Snipe hunt

A snipe hunt or fool's errand is a type of practical joke or prank that involves experienced people making fun of credulous newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task.^[1] The snipe hunt may be assigned to a target as part of a process of hazing, but the word "sniper" is derived from a marksman with enough skill to shoot one.^[2]

A snipe hunt is a specific type of "wild-goose chase", where a person embarks on an impossible search. Where a wild-goose chase may be accidental, a snipe hunt is always initiated by a second person as a prank.^[3]

It should also be noted that snipe do in fact exist, and they can be, and are hunted for sport. While the term 'Snipe Hunt' is most commonly used as described above, snipe hunting is a real pursuit.^[4]

Etymology

Wilson's Snipe

The origin of the term is a practical joke where inexperienced campers are told about an imaginary bird or animal called the "snipe" as well as a usually preposterous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises such as banging rocks together.^[1] Real snipe (a family of shorebirds) are difficult to catch for experienced hunters, so much so that the word "sniper" is derived from it to refer to anyone skilled enough to shoot one.^[2]

Examples

• New car salespeople are often sent to different dealerships around town to get the "lot stretcher". After reaching the new dealership, the manager informs the salesperson that it just got moved to another dealership across town, and the prank continues.^[5]
• In baseball, a manager or a coach will ask a new bat boy to go fetch them a "box of curveballs" or "the key to the batter's box." Former Major League pitcher Rick Sutcliffe would often send the young batboy out to the umpires during pregame to ask for the "keys to the batter's box". This is an age-old baseball prank.^[6][7]
• In the pizza-making business, newcomers are told to look in the fridge for the "dough repair kit".^[8]
• Another variation includes being sent to procure a "long weight" or "long stand", the idea being that the dupe will reach the shop (or equivalent source of the mythical object) and place the request. The target is then left waiting by the shop keeper (who is presumably familiar with the trick) and thus receives a long wait.^[9]
• Other common restaurant practical jokes include sending the new employee to another restaurant to borrow the "bacon stretcher", "lobster food", "lobster gun", a "souffle pump", left-handed tongs, the "oven key", or a "can of steam".^[10][11] An alternative prank is to instruct the new employee to empty a coffee machine or hot water tower of its water (the machine being connected to a water line and thus never able to be "emptied").
• In construction, a "left-handed screwdriver", "board stretcher", "eye measures", "hammer grease", "wall expander", "glass hammer", "striped or tartan paint", "metric crescent wrench", "bucket of grinder sparks" or "box of assorted knots" are analogous pranks.^[12]
• At General Electric's NELA Park plant in the 1920s, as a joke, newly hired engineers would be told to develop an inside frosted lightbulb, which the experienced engineers believed to be impossible (previous bulbs had been sandblasted for the frosting effect which caused brittleness). In 1925, newly hired Marvin Pipkin got the assignment, and astonished his peers by succeeding.^[13]
• In the United States Navy, pranks have included sending a new sailor after a "BT Punch", (a fist-punch) from a Boiler Technician who works in the Engine Room; "red lamp oil for the port running light" and "green lamp oil for the starboard running light"; a "gallon of prop wash"; and "sound-powered phone batteries".^[14] Other examples are to send the naïve on a search for a "spool of water line", a "dropped gig line", a "bucket of steam", or the infamous "ID-10-T form" (idiot).^[15]
• In Boy Scouts, sending a new camper after a "left handed smoke bender"^[16] or "100 feet of shoreline" are similar practices.
• In the Czech Republic, if one breaks a spirit level, they might be asked to go and "buy a new bubble". Other construction-related jokes include buying a "brick bender",^[17] "a bender straightener", or "aerosol nails".
• In the Czech Republic, a child might be sent to the pharmacy to buy some "semosel". Spelled correctly, jsem osel means "I am a fool", or literally "I am a donkey".^[18][19]

See also

• List of practical joke topics

References

1. Palmatier, Robert Allen. Speaking of Animals: A Dictionary of Animal Metaphors. Greenwood Publishing. p. 375. ISBN 0313294909.
2. "Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
3. Paris, Leslie (2008). Children's Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp. NYU Press. p. 104. ISBN 0814767508.
4. Houser, Jason. "Snipe Hunting Is Real [VIDEO] | Griffin's Guide to Hunting and Fishing". Retrieved 2016-04-26.
5. "Editorial: TTAC's Guide to Car Dealer Lingo". The Truth About Cars. 2009-08-12. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
6. "Sports: A Game Of Inches". gameofinches.blogspot.com. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
7. "Eugene Register-Guard - Google News Archive Search". google.com. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
8. Aman, Reinhold (1996). Maledicta, Volume 12. Maledicta Press. p. 11.
9. Humphries, Vaughan (2008). Grumpy Young Man: The Incoherent Mutterings of a Humanitarian Misanthrope. AuthorHouse. p. 393. ISBN 1467899437.
10. Josefowitz, Natasha (1988). Fitting In: How to Get a Good Start in Your New Job (illustrated ed.). Addison-Wesley. p. 32. ISBN 0201116537.
11. Cameron, Kim S. (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Positive Organizational Scholarship (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 482. ISBN 0199734615.
12. Paap, Kris (2006). Working Construction: Why White Working-Class Men Put Themselves—and the Labor Movement—in Harm's Way (illustrated ed.). Cornell University Press. p. 69. ISBN 0801472865.
13. "Marvin Pipkin". Schenectady Museum. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
14. Cutler, Deborah (2005). Dictionary of Naval Terms (illustrated ed.). Naval Institute Press. p. 182. ISBN 1-59114-150-8.
15. Joey D. Ossian (4 February 2004). A Marine's Lapse in Synapse: Part Ii: More Unbelievable, But True Short Stories. AuthorHouse. p. 96. ISBN 978-1-4140-4945-8.
16. Rich, Alvin (1984). The History of the BSA. Aramco Press. p. 87.
17. Matej Kobza. "Kto zaváha, naletí". munimedia.cz. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
18. "Apríl". Žena.cz, magazín pro ženy. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
19. Kutinová, Amálie. "Na prvního apríla". Gabra a Málinka, povedené dcerky. Jo! Obětovat moc na to nemóžu, ale šesták dám," hrabala Gabra honem v kapse. "Tu máš," povídala Málince, "a kup mně zaň ‚semosel‘.

Further reading

• The Little Red Book of Firehouse Pranks by Jeff Hibbard (ISBN 0-9667810-0-7)
• "The Snipe" from Henry H. Tryon's Fearsome Critters

External links

• "Snipe hunt". TV Tropes.