History Main / ThePrankster

* WebVideo/ThomasSanders has two long-running Website/{{Vine}} series, "Disney Pranks with Friends" and "Pokemon Pranks", which are all about adapting various Creator/{{Disney}} and Creator/{{Pixar}} movies into pranks and pranks based on Franchise/{{Pokemon}} attacks, respectively. Some of his "Narrating People's Lives" Vines are pranks as well.

* St. Philip Neri was a priest who founded a pontifical society of apostolic life known as the Congregation of the Oratory. He is also the patron saint of humour because he was known to be a practical joker and stated that it is more fitting for a Christian to be joyful than sour. Some of his jokes included shaving off half of his beard, tugging at a Papal Guard's beard, skipping around like a kid, and deliberately misreading aloud, especially when there are academics nearby. The primary reason he pulled these pranks, however, is not to make people laugh, but rather to humble himself and sometimes to [[TricksterMentor teach a lesson]]. For example, he was skipping around in the square of St. Pietro in Vincoli, but some passersby commented: "Look at that old fool there", which was the reaction he intended. He is also once said to tell one penitent, who confessed to gossiping, to scatter a chicken's feathers around town as penance. The penitent did so, thinking she was partaking in one of St. Philip Neri's gags, and presented the featherless chicken to him. With that, St. Philip instructed her to go back to town and gather all its feathers. She said that the task is impossible as the feathers might be anywhere, to which St. Philip replied that [[AnAesop this also happens to gossip]].

* "I Remember Larry" by Music/WeirdAlYankovic is a song about a serial prankster who constantly made the singer's life absolute hell with pranks that ranged from mean-spirited (pulling the singer's pants off, taking colour photos, then posting them all over town) to borderline lethal (dumping toxic waste on his lawn). While reminiscing about "what a funny, funny guy" Larry was, the singer eventually gets to reminiscing about [[TheDogBitesBack that time he broke into Larry's house, kidnapped him, murdered him, and left his corpse in a plastic bag in the woods]], [[MoodWhiplash while still remembering him fondly]].

** [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E5GriffonTheBrushOff "Griffon the Brush Off"]] sees [[GenkiGirl Pinkie Pie]] and [[BoisterousBruiser Rainbow Dash]] bonding over pranks. Interestingly, rather than the usual route of having them learn that "all pranks are bad!", it's made clear that their jokes are all done in good fun, and they back down from pranking [[ShrinkingViolet Fluttershy]] who they think is too emotionally fragile to just shrug it off. Both are just a bit InnocentlyInsensitive in "Luna Eclipsed", where Pinkie Pie's letting herself be scared by Princess Luna constantly undermines Luna's efforts to make friends and Rainbow Dash inadvertently causes an InterruptedCooldownHug just as Luna and Pinkie were about to make peace. [[NotSoAboveItAll Luna gets her revenge though.]] In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E16TwentyEightPranksLater 28 Pranks Later]]", Rainbow Dash gets ''really'' carried away with the pranking. Once again, her friends repay her in kind.

** Bart Simpson, of course. After all, it is specifically why Creator/MattGroening [[MeaningfulName named him that in the first place]], since “Bart” is an anagram for “Brat.” His career highlights include inciting a media frenzy by pretending to be trapped in a well, answering his teacher's personal ad, replacing the hymns in the church with "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida," turning the school weather balloon into Principal Skinner's "rumpy doppelganger," trapping the teachers in their cars by repainting the lines in the parking lot, and getting an Australian boy to accept a $900 collect call by impersonating a drainage commissioner. And then there's all those {{Prank Call}}s to Moe...

** "Marge the Meanie" reveals that Bart gets his propensity for this kind of thing from [[HiddenDepths Marge of all people]]. She used to torment her middle school principal [[GenerationXerox much as Bart now torments Skinner]]. Although she regrets this behavior as an adult, her pranking phase experiences a brief resurgence when Bart, impressed to learn of his mother's past, starts egging her on.

* Betsy Sobak in ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'' book (and [[ComicBook/TheBabySittersClub graphic novel version]]) ''Claudia and the Bad Joke'' is this, to the point she's lost other sitters in the past. When Claudia sits for her, she ends up [[PrankGoneTooFar breaking her leg]] on the swings from Betsy losening the swing's chain, scaring her so much she considers giving up baby sitting.

* Ewan from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones''.
* Yuffie Kisaragi of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' fame.

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'' has an entire ''race'' of these with the Umgah. Since the Umgah are a bit insane and pretty immoral anyway, their pranks involve things like sparking interplanetary wars or slamming asteroids into other species' homeworlds.
* ''VideoGame/RuneFactory4'' has both Doug and Leon, though surprisingly, they neither engage in a prank war nor team up to torment the more serious members of the cast.
* Lilica Felchenerow from ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart''. So much that one of them actually led to the rise of Yoriko's partner Mike.
* Tewi Inaba from ''Franchise/TouhouProject'', whose pranks range from mean-spirited (digging pit traps in the forest) to outright sociopathic depending on the doujin.
* Sans from ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' has an EstablishingCharacterMoment where he introduces himself to you with a whoopee cushion gag. Later on, [[spoiler:he'll actually abuse his powers over time and space]] just to pull a series of pranks at your expense; his brother Papyrus implies that he does that sort of thing a lot.
* The Prankster ability in ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' boosts the ActionInitiative of any move that doesn't deal direct damage, including buffs, debuffs, and status conditions. Recent games gave Dark-type Pokémon immunity to Prankster moves because they're sneaky enough to see them coming.

* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'': This is Luca’s favorite pastime, and will frequently try to prank people all over the Halidom. Occasionally, he will even use some of his pranks for combat, which can be surprisingly effective. Just don’t expect his pranks to get very far when [[CloudcuckoolandersMinder Sarisse]] is around.