10 U.S. Presidents Who Pulled Off Historic Pranks
Proving that practical jokes never go out of style, here is a list of 10 epic pranks pulled off by U.S. Presidents having a little fun at the expense of unsuspecting victims!
1. Andrew Jackson Punks Christmas Party With Prostitutes:
Andrew Jackson’s certainly embraced the “shock and awe” approach as far as pranks go. Early in his law career, Jackson attended a dinner at a local tavern where he though it would be just hilarious if he broke all the plates, shattered the glasses, split the table in two, and lit it all on fire. True story.
As a young man, he was given the task of organizing a Christmas party. It was intended to be an elegant affair, but the future president decided to jazz up the soirée by inviting some local prostitutes. Although young Jackson thought it was hilarious, the elite were not equally amused and neither were the prostitutes, as it were. Jackson ultimately apologized for his insensitivity.
Most telling of Jackson’s personality, was that as much as he loved to prank with shock value, it turns out that he wasn’t a fan when he was on the receiving end. After a duel, he was jokingly presented with a slab of bacon – a reference to Jackson’s reliance on Matthew Bacon’s Abridgment of the Law. Jackson responded to the jest by returning his opponent’s gaze with an icy stare.
2. Abraham Lincoln Had Height Advantage For His Jokes:
As a teenager, Abraham Lincoln had the reputation of a being not only a jokester, but a very tall one. So tall, his step-mother, Sarah Bush Lincoln, frequently teased him to keep his head clean, or else she would have to clean her pristine, whitewashed ceilings. One day, Lincoln spotted some boys playing in the mud and turned them upside down to leave muddy feet marks on the ceiling.
This prank was much more harmless than when he had attempted to scare some local children by telling them to heat an inflated pig’s bladder on the fireplace. The bladder exploded sending burning coals flying and setting a broom on fire. No one was hurt.
3. Calvin Coolidge’s Tomfoolery Was A Bit More Subtle:
Coollidge, known as “Silent Cal”, used restraint as part of his bone-dry humor. At a dinner party, a woman next to the president tried to engage in conversation by bringing up a bet she had made. She had bet, she told the reticent president, that she could get more than two words out of him. Coolidge responded to the woman: “You lose.”
The truth was, “Silent Cal” enjoyed pranks. Once, he had his aide fill up a bucket half with water and half with yellow beans. He then told the aide to scrub the brown spots off the beans. The aide would continue to do this until, after some time, another staffer told the aide that the only way to get the spots off the beans was with a knife.
Once, at a presidential breakfast with the Congress, the President poured some coffee and cream into a saucer and gestured that the crowd do the same. Coolidge then leaned down and gave the saucer to his dog. Needless to say, the crowd was embarrassed.
4. Lyndon B.’s ‘Johnson’ and his ‘drowning car’ was this prankster’s go-to.
According to sources, there is evidence indicating that Lyndon B. Johnson loved to show off his penis. Apparently, this was commonplace, to the point that he would urinate in public, and wave his Johnson at the women of the White House while exclaiming, “Jumbo” had a real workout tonight.” Despite this disturbing behavior, Johnson did have one trick up his sleeve that was indeed a great prank.
To unsuspecting visitors to his ranch in Texas, they would be visiting for some relaxation on a nice summer day. Unfortunately for them, this included Johnson terrifying other people. Johnson would take his friends and family for tours around the property in a blue convertible. Once the vehicle reached the steep incline that led to the lake, he’d begin to panic and scream, “The brakes don’t work! The brakes won’t hold!” as they would be racing to their presumed death. People would scream and try to jump out of the car, but to no avail. The president would let the car crash into the water only to start howling with laughter as it began to cruise along again.
As it turns out, Johnson owned an “Amphicar,” a car that could turn into a speedboat.
5. John F. Kennedy Was A Mean Trickster:
John F. Kennedy had a good friend named Lem Billings. Billings went on a trip to France where he met Greta Garbo, and carried on about it to the point of telling Kennedy that he and Garbo were “an item.” Kennedy decided his friend deserved to be set up.
He arranged a dinner at the White House for himself, Jackie, Billings, and Garbo. Kennedy arranged for Garbo to arrive early and informed her of his scheme and her role was to pretend she had never met Billings before. When Billings showed up, and enthusiastically greeted his new love, she only responded with an ice-cold, “I have never seen this man before.” It was, for the most part, an awkward dinner, while Billings pleaded and desperately tried to remind Garbo of their time together. Garbo regarded Billings as if he were a being a nuisance. Kennedy, the unrepentant prankster, even pretended to offer suggestions, asking Billings if he might have met Greta Garbo’s double.
