Classic Pranks: The Snipe Hunt

The snipe hunt is a terrific way to make a complete fool of your friends. It is a classic trick that has been played through the ages designed to make the victim go on a search for something that does not exist. The extreme version of the trick leaves the victim ditched and stranded alone in the woods looking for the fictional snipe. This trick was famously featured in an episode of "Cheers" called "The Heart is a Lonely Snipe Hunter". In this episode, Norm Peterson (George Wendt), Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger), and the other guys at the bar take an unsuspecting Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammar) snipe hunting and ditch him in the woods. You can do the same to your victim.

Here is how it works:

1) Begin to paint the picture by describing a snipe and how much fun it is to go snipe hunting. Have a few of your friends in on the gag and together pretend to reminisce about snipe hunts you have been on in the past.

2) Invite your victim to go on a snipe hunt and find a place out in the woods that will be good to go on the snipe hunt. Ideally, this place should be in the middle of nowhere but also close enough to a road or someplace where your victim will be able to get back to civilization. The idea is not to leave you victim out to die; the idea is to ditch them. Please keep that in mind.

3) Get a net.

4) On the way to the woods, explain to your victim how a snipe hunt works. Tell the victim that snipes like to hide in the bushes so some of you will need to go and scare them out and somebody will wait with a net to try and catch the snipes when they run out of the bushes. Suggest that your victim wait with the net as it is exhilarating to catch your first snipe.

5) When you get to the woods, give your victim the net and then the rest of the group should disappear into the trees in order to pretend to scare the snipes up. Once you have all disappeared, you should get back in the car and drive away, leaving the victim to figure things out for himself.