the 2006-2007 television season, was fundamentally different to the show we see today. Only Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki were part of the original pilot, and the character now played by Kaley Cuoco was much meaner to the geeks. CBS did not pick the show up but gave creator and executive producer Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre a second chance. They brought in Kaley Cuoco, along with Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, and retooled the show.

The second pilot of The Big Bang Theory was directed by award-winning television directing veteran James Burrows, who decided not to stay with the show. This reworked pilot led to a 13-episode order by CBS on May 14, 2007. Prior to its airing on CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on iTunes free of charge. The show premiered September 24, 2007, and was picked-up for a full 22-episode season order on October 19, 2007.

However, production was halted on November 6, 2007 by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. As the strike ended, the show returned on March 17, 2008 with an earlier time slot and nine new episodes.

The second season premiered, in the same slot, on September 22, 2008. During the course of this season, the show bucked the trend of many other returning shows and saw its ratings grow, leading to a two-year renewal through what would be the 2010-11 season.

David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations and diagrams used as props. He says he's more consultant than contributor. Executive producer/co-creator Bill Prady said, "In fact, we're working on giving Sheldon an actual problem that he's going to be working on throughout the [first] season so there's actual progress to the boards ... We worked hard to get all the science right."

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Criminal prosecution waived for senior students vandalism prank

Taking the matter into his own hands, school district Superintendent Wayne Alexander, waived the criminal prosecution for at least 18 students who burglarized and vandalized Hernando High School. Thereby, shielding the students from law enforcement, prosecution and the accountability of the criminal justice system.

He simply called it a "mistake" as he referred to the planned criminal acts carried out by the underclassmen and graduating seniors.

Perpetrators that usually carried out such illegal deeds would have been arrested, fingerprinted, booked into the Hernando County Jail and subjected to the rigors of the court system. The perpetrators likely would have been sentenced to probation, assessed heavy fines, made to pay restitution and issued a large number of community service hours.

When the superintendent waived criminal prosecution, he told those responsible for the break-in and vandalism, as well as the other 17,000 students in Hernando County public schools, that it's just not that big of a deal when students burglarize and vandalize public property. After all, it was just an intended funny tees. A very expensive and shocking pranks to remember.

14 of those involved graduating senior students that perpetrated lesser vandalism will be allowed to walk across the stage at graduation. Though the graduating seniors won't be getting their diplomas until they complete 40 hours of community service at the schools. Still, Alexander has sent the wrong message and set a horrible precedent.

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Rocks rain down at I-90 for the second time

The Washington State Patrol said three vehicles were hit with rocks from an overpass on westbound Interstate 90 as they were heading toward southbound Interstate 5 at about 3:45 a.m Friday. One of the vehicles hit was a United States Postal Service semi truck. The windshield was shattered by a grapefruit-sized rock, spraying glass inside the cab. The uninjured driver was able to drive the truck off the freeway and was towed.

Police said the rock could have killed the driver if it would have gone all the way through the windshield About the same time, Irwin Buenaventura was driving home from work in the same area when he heard something hit his car. He thought he'd run over something, until he got home and saw the damage, a rock hit the front of Buenaventura's car, scraping and denting the hood.

“I heard something on the hood and I thought it was kind of scary, It almost hit my windshield. If it hit the windshield, I don't know what's going to happen to me,” said Irwin Buenaventura.

A third car was also hit. Though all the drivers were shaken by the experience, no one was injured. Authorities don't know where the rocks were coming from, but they speculate someone threw them from an overpass. It could have been a totally unheard of, if this was to be considered as a funny pranks ideas. Troopers said throwing rocks from an overpass is a criminal offense.

State troopers are investigating, but said it’s unlikely they'll be able to figure out who's responsible. However, troopers are keeping a closer eye on overpasses and bridges. This incident is the second in which rocks were thrown from an overpass onto cars this week.

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Cooper high school trampoline seniors 2009 prank

Blaine Walls, a senior at Cooper High School, pulled off his senior prank based on his basic mantra of mischief. That's why he conspired with his friends to buy a trampoline and arrange for someone to leave the school door unlocked after a choir concert late Monday night. They sneaked in and assembled the giant frame in the cafeteria with a calling card a bold "SENIORS 2009" spray-painted on the bounce mat in Cooper red and blue.

