PRACTICAL JOKES

Practical jokes can take on many forms, at its most basic it would be something like the inflated bladder, placed under a cushion on a chair, which will make a noise like somebody breaking wind when somebody sits upon it. More complex practical jokes can take many hours, or even days in extreme cases to organise. In recent years we have seen many TV shows produced that revolve entirely around such elaborate practical jokes being performed upon on-knowing members of the public.

In some countries we have pre-defined days upon which we would traditionally attempt to play practical jokes. In the west we have the tradition of April fool's day, on which we try to trick our friends and families as best we can with practical jokes. We also have the Halloween holiday which sees many young people going out on "Trick or Treat" escapades in the evening. They will travel from door to door, usually dressed up in costume, and expect to be given some kind of reward by the person that answers their call, if no reward is given, or a miserly reward is produced they may well decide that some form of practical joke is required to teach the skinflint target a lesson.

Practical jokes are not always seen as funny by their victims, they can be quite cruel and are not always intended to amuse the target; often they will be uncomfortable, embarrassing or simply designed to ridicule the person that they are being played upon.