MennoPrank Society

I had the privilege of attending the inauguration of the MennoPrank Society this week. Our esteemed president of AMBS founded this Society after a recent event during which he found himself pranked. The short version of the story is as follows: Our president is well-known for his famous pie catapult prank that he pulled off in college, managing to huck a pie at an esteemed speaker who was talking about his recently published book, "The Devil Made Me Do It." The perpetrators of the crime, Nelson Kraybill himself along with one of his friends, managed to remain anonymous for well over ten years. Well, during our president's farewell banquet this month, in the company of staff, faculty, and the AMBS board of directors, our president found himself with a wet crotch as he was giving his speech. It seems as though one of our maintenance guys, Donald Steider, rigged up the podium with copper piping and at the appropriate time in the evening opened the tap!

Here is the official document that was released by J. Nelson Kraybill on May 13, 2009:

MennoPrank Society

“He has brought down the powerful form their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” Luke 1:52

Given that Mennonites sometimes Take Ourselves Too Seriously and otherwise fail to celebrate the whimsical grace of God, MennoPrank Society was established to bring raucous laughter to the hallowed halls of Mennonite higher educational institutions in North America. The purpose of said society is to raise the standard of hijinks in the Anabaptist tradition, explore missional implications of pranksterism in a postmodern society, and affirm outstanding acts of buffoonery with a MennoPrank Award.

A recipient of the MennoPrank Award shall be a student or employee of a Mennonite institution of higher education in North America who is the prime perpetrator of a prank that:

• happens at a Mennonite institution of higher education in North America;

• humorously brings down the mighty or elevates the lowly;

• generates mirth, not hard feelings;

• has the hallmarks of ingenuity and innovation;

• causes no significant damage to buildings or other property;

• creates no undue amount of work for institutional staff;

• is morally decent and ethical;

• involves no risk of bodily harm to perpetrator or victim;

• targets no one who has already been the victim of an award-winning MennoPrank.

A recipient of said award shall:

• be capriciously selected by the grand Poobah of MennoPrank Society in consultation with other MennoPrank Society members;

• receive a framed award acknowledging his or her elevated status as a life-time member of the MennoPrank Society;

• be guardian of the coveted one-and-only MennoPrank Holy Grail until such time as a new MennoPrank Award recipient is named;

• do shoulder-tapping and mentoring for a new generation of pranksters;

• learn the secret MennoPrank Society handshake and have voting privileges in the selection of future award recipients;

• receive a monetary award of $1,000,000, to be paid at the rate of one dollar per year for a million years.

MennoPrank Society was founded in 2009 as a stroke of genius in the otherwise lackluster career of J. Nelson Kraybill, prime perpetrator of the pie catapult Prank of the Century at Goshen College in 1974. MennoPrank Society award recipients and the hijinks they committed are:

Donald Steider: Presidential pants-wetting prank at AMBS, May 1, 2009