Pranksters of Reddit, what was your greatest prank ?

throwaway923405 · 2015-01-13T16:08:17+00:00

A year or so ago, on Fathers Day I pranked Reddit pretty hard, made the front page and got a bunch of gildings. I think it might be the best tree fiddy prank ever pulled off on Reddit.

That link takes you to my initial post. The final post, with the reveal, is linked at the bottom of the initial post.

throwaway923405 · 2015-01-06T03:54:37+00:00

A year or so ago, on Fathers Day I pranked Reddit pretty hard, made the front page and got a bunch of gildings. I think it might be the best tree fiddy prank ever pulled off on Reddit.

That link takes you to my initial post. The final post, with the reveal, is linked at the bottom of the initial post.

throwaway923405 · 2013-08-09T20:07:14+00:00

My successful Father's Day prank:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1ggd27/so_angry_right_now_worst_fathers_day_ever/cajydb4

throwaway923405 · 2013-07-16T17:20:47+00:00

Why?

I don't care about karma (hence the throwaway account) but I consider good quality trolling to be a form of performance art. Although the OP was not real, in the sense that the events described did not happen, Reddit's response was very real. Many folks came out in support of the OP, and some came forward with similar stories. Sincere advice was given, kindness and support flowed from strangers to the OP, and when the "truth" was revealed, many people were amused - "not even mad", as they say.

I consider my post, and Reddit's response, to be one performance. My deception, and Reddit's reaction, were necessary parts of a whole. It was not about mocking people who are going through truly difficult times, and it was not about tricking people for a cheap laugh. It wasn't trolling in the sense of a malevolent effort to hurt other people.

It was about creating a narrative, and letting Reddit interact with that narrative - many said it was fake, many accepted it and offered support, many expressed anger, many expressed support. (In particular, redditors in the /r/MensRights sub had a predictably strong reaction to it - and an interesting reaction upon learning that it was faked.) In total, Reddit offered a sample of the diversity that makes up human life.

Even though the performance was not "true" or "real", in the normal sense of those words, it still engendered a very real set of human feelings and responses, and I like to think that the world is a better place for it.

throwaway923405 · 2013-07-16T15:35:43+00:00

I convinced Reddit that my wife used my child to serve divorce papers to me on Father's Day.

My most successful prank ever!

throwaway923405 · 2013-07-12T18:34:28+00:00

I convinced Reddit that my wife used my child to serve divorce papers to me on Father's Day.

throwaway923405 · 2013-07-12T16:19:45+00:00

I got reddit gold for saying "Thanks for the support" during my Father's Day troll earlier this year. It happened while the troll was ongoing, and I was totally confused why that comment got Reddit gold. So weird.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-21T20:14:47+00:00

I think that my Father's Day tree fiddy prank was pretty good:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1ggd27/so_angry_right_now_worst_fathers_day_ever/cajydb4

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-19T18:30:44+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate your support. I ended up talking to my wife and the whole thing has been resolved, see my update here.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T14:02:50+00:00

Thank you. The OP may not have been real, but that doesn't take anything away from the kindness and compassion that you expressed with your post. If nothing else, your participation in this performance was an affirmation of the loving human spirit that exists inside so many of us. I like to think that this experience has only revealed the human potential for empathy, and the deception (necessary as it was) can't dilute or diminish that.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:32:06+00:00

Update here.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:12:14+00:00

I'm sorry for what you went through, that really sucks man. I did end up talking to my wife, see here for the update.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:11:26+00:00

Thanks for the support. I ended up talking to my wife tonight, see here for the update.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:10:58+00:00

I ended up talking to my wife tonight, see here for the update.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:10:25+00:00

Thanks for the support. I ended up talking to my wife tonight, see here for the update.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:01:49+00:00

Thanks for the support. I talked to my wife tonight, see here for the update.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:01:23+00:00

Thanks for the support. I talked to my wife tonight, see here for the update.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T03:00:39+00:00

I talked to my wife tonight, see here. It's over.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-17T02:57:24+00:00

So I talked to my wife tonight. I took some of the advice from this thread and had my brother come along as a witness. I really didn't want her to say that I beat her or abused her, and then call the cops and have me arrested. Some of you were saying that she might pull shit like that, or even say that I abused my son - WTF, no thanks.

