Rattlesnake Egg Prank

Intro: Rattlesnake Egg Prank

What I love about this prank is, well... everything. It is very simplistic, cost little to nothing, provides a great scare, and you can not get in trouble for doing it! It consists of telling someone you found a rattlesnake egg and it in the folder, then they of course open it and a very loud rattling noise starts, scaring them very good. And yes I know, rattlesnakes give birth to live young, but most people don't know that or don't think about that because they just want to see it! I have gotten my teachers, friends, and parents with it and it always ends in a good laugh... of course after the screaming and what not.

STEP 1: Materials

Here are the materials needed to do this prank:

Clothes Hanger (Metal)
A large washer or some other type of ring with a hole in the center (Mine is a Hard Drive Disk Spacer)
Rubber bands (Probably a lot because you will break a few until you gt used to how much to tighten it)
A manila envelope
A magic maker (not needed, but is a good add-on)
Wire Cutter
Pliers
Tape Measure

STEP 2: Close Hanger

Take your clothes hanger and your envelope and just cut the top off of the clothes hanger and discard the top. Then, Straighten the hanger.  Now bend the hanger at a 90 degree angle, 6 inches down. Now find the width of your envelope. Mine is 6". Subtract a half and inch from that and you have the length that the middle of your clothes hanger should be. After you do this bend at 5.5" (for me), a 90 degree angle. Now you will have a lot of clothes hanger left. Just cut that to 6" from the last bend. Now you should have a "U" shaped clothes hanger.

STEP 3: Curl Ends

This step is simple. Just curl the ends of the clothes hanger. This curl should come about the entire way around till it is touching the hanger again. Also, start curling from 1" down the hanger. This should be done for each side. And you want these to be bent towards the outside.

STEP 4: More Bending

Now take the hanger and bend the two loops that you just made at about a 45 degree angle towards the inside, simple as that.

STEP 5: The Washer

Now you need the hanger piece, 4 rubber bands, the washer or whatever you chose, and the envelope. Begin by sliding the hanger into the envelope as shown in the picture.  Get four rubber bands. Now take one rubber band at a time and attach them to the washer like shown in the picture (2 on each side) . After all are attached, loop two of the rubber bands onto one of the loops on the hanger. Repeat for the other side. Now check the picture to see if it looks like mine. If it does, twist the washer enough to make it tight. Now put everything that you have just done into the envelope and you are done. Just for appearance, write rattlesnake egg on the folder.

STEP 6: Execution

First off, practice this a few times on yourself so you know how tight to make the rubber bands and to make sure that the noise is loud enough. It is very important on how you present this to someone. Go up to them and ask them if they would like to see a rattlesnake egg you found earlier. When they say yes, give them the envelope and let them open it. It should make a very loud "rattling" noise if done properly. This is sure to scare your victim and usually it will end in a good laugh especially if you explain to them that rattlesnakes give birth to live young :P

Comments

[carter.boland]

My parents had one of these, no I don’t know where or how they got it. Here is how the prank went: I was sitting at a computer. My dad came up to me and convinced me that he found the snake eggs in my closet. The package said, “Real Snake Eggs, keep refrigerated so they don’t hatch.” At that point I was almost crying thinking I took them from a store or something. Then my dad made me open it and it started to rattle. I freaked out and scotched as far away from them as fast as I could while crying. By that point my parents start laughing and I was sitting there confused until they explained it. I didn’t have a good memory with this.

[eitaknella18]

Clever! I hadn't known what this was until a few months ago, my brother pulled this one on me. :)

[BadPuns]

I remember my dad showing me one of these when I was really little. Thanks for bringing back one of my earliest memories.

[Mr. Potato Head]

Bad idea - the snake would bite you for sure.

[heathbar64]

I made one of these when I was in grade school. I used a regular envelope.
then I gave it to my teacher saying it was from my mom! He made me re-wind it and took me over to another teacher to show her "What my mom had written" 

[missyvanwinkle]

This is indeed a primo prank and I can hardly praise your mad skills heartily enough.

But on a smaller budget with less time,  we got some nice screams from the same sort of contraption done with a bent up paperclip, a fairly good sized button, a cut-and-retied rubberband, and a plain ol' legal envelope.

(Yours is MUCH more elegant tho' so keep up the good work.)

[XOIIO]

What happened to your measuring tape? it's really beaten up.

[XOIIO]

Also, how exactly does it make the rattling? How is it triggered when the envelope is opened?

[CrazyMachinist94]

as soon as the pressure from the rubber bands overcomes the pressure from the envelope pusshing against the washer, it starts spinning the washer and the washer hits against the envelope

[CrazyMachinist94]

haha yeah the measuring tape has been through a lot of work

[pjamestx]

We had one of these when I was a kid, and I remember just about everyone that opened it was surprised.  Great write-up!

[Johenix]

REMEMBER:
Rattlesnakes are PIT VIPERS.
Vipers are VIVIPEROUS.
(They don't lay eggs, they bear live young.)

This would be a great prank for the teacher to pull during a biology class on snakes. Everyone would remember it.

[rko167%]

u are a master at the jokester, i like this idea i'm going to do this now and try to scare my little evil 7 year old baby sis

[erik_mccray]

This was a cub scout project when I was a kid. I pulled it off on my 4th grade teacher. Our den mother was the coolest!!

[foothillfrontier]

When I was a kid I fell for this trick, then made one for myself to use on other people. Oh the memories!