Students arrived the next day snickering. Even some staff admitted they found it a tad funny. But some had a different reaction last Friday morning when they found a scoreboard on the roof of the science building, a goal post uprooted and the ramp to a portable building torn away.

Principal Gail Gregg, who has allowed some senior pranks in the past, called that one more serious. "Sometimes pranks cross the line to become vandalism," he said, noting the trampoline incident that involved different students was just senior high jinks. After news reports aired about the vandalism and Crime Stoppers tipsters turned in information, four students went to Gregg and confessed.

Typically, such vandalism at a school can be considered a felony and carry a fine and possible jail time. Gregg said senior pranks don't have to be destructive, which is perhaps why he has allowed sanctioned funny pranks ideas in the past.

Gregg said he had to turn down one prank suggestion when this year's seniors wanted to drive trucks into the hallways. "The fire marshal wouldn't allow it," he said.

But some seniors, such as Walls, say asking for permission defeats the purpose of a prank. That's why Blake Holder and his friends didn't bother to let anybody know when they planned a midnight cookout on campus with hot dogs and a 40-foot Slip 'n Slide. About 1 a.m., he said, an administrator came and told them to leave, but they didn't get in trouble.

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The ghost of senior pranks gone wrong

Bruce Clarke, Old Rochester Regional High School Principal, has enjoyed his tenure at ORR and savoring the last few days before he retires late May of 2007. He is looking forward for delivering his last commencement speech. But about a week before graduation five or six boys, several of them among the school’s top athletes who’d never gotten into any trouble to speak of, thought it would be funny to leave their imprint, via spray paint can, on the back of their shiny, new $49 million school complex.

The pranksters used what ever artistic and poetic skills they possessed and proceeded to spray unkind words about their principal as well as some drawings of male anatomy to accompany their words on the back side of the school building. Thinking that they are under cover in the dark, they were unaware that their identities were being picked up by the surveillance cameras placed around their modern school, recording their deeds and every stupid stuff move they're doing.

They, and unfortunately their respective families, were about to be Punk’d. None of those boys was allowed to attend there high school graduation, which was pain likely felt by the families, as well. The boys also had to clean all their graffiti off a brick wall, which is no easy task. There was likely more involved with the punishment end of it, but school administrators and local police closed ranks to further protect the boys from their foolish misdeeds.

The following year at ORR High, some cleaver kid found out how to access the school’s public announcement system remotely and started to make various announcements from different locations within the school as an end-of-the-year prank.

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4chan website has a darker side

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Prank made officials rescind license plate design

The original winning license plate design was rescinded Friday by the Omaha Nebraska State officials and hoped to get the last laugh at the expense of a New York-based humor Web site.

The Department of Motor Vehicles and the Nebraska.gov was forced to decide and illuminate the embarrassing communicative deficiencies of the CollegeHumor.com pulled-off practical jokes and pranks ideas.

Though the humor site's attempt to sabotage the voting process by having its visitors vote for the "ugliest" design". Officials at Nebraska.gov originally told DMV officials that it only had a minimal impact on the overall tally.

A black and white design with Nebraska.gov in red letters got the most votes and was declared the winner earlier this week at an event featuring Gov. Dave Heineman and his staff.

CollegeHumor.com then declared a victory on its site, saying essentially, "We won." So the Nebraska Interactive, the company managing the state's Web site, and State officials then took a closer look at the numbers. They found that about 14,000 votes came from the New York site and 12,000 were cast for the black and white plate, which was deemed by the site to be the most boring design. "This is clear evidence the voting was compromised by the mischievous intentions of a third-party site," said DMV spokeswoman Beverly Neth.

DMV officials tossed out all votes that had come from the humor site and took full responsibility for the gaffe, and they weren't laughing despite those effort CollegeHumor.com editor who devised the prank offered no apologies. . The remaining votes tallied favored the plate featuring the state bird and the state flower, which will be the plate design adorning Nebraska vehicles in 2011.

"I think it was all in good fun. In the end it turned out OK. Maybe they had to work a little extra to discount those votes but the one that deserved to win ended up winning," said Kevin Corrigan.

The final, true tally included 32,727 votes for the Meadowlark and flower design and 28,302 votes for the black and white design. Officials now said they'll now think twice about using an online poll in the future.

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Remote control fart machine review

This remote control fart machine could be a funny office humor gag gifts idea that is worth hours of laughter and practical jokes. Play a trick on a co-worker or better yet, to your boss. Or give to a brother-in-law as a gag gift compliment.

