Practical Jokes for Your Clinic's Halloween

Okay, this post is totally non-academic or editorial, unless you consider good humor to be a key to a long and healthful life.

Halloween is a fun time of the year. Some people really enjoy getting into a costume and role.

Take one of our custodians at Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Each year, he dresses in his highly accurate costume depicting 1987’s “Predator,” character in the film of the same name that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Joe Semler’s bosses cut him a little slack and he gets to wander around our buildings and campus, basically causing a brief moment of pandemonium. You can check him out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CPXZ8uHKZI.

Halloween is also a time when practical jokes flourish. Practical jokes can be funny and entertaining ways to not take ourselves too seriously. The best are those that lure the victim in by situational familiarity, greed, or malignant curiosity. It is not funny to scare someone using a crisis in duties they normally perform.

So here are some of the best I’ve seen:

• An electronic device that emits a cat meow with a remote control was used to drive staff nuts. One year as Halloween approached, some friends put the device in the false ceiling above a person known to champion homeless animals a bit too zealously. They drove her nuts for about a week, moving it to a different part of the office each day. Finally, she called maintenance guys to come get the “stranded kitty out of the ceiling. They did, and handed her the little black box as her co-workers gathered around. She took it all in stride. You can see the device here: http://www.healingbaskets.com/prod_20900.htm.

• A veterinarian I know used a heavy duty rat trap to build a spring-loaded wooden box. Inside, a piece of synthetic fur is rigged to fly out at the unsuspecting person when actuated by the prankster. Their curiosity to see the animal-of-your-choice in the box is what draws them in. There’s a guy who has formalized the plans and sells them. To see the device in action at his site, see: http://mongooseboxprank.com/video1.html.

• At a party there is always someone who wants to snoop through a host’s medicine cabinet when they go to the bathroom. The joke employs the little flat box that holds a case of beer, some plastic wrap, and popcorn kernels. You fill the box with the kernels and place a piece of plastic wrap over the top. Taking the medicine cabinet shelves and contents out, you gently tip the box up into the bare cabinet and shut the door. Then you pull the plastic wrap out and when someone opens the door the kernels cascade out.

So what about your practice? What’s the best, cleanest, and safe practical joke you’ve seen?