upworthy

pranks

Pop Culture

Elton John hired a sniper for his ultimate prank against lifelong 'frenemy' Rod Stewart

The rock legends have a long history of playing viscous pranks on one another.

via John Bielawa/Wikimedia Commons and Ernst Vikne/Wikimedia Commons

Elton John and Rod Stewart.

For over 50 years, rock ‘n roll legends Elton John and Rod Stewart have been historic “frenemies” and pranked each other in grand ways that only people worth hundreds of millions of dollars can. “We try and publicize the fact that we always have a go at each other in the papers, but in fact, we do that for reasons known only to us. Actually, we're really good friends,” John told David Frost in 1983. The rockers even have drag names for one another, John calls Stewart “Phyllis, and Stewart calls John “Sharon.”

The rivalry came to a head in 1985 when John saw the perfect opportunity to cut Stewart’s ego down to size. The “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” singer was playing a series of dates at London’s Earl’s Court and had enormous balloons, the size of blimps with his face on them, hanging above the venue to advertise the shows.

John couldn’t miss such an incredible opportunity to prank Stewart. So, he had a sniper bring down the balloon with an air rifle. “I was staying in London and could see it from my hotel room. It was too good an opportunity to miss. So I called my management, who hired someone to shoot it down: apparently, it landed on top of a double-decker bus and was last seen heading towards Putney,” John recalled.



“An hour later, the phone went. It was Rod, spluttering: 'Where's my f***ing balloon gone? It was you, wasn't it? You cow! You bitch!' A year later, when I was playing Olympia, the promoters hung a huge banner across the street. It was mysteriously cut down immediately after it was put up,” John continued. “I learned this had happened from Rod, who seemed curiously well-informed. 'Such a shame about your banner, love. I heard it wasn't even up five minutes. I bet you didn't even get to see it.’”



John and Stewart may have enjoyed a friendly rivalry over the years, but a few years ago, things turned sour. In 2019, Stewart criticized John for going on multiple farewell tours and it rankled the “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” singer. “Talking about retirement, I’ve never spoken about retirement, and if I do retire, I won’t make an announcement. I’ll just fade away,” Stewart said in 2018. “I don’t think this big deal, ‘I’m going to retire’ – it stinks of selling tickets…it’s dishonest. It’s not rock and roll.”

Stewart even emailed John, ribbing him for having multiple farewell tours, but didn’t receive a response.

“He was accusing me of being dishonest about one of the biggest decisions of my life. What’s more, I thought he had a cheek, complaining about me promoting a tour while he was sat on a TV show promoting his own tour,” John wrote in his memoir.

The comments may have hurt John, but Stewart did have a point. In 2015, John had a “Final Curtain” tour, but then in 2018 hopped back behind the piano for a 330-date “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour that lasted until 2023.

But Stewart later revealed that it was all water under the bridge and the two were able to leave the comments behind them. “I was a bit spiteful when he announced his tour. I regret it. I really do regret it. So we’re mates again now. I do love him,” Stewart said.

From Your Site Articles
pranks
Humor

Mother and son duo who constantly prank each other are parenting relationship goals

"Honestly don't know how they haven't given each other heart attacks or destroyed the house."

VT|Facebook

Mother-son duo's hilarious relationship is parenting goals

Parenting can be pretty tricky at times. It's like a string of endless pop quizzes and no one knows what grade you're going to get until 18+ years later. It's not until they grow up that you get to take in all of your hard work in raising a productive human. But there's one part of raising kids that doesn't get talked about enough, and that's when they've reached the age of being able to be your friend.

One mom and her adult son are going viral on the internet for their admirable bond and ability to keep the belly laughs coming. The duo is truly parenting relationship goals. In a compilation of videos shared by VT, Jonah Bolona and his mom spend clip after clip pranking each other or just getting into family friendly mischief.

Bolona has been sharing videos of the silly nonsense he and his mother get into on his TikTok page, The Jonah Bolona, and has amassed nearly 2 million followers.

But it was the compilation video that took some of their funniest moments and mashed them together showcasing their fun relationship. In the very first clip, you know you're in for...something. Bolona's mom appears to be sitting on the floor patiently in some sort of black trash bag sealed up to her neck as he attaches a vacuum hose. Somehow mom falls over as the vacuum sucks all of the air out of the bag sealing her inside as Bolona runs away.

The entire compilation is just keeps getting more amusing and commenters love their dynamic.

"Ha ha his mum is a legend," one person writes.

"Honestly don't know how they haven't given each other heart attacks or destroyed the house XD Guess it's just a norm for them," another comments.

"This is an extremely HEALTHY relationship!!! I love it," someone else says.

