What do a missing microwave and a lawn covered in plastic forks have in common? According to senior Aidan Christian, it’s revenge. 

At 11 p.m. on Oct. 18, Christian and the men of the off-campus house Casablanca walked outside and found their lawn covered in dozens of plastic forks. A few days later, it was confirmed: this prank was the work of another off-campus house, Tortuga. 

“It didn’t take a lot of work to find out it was Tortuga,” Christian said. “The next day, I went to their brunch, and I just grabbed their microwave and ran out the back door. We posted a video on our Instagram account, @casablancaexecboard, demanding the forks out of our yard, $8 trillion, and an end to world hunger. After a few days of silence, I decided to sneak into their cellar and shut off their heating. That prompted some action.”

Senior Joshua Mistry, another Casablanca resident, said Christian issued the men of Tortuga an ultimatum regarding the un-forking of their front yard.

“Aidan told them he would continue to mess with their utilities and other items in their house until they removed the forks from the front yard,” Mistry said. “So they did that, and they put them all in the back yard, and inside the prongs of the forks they wove fake million-dollar bills with Trump’s face on it.” 

Senior Joseph Duncan, a resident of Tortuga, said the pranking was motivated by a desire to bring off-campus houses together. 

“It’s good for the culture, good for the seniors to get out of their house and still be able to have fun and play with one another even though they’re moving off campus and moving out of college life,” he said. “We tried to meet their demands. We paid the debt, we cleaned up their front yard, and we’re working on ending world hunger.” 

Pranking isn’t only limited to one-time events between off-campus houses.

Senior Jonathan Williams, one of the head resident assistants in Simpson Residence, said pranks have historically been a way to encourage a sense of culture within dormitories. According to Williams, the men at Simpson have a prank battle — they call it the Civil War —  every year for just this purpose. 

“I say Civil War, which can sound really violent, but it’s just all-out chaos; guys are spraying Silly String in each other’s faces, pie-ing guys in the face, or chucking marshmallows at each other,” Williams said. “In order to get ourselves to the point of war, we like to stir the pot with pranks. Guys will take down posters, put up funny memes of each other, put fruit in showers. It’s all fun and games until a prized relic is stolen from either of the head RAs — then war commences.” 

Williams mentioned a few pranks in particular that stood out to him. 

“The funniest thing had to be placing a drop of hot sauce onto the toothbrushes of the south side RAs,” Williams said. “You’re getting ready for bed and out of nowhere your mouth starts flaming up. That’s hilarious. This also happened to some deodorant. Can’t even imagine how bad that was. However, let’s just say this wasn’t even the most ‘fowl’ prank of the whole week.”

Andrei Olaru, a freshman living on the north side of Simpson, said that he and his fellow Northerners had gone pretty gung-ho with the pranking.

“South side has smashed a couple pumpkins in our rooms,” Olaru said. “It’s their retaliatory measure, often. I think we started the pumpkin-smashing, and they got us back. It’s all in good fun, though; no one has gotten seriously upset about it.”

Senior Nathan Rastovac, another Simpson head RA, said he enjoys seeing Simpson men brought together over the chance to play pranks on other Simpsonites.

“The freshman bonds that you see are from homecoming, inner-dorm pranks, and other events — it’s just one of those aspects that builds the bigger culture as a whole,” Rastovac said.

Although Hillsdalians love a good prank, they can usually tell the difference between being funny and crossing a line, according to sophomore Ineka Pastermack. 

“Pranks in general can be taken too far, but I don’t necessarily see that happening here,” Pastermack said. “The pranks are always harmless and funny, and I think honestly most of them are tastefully done.” 

Pastermack said that beyond being funny, she has found that pranks have strengthened her friendships. 

“We do take things quite seriously here,” Pastermack said. “It’s made a lot of other people laugh, and that’s good, because we shouldn’t be taking ourselves too seriously. It’s a good reminder that life is too short to be boring.”

Mistry said that Tortuga and Casablanca’s pranking is well-intentioned and a good way to maintain connection between the two houses. 

“Most of the guys that live there are people who we’ve known since we were freshmen, so they’re some of our closest friends,” he said. “When you’re in a dorm, you become friends with a lot of the people you live with, and then when you’re off campus or in the Suites or something like that, you’re farther from them, you’re not seeing them every day, and pranking is a fun way to reengage with that.” 

“But,” Mistry added, “I guarantee that within the next six or seven days, Tortuga will feel the gentle and proportional wrath of Casablanca.”