Half-Life of Halfway Decent College Prank Now Half a Second
From: Yale College Council
Date: March 27, 2007 12:33:36 AM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: Your Spring Fling 2007 Performers: Coming Tuesday, May 1st!
Two hours and 11 minutes, actually.
The above image (click to embiggen) landed in every Yale undergrad’s inbox shortly after midnight, announcing this year’s Spring Fling performers as Smashmouth and Ricky Martin. Last year’s headliners were Ludacris and Ben Folds, so that would have been quite a letdown. As college pranks go, this was somewhere way below Drinkin’ Time and way above the reinstatement of Larry Summers. But, all things considered, we give the parties responsible — we’re told it’s three gents folks by the name of Amun Storres Arun Storrs, Zijun Chen and Jayson Tischler* — a B for finely calibrated plausibility and Photoshop skillz.
Alas! New Haven yawned, not a soul convinced, more concerned with reacclimating after spring break and furiously de-tagging incriminating photos on Facebook. And at 2:47 a.m., the not-fazed-whatsoever Yale College Council responded in kind. If video killed the radio star, Internet killed the campus prankstar.
From: “Yale College Council” <ycc@yalestation.org>
Date: March 27, 2007 2:47:55 AM EDT
To: [Redacted]
Subject: Your Spring Fling 2007 Performers: Coming Tuesday, May 1st!
(No, it’s not Smashmouth and Ricky Martin either.
Find out through the YDN in a couple of weeks.)
*UPDATE March 28: Given that we a) misspelled the first person’s name, b) had the wrong gender on the second, and c) are now told by the third (“Error!!!”) that he had nothing to do with the original email, we think it’s pretty fair to say our tipster was misinformed about who was involved. Disregard!
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March 27th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
last lineup i heard was gwar and alabama thunderpussy. LOLZ! my prediction: a southern rapper that white kids who went to hotchkiss smash box to.
March 27th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I’m not sure where you got your info about who’s behind the prank, but I’m pretty sure that the first person doesn’t exist, and Zijun Chen is a girl, not a “gent.”
March 28th, 2007 at 1:04 am
I think you guys might be missing the point. Whoever pulled this off did such a good job of ripping off the YCC’s format that they call into question pretty much everything that they send out from now on. Nobody on campus is really sure that the second email wasn’t just another prank–besides, who the hell are Boards of Canada? Even if the YCC DID correct it immediately, everybody will still question the final announcement as a potential prank, whenever it comes out.
March 28th, 2007 at 8:05 am
I love Boards of Canada, however I’m not sure they’d be too thrilling live. We never get any good bands because all of our money is thrown at inviting people like Ahmaninejad to campus.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:44 am
“…everyone will still question the final announcement as a potential prank, whenever it comes out.”
I think it’s pretty clear that the YCC’s decided to give up on announcing via email entirely. Notice how both the counterprank and the “real” correction email emphasized finding out “through the YDN”?
Admittedly, the YDN’s investigative reporting is typically on the level of “University to fund program” (that’s a real headline), but it would take a pretty dedicated prankster to fool them into running a story based on a fake tip.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
I know this is beside the point, but how incredible would seeing BoC be
March 28th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
who tipped you off to the “parties responsible”? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t either of the first two names. Dunno about the third
March 29th, 2007 at 4:15 am
I like HIJK
April 2nd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
I thought it was supposed to be T.I….. and I will continue believing that, as picturing him on the spring fling stage rapping about the trap will bring me endlessssss amounts of joy.
April 17th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
wtnh just said its T.I. whoo hoo; more townie’s will probably be there than Yalies!
December 5th, 2008 at 1:13 am
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