This Brand New Remote Control Fart Machine has “BoomBox” Technology, which allows more vibrant, natural sounding Farts! Embarrass your boss, friends, and family! Press the button on the remote control and set off one of 15 different fart sounds!

Take it to a movie house and put under someone's seat. Use it at work or school and hide this under a chair or behind a desk and take the remote control with you. The remote control has a long range (100 ft!), so you will be far out of sight and clearly will be on stealth status.

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Dying kid's sick joke hits a dead end

An American equivalent of the now defunct Chaser website, The Onion website, wrote a spoof story about a dead teenager having his last wish denied a few years ago.

All the boy had wanted, his father said, was an intimate encounter with actor Cameron Diaz. The father was outraged. Not only Diaz, but Jennifer Lopez, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Salma Hayek had refused.

"We wrote, we rang, we faxed, and every time it was the same answer: 'Sorry, Ms Diaz is currently unable to comply with your request.' I mean, how unsympathetic can you get? We're talking about a dying kid here!" the father said.

The spoof was obviously undergraduate. The dying boy was not a sympathetic figure. He didn't need help, he needed a cold shower. Many readers, given its graphic content, would blanch. But some might chortle at the tweaking of assumed stereotypes. Contrast this with the comedic premise of the already notorious Chaser skit the other night.

What did it amount to? Being mean to dying kids.

The punchline "Why go to any trouble when they're only going to die anyway?" exposes Chaser to several accusations. Comedy offers cover to tackle almost any topic, but the flimsy protection dissolves when the act lacks a clever hook to justify its attack on sensitivities. The skit survived through production processes before being aired speaks of a lack of taste. But it also implies a scorn for the art of humor, which Chaser has so stridently extolled in defense of its bolder pursuits. Nor does it allow Chaser to claim a humorous pretext to explain an ill-judged tilt at a touchy issue.

Norman Gunston, more controversial and funny, shone for plonking himself in the wrong place at the right time. Unlike Chaser, once he had done so, he usually iced the moment with a surprising line or twist.

Chaser's stupid stuff pranks ideas appear to have become more and more extreme in inverse proportion to their comedic value. Being controversial may happen to also be funny, but being more controversial doesn't automatically make it more funny.

A comedian could depict a child, say, whose only wish is to see Melbourne win a football match or a child's parent who plainly wants to cash in on their child's illness must be treated sensibly. Dying kids, treacherous as it is, is no different to other issues, such as terrorism and cancer, in that it offers entry points for a light touch. This was a recorded piece, and it was aired despite an obvious flaw by every reasonable measure, it was doomed to produce more offense than applause.

Its airing showed that on Chaser is prepared notly to trawl for cheap targets but also to ignore, if not urinate on, the craft of comedy. Cynics might identify deliberate intent in Chaser's excursions into the tasteless.

Is being controversial somehow easier than being funny? After all, the hype generated by Chaser antics is more engaging than the behavior itself.

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Tour de Century senior pranks at Rochester's Century High School

It was all captured in a video they posted on Facebook, a video that helped their principal find and then suspend them from the last week of classes.

A senior prank called the Tour de Century where 70 kids rode bikes and scooters and skateboards through the halls of their high school.

Joann Knuth knows kids want to leave their mark. But as the head the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals, she says end of the year practical jokes and pranks ideas often go too far, sometimes risking student safety and causing damage to school property.

"They impact the entire school, they may at the moment seem like harmless fun or play, but really in reality it gets to be serious." Knuth said. Especially when police are called, like they were in Portage, Wisconsin when Ryan Hayes and four other students had a food fight in the high school lunch room.

"I think it's pretty funny, I think what we got out of it was way more than we should have." said Hayes. Though, it was no joke when they were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, and fined 172 dollars.

"I was upset he was in a food fight, but I was more upset he got handcuffed and taken away in a police car." said Lee Ann Vesley, Hayes' mother.

But police and the principal say they had to do it, that while even they appreciate the humor, they have to put student safety first. "Schools determine their rules and regulations, and they have the expectation they will be followed until the end of the very last day of school." Knuth said.

In another similar case in Brookfield, Wisconsin, six seniors in the middle of the night built a swing set on the roof of their high school, among them were the valedictorian and salutatorian, and neither of them are being allowed to attend their graduation.

