Pranksters

This volume represents a contribution to comparative scholarship in Medieval and Renaissance studies in its investigation of the ingenious diversity of roguish practices found in Medieval and Renaissance literature and its recognition of the coherent normative function of tales of tricksters and pranksters. The wide variety of works analysed, from those forming part of the established canon of texts on undergraduate degree schemes to lesser-known works, makes the volume of interest to students and researchers alike. The roguish behaviour of women, priests, foxes and outlaws and the knavery of Eulenspiegel and Panurge are used to illustrate how rituals of inversion and humiliation typical of the medieval carnival are reflected in literary accounts of trickery, and to question whether the restorative function attributed to carnival celebration is equally to be found in the intra-textual and extra-textual outcomes of trickery. This analysis is supported by studies into the trickster in mythology, sociological investigations into the role of disorder, Bakhtinian theories of carnival and the carnivalesque, and theories of black humour.

From Benjamin Franklin's newspaper hoax that faked the death of his rival to Abbie HoffmanOCOs attempt to levitate the Pentagon, pranksters, hoaxers, and con artists have caused confusion, disorder, and laughter in Western society for centuries. Profiling the most notorious mischief makers from the 1600s to the present day, a Pranksters aexplores how OC pranksOCO are part of a long tradition of speaking truth to power and social critique. Invoking such historical and contemporary figures as P.T. Barnum, Jonathan Swift, WITCH, The Yes Men, and Stephen Colbert, Kembrew McLeod shows how staged spectacles that balance the serious and humorous can spark important public conversations. In some instances, tricksters have incited social change (and unfortunate prank blowback) by manipulating various forms of media, from newspapers to YouTube. For example, in the 1960s, self-proclaimed OC professional hoaxerOCO Alan Abel lampooned AmericaOCOs hypocritical sexual mores by using conservative rhetoric to fool the news media into covering a satirical organization that advocated clothing naked animals. In the 1990s, Sub Pop Records then-receptionist Megan Jasper satirized the commodification of alternative music culture by pranking thea New York Times ainto reporting on her fake lexicon of OC grunge speak.OCO Throughout this book, McLeod shows how pranks interrupt the daily flow of approved information and news, using humor to underscore larger, pointed truths. Written in an accessible, story-driven style, a Pranksters areveals how mischief makers have left their shocking, entertaining, and educational mark on modern political and social life."

A VERY FUNNY BOOK! Chuckle and chortle with St. Timothy's pranksters as they lead you along their twisting, turning, craftily constructed schemes. Groan and grumble with their victims as they discover they've been led down the garden path. PRANKSTERS AT PLAY: TALES OUT OF SCHOOL is chock-a-block with, what else -- pranks! Reader beware, lest you become a victim yourself. You have been warned. Remember, in this book, as at St. Timothy's, "Nothing is ever exactly what it seems." "You're right, Emerson," said his teacher. "I suppose I've always known it. And, when I really think about it, only that awful man could be behind all this nonsense," she declared. "Oh, Ma'am," replied Emerson with a sharp intake of breath, "pranks aren't nonsense. Pranks are very serious business, Ma'am. If you're going to do them right." ABOUT THE AUTHOR, MEL ANTHONY Mel Anthony knows about pranks. For five years at boarding school (age 13 to 18) he was both a perpetrator and victim of pranks. Having reared three sons, practiced social work, retired to a sailboat and become engaged in relief work in Peru, he has found time to look back on a much more innocent, contented, carefree period in his life. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Christian-Out-Reach-Peru (Cristianos Obrando para Respaldar los Peruanos) to support relief work in and around Puente Piedra, Lima, Peru. For more information, please go to www.christian-out-reach-peru.com

Sven and Ariella are a couple in their twenties who meet through an online dating service. Despite many differences in their likes and dislikes, the two fall in love. During their courtship, Sven soon discovers there are peculiar figures in Ariella ́s family, some of whom are obviously disturbed. Unbeknownst to Sven, two of his friends have ties to Ariella ́s extended family and both have different roles in the bizarre family saga. Cousins and Pranksters is a past-paced, humorous contemporary novella with some unbelievable characters - including one that gets away with almost inconceivable mayhem. The absurdity of modern life is satirized and brought to life by an assortment of absurdly funny characters.

The Lawrence and Lynne Brown Democracy Medal, presented by the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, recognizes outstanding individuals, groups, and organizations that produce innovations to further democracy in the United States or around the world. The 2020 Brown Democracy Medal winner, Srdja Popovic, was a leader in the revolution that brought down the Milošević regime in Serbia and he continues to help protestors around the world learn effective, sometimes humorous, nonviolent tactics. In 2020, he teamed up with Sophia A. McClennen to study the concept of "dilemma actions," which offers a structured, strategic approach to fighting back against authoritarianism, as well as for defending democracy.

Pranksters, Hooligans, and Big Lizards - An intense and suspenseful yet insightful comic work of fiction set in present-day North Carolina - Life is full of unexpected and unlikely situations, from unlikely occupations, mismatched couples to strange behavior. Sven and Ariella are newlyweds who find their career paths leading them to Charlotte, North Carolina where Buford, Ariellas mysterious cousin and prankster is hiding under an alias. At the same time, Ariellas parents each find their own peculiar callings in the city. In their move to Charlotte, the parents are accompanied by some strange yet comical figures with ambitions of their own, one of whom is a career criminal with a dangerous past and who runs a secret organization. It is the "hooligan" with the criminal past that ultimately becomes the first victim of two murders. To add to the suspense,the police learn that they have been foiled and have the wrong suspect in custody. Later on, after the second murder takes place,the authorities are baffled in their efforts to determine if the two murders are in any way related. By a strange sequence of events, "prankster" Buford finds himself at the scenes of both murders. In the midst of these violent acts, there is also a mystery surrounding two large lizards. Buford finds he may very well have met his match and finally be forced to retire or maybe he has just found a new partner in pranksterdom and the woman of his dreams. Sven and Ariella provide commentary on the unfolding events but in the process, they reveal hypocrisies about themselves. Each have their own perspective Sven proclaims to be a devout man of faith but Ariella prides herself on being a nonbeliever. But it is Ariellas hysterically odd grandmother Annabelle, a kind of all-knowing oracle with the wisdom of the ages, who has connections everywhere and knows almost everyones secrets in this wild contemporary comedy/mystery.

Rabble Rousers and Merry Pranksters captures some of the imagination, the audacity, the laughs and the wildness that animated many of the social movements of the sixties and seventies in Aotearoa/New Zealand. During this time, particularly from the late sixties to the early seventies, an astonishingly broad-based revolt occurred throughout the country. Thousands of workers, Maori, Pacific people, women, youth, lesbians, gays, students, environmentalists and others rebelled against authority. Innovative new styles and anarchistic methods of political dissent became popular. A colourful and energetic bunch of anarchists occasionally played significant roles in these struggles. Anarchists were prominent in the anti-nuclear, anti-Vietnam War, anti-US military bases, commune, unemployed and peace movements. Rabble Rousers and Merry Pranksters is a richly-detailed tale about a much neglected anti-authoritarian leftist current in Aotearoa/New Zealand history."