Minimum-wage job pranks

[InternalDialogue]

It's been years, but I still laugh when I think of the pranks my coworkers and I pulled on newbies when I worked at a theater during my teenage summers.

The one that worked almost all the time was asking the new kid to "take down the flags outside" during their first night closing. We sometimes waited an hour before they returned saying they couldn't find the flagpoles.

The one that only worked once, but was well worth it, was when we'd ask our projectionist to call the front counter and desperately announce we were almost out of Technicolor. He'd ask the new kid to go about two miles to another theater in the chain and ask if we could borrow a box of theirs.

And sometimes the most entertaining was to give the new kid the task of spelling the weekend's movie listing on the marquee by the street, but with a box of letters that we'd removed all the vowels from. When he or she came back up and announced the problem, we'd say that's all the letters we've got. Interesting results after that one.

So, were there any pranks your crew would pull on newbies at your summer jobs? And did you ever get fooled by one yourself?

[Crazy Dave]

1. Many as a newbie in the military

During peace time back in the early 80's we only played pretend war against the Warsaw Pact so during field maneuvers there were always continuous pranks being played against first timers. Standing guard at various places, go ask 1st platoon if they have a "sky-hook", let us know when the first nuke hits, etc.

[AllegroRondo]

2. Lots of newbie stuff in fhe military band field

such as sending the new kids down to the motorpool for a can of squelch or a box of grid squares.

We would get new guitar or piano players that had never done Concert Band music before. In a Concert Band, they would be required to play auxilliary percussion, like cymbals, bass drum, etc. Nothing too tricky. But if they had never seen the music before, they could have a lot of questions.

One drummer liked to tell them that the letters "GP" in the music meant "Gong Part", and to hit the gong as hard as possible when that measure came up. If you've ever played concert music, "GP" actually means "Grand Pause" - meaning the entire band is silent.


The same drummer also liked to give newbies the gong mallet and tell them it was a "ceremonial bass drum mallet". A gong mallet is VERY heavy, and very padded, usually with fake fur. If you hit a bass drum with it, you get only a muffled 'thud'. So the new kids would end up swinging this 5-pound mallet as hard as they could, but not getting much sound at all, while the conductor yells "louder!!"

[InternalDialogue]

3. "Gong Part"

:rofl:







(although it probably would have worked on me)

[mainegreen]

4. Gong Part!?!?!

:spray:

That's brilliant.

[Aristus]

5. We tankers did a lot of that stuff, too. A favored trick was to tell the brand

new tread-head just out of basic to go over the hull of the tank and "look for soft spots in the armor." We would also send them a mile down the road from the track park to the maintenance hanger to ask for a can of "heater grease" or the key to the turret traverse lock. (The turret traverse lock was a simple flip-lever. :evilgrin: )

What fun. B-) Of course they never got ME on any of that stuff...

[WritingIsMyReligion]

13. "GP" meaning Gong Part?

HOLY SHIT, THAT IS RICH!

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Oh, man, yes! When I was on a nuclear sub, we'd have the newbies take out the control rods!

Fucking HILARIOUS!

[conscious evolution]

7. When I was in aviation

We would send the newbies for a gallon of jet or prop wash.Another one was to get a 100' of flight line.
A friend who was in the army was sent after a cannon report.He also was sent for a range bearing.

In electrical construction we have the wire stretcher(the plumbers borrowed it for their copper pipe.),a metric crescent wrench,spray-on heat shrink and the good ole sky hook.

[Chan790]

8. At my summer job we used to send newbies in search of a brass magnet

It was a screw factory. Heading had it, but gave it to Maintenance to re-tune it, Threading borrowed it to fish 4-40s out of the drainage grate, then they gave it to Wash who needed it to clean up a part spill but gave it to Shipping. As for what happened to it after Shipping was done with it, they think it got left on the truck that just left for Worcester.

Plant Best: 2 days (My kid brother). He offered to drive to Worcester to retrieve it.

[conscious evolution]

12. I was sent for the pipe stretcher

I found a quite spot and took a 3 hour nap!
Then the guys who sent me for it got chewed out by the boss.
Dumbass freepers!

[GoneOffShore]

9. Worked in a restaurant

And when we got new bus boys who were usually first timers, we send them to ask for a bucket of steam from the chef so we could polish glasses.

Or to go get the table stretcher that the restaurant across the street had borrowed was also a favorite.

[TheMightyFavog]

10. Here at UWSP...

We tell all the incoming freshmen that there was a swimming pool on the 5th floor.

(Note: all the dorm buildings at UWSP have four stories.)

[cwydro]

11. I remember in basic training

getting all excited that we were going to have a GI party.:rofl:

Then I learned.

[trof]

14. New secretary sent for paper slicer.

They told her we bought paper in bulk, in big solid blocks, and sliced off sheets as needed.
She asked 3 or 4 people before someone told her she'd been had.

[Crabby Appleton]

15. I used to work in a restaurant

we would carefully place eggs in reach-in refrigerators so that the next person that opened the door, the eggs would fall on the floor and break.

The lunch shift would slice some cheese for sandwiches, and we would mush it together as hard as possible so that when someone would try to peel off a slice it would be so stuck together that only little pieces would break off, not a whole slice.

And hide all the serving spoons, tongs, or spatulas.

[hippywife]

16. I worked in a full service restaurant

with an ice cream counter (not Friendly's) when I was 16 through about 18. I never pulled any pranks but the guys I worked with sure did.

They would send the noob into the ice cream freezer to mop the floor or up on the roof with bread crusts to fill the bird feeders...on a rainy night.

The best one I ever saw was the asst. manager had the new guy on his knees under the cold side of the sandwich board behind the grill. He was standing behind him saying, "Okay, the record time for cleaning out this refrigerator unit is 4 minutes. GO!" The guy is working his ass off as fast as he can and the asst. manager was standing behind him staring at his wrist as if he had a watch on. He didn't. That one was probably a "you had to be there and know the people involved" kind of prank for it to be as funny as it was at the time.

[usaftmo]

17. Air Force warehouse shipping/receiving...

We'd send a newbie to get an F-16 propeller. Another trick is when we ship out tires. We would tell the newbie to scoop the air out of the tire to make it lighter for shipment.

Sending someone to Supply for a pallet stretcher is also another classic trick.