The History of Practical Jokes

Ancient World

• We don't know too much about the pranks that people in the ancient world pulled on each other, but we do know they had a sense of humor. Cuneiform tablets from the Mesopotamian era filled with jokes about beer, women and corrupt government officials have been dug up from sites in today's Iraq. Greek comedies point out the humor of everyday life in Attica. Even the famously stuffy Romans let their hair down occasionally. A fourth century AD book is filled with the humor of stereotypical Romans cracking jokes about sex, foreigners and nutty professors. One of the oldest practical jokes on record was when the third century AD Roman Emperor Elagabalus pulled an elaborate version of the deflating seat cushion joke on unsuspecting dinner guests.

Middle Ages

• The European Middle Ages was a time when belief in religion and magic were accepted without question by the majority. Needless to say, it was easier back then to get away with a good trick. One of the more famous was when a 15th century English monk named Thomas Betson placed a live beetle inside a hollowed-out apple, fooling his fellow monks into thinking it was possessed by spirits when the beetle rocked it back and forth. Seventeenth century Jesuit priest Athanasius Kircher was a famous scholar who was the target of some fairly ingenious jokes perpetrated by his colleagues. He was fooled more than once into explaining the meaning of fresh archeological "discoveries" only to discover the objects in question were fakes made by his colleagues. Tricks and practical jokes were so common that a popular book was written in the 14th century to describe how they were performed. The "Secretum Philosophorum" was an all-encompassing guide to defending yourself from tricksters and charlatans.

1700's to 1800's

• The English author Charles Dickens captures the spirit of this age in his period works. The often working-class subjects of his novels used humor and simple pranks to keep their spirits up during tough times. The 19th century saw a milestone of mass media getting into the practical joke business. The New York Sun newspaper published a series of articles in 1835 alleging life had been discovered on the moon. Most readers accepted the series as a good joke when the Sun came clean after six articles, but Americans began watching the skies a little more closely from then on.

Modern Times

• Two favorite devices of practical jokers, the whoopee cushion -- created by the JEM Rubber Co. of Toronto -- and the joy buzzer -- brought to life by Danish inventor Soren Sorensen Adams -- were both developed just in time to embarrass friends in offices and at cocktail parties in the early 1930's. A whole series of novelty gadgets hit the market and turned pranking into an art form. Starting in the 1960's, Americans routinely tuned into television's "Candid Camera." The premise of the show was to subject unsuspecting individuals to odd or outrageous stunts and catch their reactions on film. The show continued in syndication for years after leaving the CBS network and inspired similar reality shows based on the practical joke in the 21st century such as "Punk'd" and "Da Ali G Show."