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17 Nova L. Rev. 883 (1992-1993)

handle is hein.journals/novalr17 and id is 915 raw text is: Snakes, Bananas and Buried Treasure: The Case For Practical Jokes David Cohn* Frame your mind to mirth and merriment Which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life. - William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew I. INTRODUCION We all appreciate a good joke. Humor is good for the soul. A well- executed practical joke provides the greatest thrill of all. To everyone, that is, save the victim. Most practical joke victims take their humiliation in stride. They laugh along with the others, knowing that sooner or later they will exact revenge. Occasionally, however, a brilliantly planned scheme goes awry. The victim, failing to find the joke funny, refuses to laugh. Or worse, he brings suit. The courts must then become the arbiters of comedic value. When is a joke funny? When does it constitute actionable conduct? And when does it simply make a mockery of the legal system? Such problems arise when the courts encounter the blurry line between joke and tort. For decades, the courts have debated a plethora of practical joke issues. Astonishingly, little has been written on the subject. No casebook exists on the law of humor, and no commentator has directly addressed practical joke jurisprudence. This gap in legal scholarship must be filled. So let us begin. II. ANALYSIS OF CASE LAW A. In Search of Buried Treasure The year is 1920. The place is the old South. Imagine, if you will, a Justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court presented with the facts of * David Cohn is a second year student at the University of Chicago Law School where he is a member of the University of Chicago Legal Forum staff. Mr. Cohn earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina in 1991 but now regrets his decision to graduate. He has pretensions of being a writer and claims Douglas Adams, Dashiell Hammett, and PJ. O'Rourke as his literary idols. Cohn has no professional comedic experience, but he has seen Jerry Seinfeld in concert.

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