Pranks

[johntrent]

Ok - Dan got us thinking about the dumbest thing a helper has ever done - but it got me thinking - turn this around a bit - what is the best prank you have pulled on a new guy? or any other guy?

I will start with one that still makes me chuckle - I didn't pull it off but I was around to see the reactions and hear the @#$%

We had a real practical joker on a crew - which was nice in alot of ways but he could carry it to an unecessary level. He had a particular beef with an installer that always seemed to be questioning his abilities. So he started hot glueing things together for him - first his tool box lid - then his lunch box lid - after not getting much of a rise out of him - he stepped it up - hot glueing lids on all his clean buckets - this sent him over the edge! After threatening to kick the pranksters' @#$ - the guy finally just walked away - ending up leaving the jobsite - a couple of people tried to talk to him but it seemed there was no way of getting him to stay. Kinda put a damper on the practical joker and everyone else. The only thing that lightened the mood was at the end of the day....when the prankster made it to his vehicle to find both truck doors hot glued shut! - Prankster was pissed! but couldn't say a thing - he reached thru the side vent & rolled the window down & climbed in thru the window - he peeled outta the neighborhood ...tires smoking about like his head!

hehehe - I still get a good chuckle over that one....

[Sponsored Links]

[java]

Not tile related but funny....

When I was a parachute rigger with the 82nd Airborne we use to send new guys for the key to Area J. Well Area J was just some woods across from the barracks that we would do some training in. No fence or gate or nothing. So everyone all the way up knew the deal.
So new guy is sent by Sgt to see First Sgt to get key. First Sgt says hmmm... I think the Capt. has it, go ask him. Capt says hmmm.... I think old Major so and so had his guys over there yesterday, go see the Major. And on and on. Guys would be gone for hours. Sometimes all day. It was a good way for them to get a base tour and nobody had to hold their hand.

And ya, when I was a newbie I went 'Looking for the key.'

[v10ford99]

I told a helper to put 1 cup of calcium crystals for every bucket of sand for his setters fat mud. That mud set up so fast that he had to beet the mud box with a hammer. The setter was not to happy with me as he was floating a tub shower combo. :lol1:

[ckl111]

Oh Boy, that's all we need. To give each other ideas..... :uhh: :rolleyes:

[T_Hulse]

I wait until I've got mud spread & setting tile in a critical area and tell the new guy "Oh crap. Quick! run out the truck and get my tile stretcher."
If they ask questions I tell them it's the metal frame with the lever; it should be in the big box or in the shelves... or somewhere back there. (I have a really big van :D)

[Tileworks]

Quick! run out the truck and get my tile stretcher.

Back in the mid-90's, I worked for Papa John's Pizza. Across the street was Domino's Pizza. At our store, we would actually stretch and toss our dough. New guy's would put a hole in the first few they tried, and we would say to them after they ripped about 3 of them, "Go across the street to Domino's and tell them we need to borrow their dough-repair-kit, and we'll bring it back before closing" :-)

And across the street they went, while we just balled the stuff up and stretched it out right this time.

- Bob

[rddrappo]

I used to put my great dane in my camper shell and ask someone to go get something out of the truck. Usually took a few minutes to get their color back!

[TravisFling]

My buddy would always go in the bathroom and lay a huge stinker, turn the heater on, wait a few minutes and then ask "Hey Jason -is that your wallet in there on the floor...? Yeah, it's black leather..." I always thought that was pretty funny.

[pa_tileman]

Pressing all the floor buttons on the service elevator of 20 floors before sending it back up to your partner at clean up time Friday afternoon buys about 15mins of good solid rollin :lol1: They are pretty hot when they off though. Locking the truck doors while laughing inside just makes things worse. It's probably better just to greet them at the bottom and at least carry his tool bucket to the truck!

Brian

[Great British Tiler]

Not sure if this qualifies as a prank but here goes......

It takes 2 of you (and a culprit).......one get the trousers down, the other flicks thinset where the sun don't shine - best done when your helper is carrying tiles. There's all the old classics, long weight, sky hooks, new spirit level bubble. Always get a chuckle.

I personally like hiding lunchboxes in exciting ways - silicone them to the ceiling or on a plank of wood outside somewhere. If they have bags, cable tie them real tight to pipes......just start eating whilst they try to get it off.

If your helper brings a water bottle, just score a couple of slits near the top with a knife, they won't notice and they will keep wiping their chin after every gulp..........priceless.