Poor Lem Billings.
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt Loved Toilet Humor:
Franklin D. Roosevelt seemed to enjoy teasing and pranking people whenever possible.
During his physical therapy in Warm Springs, Roosevelt would trick his therapist into falling backward into the water. Another time, he told a Secret Service member to get on the roof of a farm. He then had the ladder removed and drove away waving at the stranded serviceman.
However, Roosevelt’s most brazen antic might have been one of the first prank calls in history. A few White House correspondents that formed a singing group were invited to appear on NBC. While they were on the program, Roosevelt called the show. He disguised his well-recognized voice and told the host he wanted to offer the men a contract. When asked who he worked for, the president responded, “I’m the advertising manager for the Cascarets,” which was a famous laxative. At the next press meeting, the president revealed his joke when he informed all the other media personnel that the correspondents would need to resign as a recent job was offered singing on the “Cascaret Hour”.
7. Harry S. Truman Was One Cheeky Fellow:
Truman was set to take a trip to South America, and a group of reporters were coming with him. One of them, Tony Vaccaro, who happened to be deathly afraid of needles was very relieved that he did not have to get a painful yellow fever shot. When Truman found out about Vaccaro’s fear, he decided to have a little fun.
Truman instructed a White House physician to notify Vaccaro that the policy had changed, and the shots were mandatory. A panicked Vaccaro, was pushed into a clinic room while screaming, “I don’t believe in shots!” When Vaccaro entered the office, he saw a giant hypodermic needle, the size a veterinarian would use on a horse. Vaccaro was terrified, but was turned to accept his worst nightmare and be stabbed in the buttocks for a job he had to do. The “doctor” then entered and told Vaccaro, “This won’t hurt a bit, Tony.” Vaccaro immediately recognized the President’s voice.
“Mr. President,” he said, feeling great relief (and presumably with his pants still down), “I do not usually greet Presidents of the United States from this position.”
8. Eisenhower Drops The Mother of All Prank Bombs:
Dwight D. Eisenhower was a serious man who planned D-Day and warned us of the military-industrial complex. But he also had a great sense of humor, which almost ruined his career.
During his first major assignment taking a caravan from coast to coast along the highways, he decided to pull a prank on the junior officers—”easterners,” as he called them. The plan was for them to be given “a taste of the authentic West.” Eisenhower and his close friend Sereno Brett planned and launched a fake “Indian attack” in Wyoming. He staged a fake argument about the trouble in the area (an area actually known for attacks), put blanks in the guns, handed them to the men, and then sneaked out during the night to shout war cries and stage false fronts. They only considered their prank a success once they got the sentry on duty to fire the shotgun at them, which they found hilarious. In the morning, Eisenhower had to stop the shaken-up young soldier from sending a report requesting reinforcements.
9. George H. Bush Put a Lot Of Effort Into His Pranks:
When the former president’s wife, Mrs. Bush found some dirty pictures on her computer, due to one of her grandchildren looking at pornography, she was not pleased. The former president found out about it and seeing how very upset she was, George H. Bush decided he was going to do something about it.
Using official stationery from the state of Maine, he wrote a letter to his wife as the Attorney General of Maine
that read: “It has come to our attention that you have been using your computer to go on porn websites.” He took the letter to the post office so that it would be mailed to the house where his wife opened it in front of everyone. Unfortunately, Mrs. Bush was not amused.
10. Clinton Channeled His Inner Frat Boy When Pulling This Stunt That Got Bad Press:
The Clinton administration decided that would play a joke on the incoming Bush administration. Basically, they trashed the White House. Staffers, with the apparent consent of the President (when pressed, several Clinton administration officials confirmed they had played the pranks), ripped phone cords from the walls, left obscene voice mails, covered the desks in glue, and stole antiques.
Some of the pranks were actually funny, like when someone stole every letter “W” from the computer keyboards. Others weren’t so laughable, but actually quite bitter. Notes were posted on cabinets that read “GET OUT” or “Hail to the Thief,” and stickers were put up displaying portraits of George Bush as a monkey. It was estimated that there was about $15,000 worth of damage.
The Clintons tried to defend themselves by saying all presidents played outgoing transition pranks, citing the Bush-Quayle bumper stickers they had found stuck to desks in 1993 as evidence. Eventually, they did admit to their wrongdoing, even going so far as to call Dick Cheney to apologize.