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Killer of Shop-N-Save store owner gets 40 years

Joshua Bond had been 18 just a few months before he walked into the Shop-N-Save with a grudge and a gun, executing Shop-N-Save store owner Gene Kim with a single bullet nearly 2 years ago.

An hour earlier, Gene Kim with a pointed a knife confronted them over the beers Bond had tried to shoplift . Bond promised he’d be back. When Bond returned, Kim was passing the time like he often did sitting at the counter, reading his Bible just before shooting him.

Gene Kim's family moved to the United States from Korea in 1979 primarily to see his children get a better life and education. His family moved to Nashville just three years before Kim’s death and opened the convenience store in Bordeaux.

He likes to pull pranks ideas and funny tees. He was proud of her and her brother and encouraged them to study hard, Yena Kim remembered.

Yena Kim and her family wanted Bond, now 20, to go away for a very long time.

“I believe in God, and I believe he will take care of it much better than any justice system that exists now today, He sacrificed a lot, he and my mother both did, Pretty much everything he did was for me and my brother.” said Yena Kim.

Bond, who had a long juvenile record according to court testimony, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Friday in Davidson County Criminal Court in exchange for the 40-year sentence for killing store owner Gene Kim but the victim’s daughter is not sure that’s justice.

Though it’s not the life sentence Yena Kim would have liked to see, her family didn’t think they could withstand the trial scheduled to begin on Monday. Her mother couldn’t come to the hearing, she said, because she’s still traumatized from seeing the surveillance video of her husband being shot.

Now that the case is finished, the family plans to move to California. And Yena Kim will continue her studies at Vanderbilt. The 22-year-old plans to major in public policy.

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The Chaser's War on Everything Make-A-Realistic-Wish Foundation controversy

An episode of the The Chaser's War on Everything that aired on the ABC last night (Wednesday 3 June, 2009) contained a one-minute sketch that spoofed the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the respected non-profit charitable organization that works to fulfill the dreams of terminally ill children. It looks as though the Chaser comedy crew's stupid stuff pranks and practical jokes may have gone too far for the final time.

The Chaser skit parodied the concept with the Make-A-Realistic-Wish Foundation, which Chaser team member Chris Taylor said was dedicated to "helping thousands of kids to lower their extravagance and selfishness in the face of death". In the skit, a terminally ill child whose final wish is to visit Disneyland is offered a pencil case by Taylor. Another who wants to meet teen actor Zac Efron is instead given a stick by fellow Chaser member Andrew Hansen, dressed as a doctor.

"Why go to any trouble when they're only going to die anyway?" Taylor said as a skit's tag line. Groans from the audience are clearly audible.

This caused widespread offense and was a hot topic of discussion on talk back radio at 3AW on Thursday morning. Neil Mitchell of 3AW who took many distressed calls from parents who had lost children to disease called the ABC and the Chaser team to apologize and questioned whether the show should remain on air. His program's attempts to get Chaser team member and executive producer Julian Morrow on the phone proved fruitless.

Shortly before noon, an apology was issued by Morrow and Director of ABC TV Kim Dalton saying:

"The Chaser's War on Everything is a satirical program aimed at provoking debate and providing social commentary on topical issues, current affairs and public life in general. The sketch in last night's show called 'Making A Realistic Wish Foundation' was a satirical sketch and black comedy. The ABC and The Chaser did not intend to hurt those who have been affected by the terminal illness of a child. We acknowledge the distress this segment has caused and we apologise to anyone we have upset. As a result, ABC TV will edit the segment out of tonight's repeat screening on ABC2 and online."

This latest incident again calls into question the nature of what they are doing, whether it qualifies as satire and whether the ABC is serious about respecting community standards in the programs it screens. A key issue at the center of this is the distinction between genuinely provocative comedy that pushes boundaries to make a statement and the causing of offense for its own sake. This latest skit controversy is a clear example of the latter. This, of course, is not the first time the "Chaser boys" have caused controversy with their stunts and pranks.

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A second student arrested for bomb threat at P.J. Jacobs Junior High School

A 14-year-old girl student at P.J. Jacobs Junior High School is at at Portage County Juvenile Detention Center custody for writing a bomb threat on a desk Friday for scrawling "12:30, Tuesday, Ka-boom," Stevens Point Police Department community resource officer Paul Piotrowski said.