Some people were quick to point out that there's nothing wrong with living with your parents, especially when the relationship is healthy. While other's clarified that it's his house and it shouldn't matter what others think as long as they're having fun, which clearly they are. You can see their hijinks below for your own chuckle.

From Your Site Articles
mom son pranks
Joy

Dad pranks daughter with a fake job interview filled with lies and she can't stand it

"I get up at 4 a.m. Every morning, I go for a run—and I run for about 12 miles.”

via AlongCameAbby/TikTok

Andrew Terry pulls a prank on his daughter Abby.

Every parent knows that young children will believe just about anything you tell them, within reason. Part of being a parent is becoming a master of the white lie to distract your kids from things they aren’t quite ready to hear or to have some innocent fun.

But when 6-year-old Abby, a popular TikTok personality, heard her dad telling whopper after whopper on a fake job interview, she wouldn’t stand for it. Abby, now 7, is the star of the Along Came Abby TikTok channel with over 3.9 million followers.

Abby’s dad, Andrew Terry, set up a fake job interview with a potential employer where he told lie after lie with his daughter sitting beside him. The point of the prank was to get a reaction out of her. The good news for the Terry family is that she’s obviously a girl with a solid moral compass because she couldn’t stand hearing her dad’s constant lies.

Andrew indicated that the potential employer wanted to see one of his children, so he had Abby sit next to him in the interview.

@alongcameabby

Fake interview #fyp #fake #interview #funny #honest

“I dress like this every day,” Andrew says, sitting properly in his tan suit with a blue tie. “I get up at 4 a.m. Every morning, I go for a run—and I run for about 12 miles.” At the onset, Abby looks beside herself, but she keeps her composure until her dad notes that he washes the dishes every morning before his wife, Abby’s mom, Lissa, even gets up.

Abby can’t stand it, so she jumps up and yells, “Cut!”

“Shhh… Abby, Please,” Andrew tells his daughter under his breath. “That’s not true!” Abby retorts.

Andrew regains his composure and then goes on a jag about how after he does the dishes, he bathes the dog so that when his wife gets up, “everything is done.” This is too much for Abby. “Bye!” Abby says before storming off.

But Andrew is able to coax her back for more of his whimsy by noting that his potential employer "is going to hear this." He then reveals that he only eats vegetables and never any pizza.

“Come on! You eat sugar all day,” Abby tells her dad.

Abby can no longer stand the charade after Andrew admits that when he met her mother, he played centerfield for the New York Yankees. At that point, Abby walks off camera, never to return.

Since being released in November 2022, the video has had over 9.3 million views and has received over 22,000 comments.

"Her moral compass is STRONG," CylynG2020 wrote.

"I hope you told her how awesome it is that she didn’t want to stand for the lies. She is awesome," j friend:) added.

The video is fun because it shows how even young children pay attention to their parents and know their daily habits. It’s a good reminder for parents everywhere that their kids have an eye on them and to beware of the subconscious examples they’re setting for them on a daily basis.

From Your Site Articles
pranks
Pop Culture

Steven Spielberg once played an epic prank on 'Goonies' director during his vacation from set

“I’ll get you.”

via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons and MaybeMaybeMaybe/Wikimedia Commons

Director Steven Spielberg and director Richard Donner

“The Goonies” is a classic ‘80s film about energetic, fast-talking kids searching for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure. It’s fun for two hours, but the day-in and day-out grind of working with the young cast was a bit much for director Richard Donner.

“Everyone we cast was high energy, and after a while, it kind of started working on Dick. It’d tear him apart a little bit, a piece [at a] time,” the film’s writer-producer Steven Spielberg later recalled in “Reunited Apart with Josh Gad.”

“And so by the end of the movie, in the last two weeks, Richard just kept saying, ‘Oh, my God, I got two weeks to go, and I can’t wait to finish, and I’m going to go to my house in Hawaii, and I’m gonna get away from all of this noise. It’s extraordinary, and I love ’em to pieces, but I can’t stand it anymore,’” Spielberg continued.

Donner’s exhaustion inspired Spielberg to pull an epic prank. He flew the cast of kids out to Donner’s house in Hawaii, including Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand), Jeff Cohen (Chunk) and Martha Plimpton (Stef). He also sent the actors who played the obnoxious Fratellis, Anne Ramsey (Mama), Robert Davi (Jake) and Joe Pantoliano (Francis).

Video of the prank recently surfaced on Twitter, where Cohen can be seen telling him, “We’re gonna stay with you the whole time we’re here.” Astin adds: “We’re gonna do a sequel to the movie.”

At the end of the clip, Donner laughs as he flips the middle finger to someone off-camera, presumably Spielberg, saying: “I’ll get you.”


From Your Site Articles
movies
Trending Stories