Practical joke
act meant to produce humor by causing annoyance, alarm, confusion, discomfort, or embarrassment, but no lasting harm
A practical joke, also known as a prank or trolling, is a trick played on people, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, discomfort, or irritation. The perpetrator of a practical joke is called a "practical joker", "prankster" or "troll". Other terms for practical jokes include gag, jape and shenanigan. Some countries in western nations make it tradition to carry out pranks on April Fools' Day and Mischief Night.
Purpose
Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks or hoaxes in that the victim finds out, or is let in on the joke, rather than being talked into handing over money or other valuables. Practical jokes are generally lighthearted and without lasting effect; they aim to make the victim feel humbled or foolish, but not victimized or humiliated. Thus most practical jokes are affectionate gestures of humour and designed to encourage laughter. However, practical jokes performed with cruelty can constitute bullying, whose intent is to harass or exclude rather than reinforce social bonds through ritual humbling.
Description
A practical joke is "practical" because it consists of someone doing something that is physical, in contrast to a verbal or written joke. For example, the joker who is setting up and conducting the practical joke might hang a bucket of water above a doorway and rig the bucket using pulleys so when the door opens the bucket dumps the water.
The public source identifies “Practical joke” as act meant to produce humor by causing annoyance, alarm, confusion, discomfort, or embarrassment, but no lasting harm. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Practical, joke and meant.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q931092. The Library of Congress control number is sh85106043. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Practical joke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.