This is the second threat found at the school in a four-day period, something she later said she did out of stupidity. A 15-year-old student was first arrested Friday for writing on a bathroom wall that a bomb would go off at school in June. The school then increased its surveillance, all lockers and backpacks were searched after the threats, formed a building emergency team and reviewed its safety measures with staff members, Superintendent Steven Johnson said.

At first Principal Dan Dobratz addressed the student body and accented how well the students handled the situation. But after the second, he spoke about long-term consequences.

"Students think in very short-term, and I don't think they understand the long-term consequences of this type of behavior," Dobratz said. "Overall, I'm very proud of our students. (The) kids were super cooperative on both days (of the locker and backpack searches). We never had one negative comment from anybody."

The school and police knew who wrote the second threat based on the unique handwriting and that fact that only a small number of students use that desk. The girl later admitted to the intended exploding and noisy pranks writing.

"This is just taking it to another level that is not acceptable by any stretch of the imagination, This one was definitely her just trying to be funny. She knew about the previous threat and she thought it would be funny to write something like that on the desk," he said. "After the first one, it tends to occur again, because it plants the idea. We're hoping the fact that we've made a couple arrests very quickly on these that the message will get out that this isn't something to laugh and joke about." Piotrowski said.

The police department typically gets several calls from schools about fights and end-of-the-year pranks and practical jokes stunts during spring time.

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The tonight show with Conan O' Briens aims to be funny everynight

Conan O’Brien, grew up in a Boston suburb. His father, Thomas, was a Harvard Medical School professor who specialized in infectious diseases. His mother, Ruth, was a partner at a Boston law firm.

Thinking of becoming a novelist he went to Harvard University, his graduate thesis was on Southern novelist Flannery O'Connor. He later became editor of the Harvard Lampoon and after college he wrote skits for improv groups, funny pranks ideas and practical jokes for "Not Necessarily The News," also scripts for "The Simpsons" and gags for "Saturday Night Live."

The gangly red-haired prankster first stumbled into the spotlight in 1993, when he had the unenviable task of replacing the popular David Letterman on NBC's "Late Night." Letterman had split for CBS after NBC passed him over and picked Jay Leno to replace Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show."

He used to joke that he wasn’t “relatively unknown,“ he was a “complete unknown.“ The old geezers from the mail room at NBC thought of him as a goof plucked who thought just because he wrote scripts for “The Simpsons,“ he must be cool.

He was knocked by critics from New York to Los Angeles. At first, he went under probationary contract that had to be renewed monthly because NBC executives had doubts on him

O'Brien received some lukewarm reviews after his 1993 debut and it took more than a year before he got any respect in the media.

"There were times when I thought we weren't going to make it," he said during a visit to Tampa in February. "I wasn't new to show business, but I was new to being a talk-show host. Our biggest Achilles' heel in the beginning was me. I had to learn how to go from being this funny guy who cracked jokes with writers in a back room to doing it in front of an audience."

Eventually, O'Brien found his way on "Late Night." He and sidekick Andy Richter were like a couple of frat boy cutups having fun after the adults went to bed.

Tonight, O'Brien begins a new era for "Tonight," and the pressure is on not to mess it up.

"I'm not the 30-year-old who took over 'Late Night,'" he said in a recent interview. "I was willing to try anything. I don't regret any of that, but I'm 16 years older now, and I have a wife and two kids. I am keeping some things but I want to try new bits we haven't done before. I really want this show to be funny every night."

Richter, who left to pursue prime-time sitcom roles, is coming back. And drummer Max Weinberg and his band have also made the trip to new digs in Los Angeles.

"But in Los Angeles, if you're not in a car, something's very wrong with you," he said in a recent telephone interview.

"If you walk on the sidewalk, people think that you're off your medication. Police cars pull over and they handcuff you and take you away."

O'Brien says just being in Los Angeles will give him new material for Office Humor Pranks Stuff. He notes, for example, that in New York, where his "Late Night" originated, you encounter life on every corner.

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Pac-Man senior prank in final days at Thurston High School

The four Thurston High School seniors, Garrett Cogburn, Ben Carlisle, Matt Galceran and Jeff Forrest, all Advanced Placement students headed for college in the fall, were all dressed in their homemade 1980's iconic video game Pac-Man costumes and run through the cafeteria, the school courtyard, past classrooms. Most students had no idea who was inside the costumes made of PVC pipe and colored butcher paper.

