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Top 25 Pranks of All Time

UGO's Top 25 Pranks

UGO Team By Casey Seijas January 21, 2009
  

Ah, pranks – who doesn't love them? In terms of comedy, a good prank has got it all: you can get your friends involved, the prankee usually gets to experience an emotional rollercoaster, and of course, everyone gets lots and lots of laughs in the end. Yup, pranks are great...so long as they're not happening to you, naturally.

And while history is littered with great pranks ever since Og the Caveman pulled the first prank on his buddy Udd with the ol' "fake plastic T-Rex" gag, there are certainly a few that stand head and shoulders above the rest. Not to mention, pranks have become art forms in themselves and a cultural phenomenon – heck, it seems like at one point MTV was showing nothing but prank shows!

As diehard fans of the art of the prank, we here at UGO would like to take time out and celebrate the top 25 greatest pranks ever caught on camera. So put down your whoopee cushions and fake dog doo-doo and join in on the fun at laughing at others misfortunes!

25. Red And The Tube Bar
25. Red And The Tube Bar

25. Red And The Tube Bar

Might as well start this one off with a classic, and – short of Candid Camera -- arguably one of the first "pranks" to ever break into the social consciousness. In the mid-1970's, two knuckleheads named John Elmo and Jim Davidson (who referred to themselves as "The Bum Bar Bastards") began prank calling the Tube Bar, located in Jersey City, New Jersey. Usually, a surly old man named Red would answer, and Elmo and Davidson would ask if the likes of "Al Coholic" or "Hugh Jass" were there, to which Red would loudly ask the bar's patrons much to their chagrin (if, of course, Red didn't catch on before hand, and in turn threaten to cut major organs out of their bodies). The two men started taping the calls, which eventually began circulating to the point where they became the forefathers of prank humor. Not to mention, their exploits clearly became the inspiration for Bart Simpson's decades long torment of Moe Syzlak on The Simpsons.

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