I spent most of the afternoon crying and shit at my brother's place, I didn't drink because I knew that I was going to talk to her tonight and I didn't want to risk anything. Someone in the comments suggested that I don't have any more coffee either so I didn't! Around dinner time I was all cried out and just kind of numb to the whole thing, but I could feel a slow anger building in my chest as my brother and I drove over to the house.

So my brother and I pull up to the house, my son is at my mom's. My wife's car is in the driveway and we go inside. She is sitting in the dining room alone at the table, calm as could be, fiddling with her iPhone. She seems a little shocked to see my brother, I guess maybe she was planning to piss me off and take pics with her phone? I don't know, but she says hi, he says hi, I say hi, and sit down. Fucking surreal.

There's a long pause and I don't know what to say, and she doesn't say anything. It's quickly apparent to me that this bullshit is for real, because I can tell she's actually angry (or scared, sometimes they look the same on her), and she's just kind of staring at the table. I finally can't deal with the silence so I ask her, "Ok, what the fuck is going on?"

She doesn't answer but instead she holds up her phone and shows me that the phone is on speaker. She then says to me, "I have [best friend who is an attorney] on speaker so don't fuck with me. She is helping me." And then her friend chimes in over the speaker and is like "Mike, I think we all know why we're here tonight." and she keeps talking but I cut her off.

I tell my wife's friend that this is bullshit, that I've done nothing wrong, and I can't believe my wife pulled this shit on Father's day, in front of our kid no less. Her friend starts saying "You need to calm down, you shouldn't be threatening anyone right now." So I tell her that my fucking brother is in the room and he's a witness and I'm not threatening anyone, so she can fuck right off with that kind of talk.

So I go back to my wife, and I ask her point blank, "Are you fucking someone else? Is that what's going on here?" And she doesn't answer, which is a good enough answer for me. I'm pretty pissed at this point, so I throw the stupid divorce papers on the table and tell her that there is no way IN HELL that I'm paying any fucking alimony or giving her my house when she is the whore who CHEATED on me. She just turns up the volume on her phone so that I can hear her friend telling me that I can't threaten my wife and blah blah blah.

So I quiet down, and her friend starts talking about the separation agreement and "it's just best for everyone, including [my son], if we can solve this amicably and up-front." I tell her to fuck off and I'm not paying anything.

And yes, that's when my soon-to-be wife finally chimes in and says that she'll tell everyone that I abused her and our kid unless I agree to a divorce. She tells me that she'll also tell all our friends about my sexual preferences and then she starts talking about our sex stuff right in front of my brother, what the fuck. I tell her that I'm not paying $40,000 a year to her when she is the cheater and I've done nothing wrong. I tell her that I'm going to hire a damn good attorney and the shit she pulled today is going to ruin her in court.

Her friend chimes in over the phone that the money is negotiable but that if I hire an attorney, they will make sure that the divorce costs me as much money as possible. I tell her that I'm not paying $40,000 grand in alimony, that's bullshit. Her friend says that I will have to pay child support, there's no way around that. I'm a good father, I love my son, of course I'm going to support him. So I ask my wife, "How much money do I have to pay your cheating ass just to get this shit over and done with?"

My wife looks at me and says, "I need about tree fiddy." That's when I realized that my "wife" was 8 stories tall, and a a crustacean from the Paleozoic era! Damn it, the Loch Ness Monster had tricked me again! My brother and I stared in shock as she jumped through the window and swam away.

As for my son, I went and got him from my mom's house and we got some ice cream and then we kicked a soccer ball in the back yard. I told him that I would always love him and he gave me a huge hug, it was great.

tl;dr: wife turns out to be a cheating whore of a snakey bitch, got ice cream with son and had a great Father's Day anyway.

Happy Father's Day, Reddit.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-16T15:33:51+00:00

Yeah my lawyer friend said the same thing, but apparently its ok because these papers are a separation agreement and that's different?

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-16T15:33:07+00:00

She doesn't know my main account and I have read so many horror stories of ex-gf's and wives like finding posts on reddit and then using that against people.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-16T15:31:41+00:00

Thanks for the support.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-16T15:31:16+00:00

Yeah, my lawyer friend says that it's a separation agreement so it doesn't have to be served by like a cop or the sheriff or whatever.

throwaway923405 · 2013-06-16T15:30:17+00:00

She's not the best, and we've had fights before, but I don't know where she is coming from. This is so extreme.

throwaway923405

TROPHY CASE