All classic senior pranks could have dragged a cow into the school gym, or filled the fountain (if the school had one) with detergent, or let rats loose in the cafeteria. None of those funny pranks and practical jokes were likely to please Principal Ed Mendelssohn, though, who thought the Pac-Man prank last Thursday was “very clever” even if he was caught unaware much better than many senior pranks that often involve vandalism or “just making a mess,” Mendelssohn said Monday.

And who would think they’d do it again on Monday? Once more, though, it was a hit.

“Every time I see them running through our school, I laugh really hard, They should run around every day.” said senior Mara McCornack.

Pac-Man began as a video arcade game, and involves a yellow circle with a mouth (Pac-Man) working its way through a maze, scoring points by eating dots and prizes. Pac-Man is chased by “ghosts” with crazy eyes and names like Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, who try and terminate him. It became a worldwide phenomenon.

But why would four high school seniors born in the early 1990s want to emulate the game for a high school prank during the final two weeks of classes?

“I really don’t know, We just thought it would be something really cool and funny to do.”
They spent about two months making the costumes Cogburn said, as he and Carlisle prepared for another run through the Thurston campus.

Carlisle said they all watched some YouTube videos of senior pranks, and saw the Pac-Man one with high school students elsewhere in the country running through their school’s library.

“It’s hilarious,” said Carlisle, who plans to attend and play soccer at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, this fall, of the experience of running through campus, chasing Cogburn in the yellow Pac-Man costume.

“I thought it was awesome, They put a lot of work into that. It was really fun and everyone really enjoyed it. I don’t think the teachers really enjoyed it, but …” senior Logan Lewis said.

The response from staff and administration has been nothing but positive. One teacher even gave a lecture last week, pointing out that “that’s how you do a senior prank,” Cogburn said, who will study chemical engineering at Oregon State University this fall.

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Keys to a good school prank

Andrew Leinonen, a senior last year at Zion-Benton Township High School and also the mastermind who dressed up as a gorilla and chased 10 of his banana-clad friends through the building as a senior prank were suspended because of the prank.

Students planned protests, and groups such as "Saving the Banana Boys" popped up on MySpace. Media outlets across the country picked up his stupid stuff and funny pranks story as an applauded genius.

"You can't forget a day like that," said Leinonen, now a 19-year-old freshman studying criminal justice at College of Lake County, still basking in the glory.

But the 15-year-old Lockport boy prankster who thought it would be funny to set off a makeshift chemical bomb Monday in a crowded school hallway broke the cardinal rule of pranks.

"That's not a prank,It's a bomb. You don't joke around with that." said Leinonen, expert prankster.

According to Leinonen, the perfect prank meets three standards:

• Nobody gets hurt

• Property isn't damaged

• It makes people laugh

Police said that the 15-year old boy freshman at Lockport Township High School's Central campus, confessed to creating the bomb. The pop bottle filled with household chemicals injured or sickened more than a dozen people.

He will be in juvenile court June 10. He faces up to six years at a state juvenile facility and up to a two-year expulsion from school.

Students need to understand the difference between a prank and a crime said Ken Trump, who trained Lockport Township High School authorities in emergency preparedness after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and president of National School Safety and Security Service, a Cleveland, Ohio-based school security consulting group.

"Anyone, including even the most notorious prankster teen, needs to be able to make that distinction, They're not putting a lollipop in the middle of the floor. They're putting an explosive device."

And feigning ignorance isn't an option said Trump.

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15-year-old charged in Lockport chemical bomb case

A 15-year-old boy, whom they would not identify was charged by the police for setting off an exploding and noisy pranks chemical bomb Monday at Lockport Township High School's Central campus.

The boy is charged as a juvenile with the case of unlawful use of a weapon, misdemeanor reckless conduct and possession of an explosive device said Charles Pelkie, a Will County state's attorney spokesman.

Though Pelkie would not provide any other details about the suspect. Lockport police will provide additional details regarding the case at Lockport Township High School's East campus tonight prior to an emergency school board meeting.

The defendant is scheduled to appear at a 9 a.m. detention hearing Thursday at the River Valley Justice Center in Joliet, Pelkie said. If convicted, the suspect could be sentenced to a state juvenile facility until his 21st birthday, Pelkie added.

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