[belletile]

When I was apprenticing as a bricklayer one of the "smart" journeymen sent a new guy off to the material yard for something like a brick stretcher that didn't exist. He was ordered not to come back with out it. That was about mid afternoon.
Didn't see the guy again until we stopped at the local watering hole after work. There he was. He said he had stayed at the material yard until closing insisting that they give him what he was ordered to bring back. He happily volunteered to stay there all day the next day until those so and so's cooperated. That didn't happen as he was obviously a few brews ahead of us so we all knew who had the best laugh that day.
Michael

[Jim Farrell Tiler]

i had a smart arse tradesman send me for a tin of "suction" when i was a apprentice but as i wasnt as stupid as he thought i was i went for a walk through town for a couple of hours generally filling in time until nock off and when i turned up he was really angry because he had to work a little harder to finish the job without me, so i just smiled at him and told him to f off :tongue:

[opiethetileman]

ill share a few that i did.


Okay when i worked for a hospitol. There was a employee suggestion box next in the middle of the elevators. I would see so many people put things in and I would say noone reads that crap. i was 20 at the time. SO there was a storage closet next to it. I came in on a sunday and cut a whole in the door and moved the box to the door. on the other side of the door I hooked up a paper shreader. So basically your sugeestions you would hear being chewed up. It was sweet and funny. SO monday morning i go to work I didnt say a word so went about my thning. I go to the elevators and people are just shoving paper in therelike no tommrow. I was was laughing inside. About 1 hour later over the main intercoam. I hear Mr Whelan report to the CEO office ASAP. Well lets put it to ya this way its still the laugh of that hospitol. I got 5 days off with no pay for that one.


I could tell you tons of stories from my medical days. Some will make you piss your pants trust me from laughing so hard.

[tony lamar]

Let's not forget the old "sqeeze the wet sponge over the helper's exposed crack" routine.

[thuffner3]

We had a guy that was drinker, so everyday he didn't have money for lunch or anything else for that matter. My brother, kind heart would pack lunch, and always reluctantly give him a sandwich. One day my brother made a few sandwichs and porposefully left the plastic wrap on the cheese. What a sight to see this guy try to eat that freebee.
Another one, the day my brother put a crap load of shredded toilet paper into a painters paint bucket. You have seen this guy piss and moan every time he pulled out his 5in1 to remove a piece of paper from his freshly rolled wall. What a hoot.
Or the day we put Limburger chees in the bottom of another tile setters tool box. didn't find for a day or so.

Peace

[MikeyL]

A favorite of mine has always been 1 or 2 large, heavy duty zip ties on your marks' driveshaft. Doesn't do any damage, but makes all sorts of ruckus and the frequency of the sounds picks up as they accelerate :yipee:

[kfletcher68]

I sometimes take a margin trowel and fling a big glob of thinset/grout into my buddy's gloves. Gives me a chuckle every time.

[tileman2000]

Hey Java,that story sounds very familiar for some reason.

[tileguytodd]

I have a hard fast rule......Fun is one thing, but fun at someone else's expense is another........Practical jokers need not apply!!

They are a waste of My time & My Money and Ive seen them taken to the point of dangerous.......Once they begin its always Oneupmanship until it gets in the way of everything else.

There are ways to have fun on the jobsite without resorting to:
"Fun At someone else's expense"

[johntrent]

:goodpost: Thanks Todd for some perspective - I agree with you completely. Since I started this - I will look for a way to gracefully change track - Can you or anyone give us an example of fun that isn't at someones expense?

[kate42]

John

Can you or anyone give us an example of fun that isn't at someones expense?

No. A practical joke, IMHO, is always at someone else's expense. Otherwise it wouldn't be a practical joke.

[overtaker]

Working for a Pizza hut just out of highschool we would prank the new dish washers. We had them ( when we were slow ) put alot of soap in the sink and then run the water making lots of bubbles. We then had them " bag the suds" in little baggies and stack them in the tray. This way when we got busy the suds would already be made. Believe it or not we even had one girl weighing the bags. :lol1:

[overtaker]

On a new cons. job after some heavy rains the porta john was in about 8 in. of water. Being the coffee drinker that I am, I made several trips to the closet with a 5 gal. bucket. While my "lazy" helper wasn't looking I placed another bucket in there with about 1/2" of good clean water. He was standing on the back padio when I came out of our make shift restroom carying the bucket of what he thought was urine. Well, me and my clumbsy feet triped on the door threshold sending the water splashing all over him. He thought he just recieved a golden shower! PRICELESS

[bctile601]

A fellow I used to work for years ago tried stealing a left-over bag of thin-set the builder had paid for. He got a call, and knew the builder was coming on-site, so he told his helper to ' burry ' that thin-set. He meant in the truck so the builder didn't see it. Next day he found out the guy actually dug a hole on-site :)
Everyone has a backfire now and then.