The chances that extraterrestrial beings will land on Earth are pretty slim. But the idea makes great material for a science-fiction movie—or a prank. With a little paint and a lot of fast talking, you can dupe a younger sibling or gullible friend into thinking that an alien visited you in the middle of the night and left a mysterious mark on you. And now, the alien would like to meet your friend …
what you need
* Face paint or nontoxic washable paint
* A plastic cup
* Newspaper or paper towel
* A cotton ball or clean sponge
* Scissors
what you do
THE SETUP
1 To create the mysterious mark left on your arm by the alien, first choose the color paint you want to use to create the mark. You can use a single color, or mix several colors together in the plastic cup to create a color that makes you think of aliens.
2 Put newspapers or a paper towel down on the table to protect it from the paint.
3 Place the arm to be painted on the newspaper or paper towel. Keep the palm of your hand facing up.
4 Decide what you want your alien mark to look like. It’s best to make a simple shape.
5 Dip your finger (or a cotton ball or piece of sponge) in the paint and carefully draw the symbol on your forearm. Apply a very thin coat of paint—you want it to look like part of your own skin.
6 Wait for the paint to dry.
PULL THE PRANK
1 First thing in the morning is a good time to pull the prank, and younger siblings are the best targets.
2 This prank requires some top-notch acting, so think through what you are going to say beforehand and rehearse the story when you are alone. (Just make sure you are out of earshot of your family or they will think you have lost your mind.)
3 Your story can go something like this, but be prepared to improvise and answer any questions that your victim asks:
* Start by describing what a strange night you had. Say something like: “The weirdest thing happened to me last night. It was so bizarre, I can hardly believe it myself.” Pause and take a deep breath, as if you are upset.
* Your victim will probably ask, “What? What happened?”
* Continue your story, speaking in a slightly shaky voice: “I was sound asleep when I felt something brush across my arm and it woke me up. At first I couldn’t see anything. Then I noticed that some kind of creature was in the room. It definitely wasn’t a human—it was short with a huge head that had a weird mark on it. I was about to scream when the thing started talking in this really strange voice—like a cross between a human and a computer. It said, ‘Hello, [your name]. We’ve been hoping to establish communication with you. Please don’t be alarmed. We are curious about your planet and how you live. We thought you might be able to help us.’”
* Keep going with the story: “I said, ‘Why me? And who are you?’” The creature said it came from a planet called Malarka in another galaxy and they picked me because I was born on [your birthday], which according to them is a sign that we will work together well. Then it said it had to go but it would attempt to communicate with me again today through a magnetic system. It said I should wait at [choose a location] today at [choose a time] and that I should bring you because you seem like somebody who can be trusted.”
* Now comes the part where you use the mark on your arm as proof that an alien really visited you. Say: “I fell back to sleep, and when I woke up this morning, I figured it was all a dream. But then I saw this.” Hold out your arm so your victim can see the mark and say: “It’s the exact same symbol I saw on the alien’s head! When it brushed my arm, it must have marked me. So it wasn’t a dream!”
* Now it’s time to get your sibling or friend to take action: “I want you to come with me today when the alien returns. You don’t have to be afraid. There was nothing scary about it. But we have to wear metal on our heads so their magnetic messages will get through. Meet me at [choose a location] at [choose a time] and cover your head with a pot lid or a big piece of foil. And don’t be late. This is really an amazing opportunity to communicate with extraterrestrial creatures!”
* Make sure some friends or family members will be present at the time and place you picked. When your victim shows up with a pot lid or foil on his head, act like you have no idea why and just shake your head in amazement if he starts talking about aliens.
X-TRA-TERRESTRIAL X-TRAS
To make the alien visit more convincing to your victim, you can leave “evidence” in different places where he will see it. For example:
1 Create the alien mark in the grass near your house, using nontoxic paint. Or use a shovel to create the shape in dirt or gravel.
2 Make the alien mark appear on a piece of toast at breakfast. Here’s how:
* Mix together 7 drops of red food coloring, 4 drops of yellow, and 2 drops of green to make brown.
* Dip the handle tip of a plastic spoon or fork in the food coloring and use it to draw the alien mark on a piece of bread.
* Toast the bread and place it on the table where your victim will see it.
3 Follow the instructions in the Message from a Ghost prank on page 81 to make the alien mark appear in the bathroom mirror.
4 Use your imagination to think of other places where the aliens can leave their mark!
X-tra-terrestrial Files
Does intelligent life exist beyond the planet Earth? No one knows for sure. But so far, the only “evidence” has turned out to be extraterrestrial pranks like these.
MOON CREATURES
In 1835 a New York newspaper announced the discovery of life on the moon. According to the paper, a famous British scientist had invented a powerful new telescope that allowed him to view the surface of the moon. Every day for a week, the newspaper ran a story describing the astonishing creatures that lived on the moon: lunar bison; fire-emitting, two-legged beavers; and “man-bats”—humanlike creatures with bat wings. The paper even printed pictures of the strange creatures. Newspapers across the country reprinted the articles, and soon it was all people could talk about. Eventually they realized they had been fooled, even though the newspaper never ‘fessed up to the hoax. For years after, people used the phrase moon hoax for any story that sounded like it was made up.
An 1835 print shows lunar man-bats.
SIGNS OF PLANT LIFE IN OUTER SPACE?
Sometimes pranksters have to wait a long time for their joke to be discovered. But 100 years? That’s how long it took scientists to realize that a meteor that landed in southern France was evidence of a sense of humor—not extraterrestrial life. On May 14, 1864, a meteor shower fell near the town of Orgueil. Someone collected samples of the meteorites and sent them to the natural history museum in a nearby city. Museum workers sent most of the samples to other museums but kept two in a sealed glass jar. They soon forgot about them.
Then, a century later, in the early 1960s, researchers opened the jars and studied the samples. They were shocked at what they found: Buried deep inside the meteorites were plant seeds—evidence that life must exist somewhere in outer space, wherever the meteorites came from! On closer look, the scientists discovered that the seeds were actually from France—someone had apparently mixed them with ground charcoal, stuck them inside the soft space rock, then sealed the outside with glue. Unfortunately, the prankster who went to all that trouble wasn’t alive to enjoy the prank.
The “War Of The Worlds” Hoax: What Really Happened?
The War of the Worlds radio broadcast is probably the most famous extraterrestrial hoax in history. Orson Welles was a famous movie director—and perhaps the most famous prankster who never was. On October 30, 1938, on his weekly radio show, he broadcast a play based on a story by H. G. Wells called “War of the Worlds.” Welles announced at the start of the broadcast that what listeners were about to hear was a play. But some people missed that part or ignored it. As the play progressed, listeners heard what sounded like series of terrifying “news” announcements.
First there was a report that astronomers had detected blue flames on the surface of Mars. Minutes later, an announcer reported that a meteor had just landed on a field near Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Then another report: It wasn’t a meteor but a spaceship-shaped object—and a creature with tentacles was climbing out of it. The creature was wearing a huge, metal contraption and it was starting to march across New Jersey, blasting earthlings with heat rays and toxic gas.
The story goes that hundreds of people living near the site jumped in their cars and started to flee. The truth is probably not nearly as exciting. While some people may have believed the story, many more listeners reported that they simply felt disturbed or frightened by the play. There is little evidence of the mass panic that newspapers later reported. Neither phone lines nor highways were jammed. In fact, the real hoax could be that people believed the newspaper reports of “mass panic.” What really happened that night is that millions of people sat at home listening to a really good, really scary science-fiction story.
UNIDENTIFIED FLYING REINDEER
In December 1965 the manned space shuttle Gemini 6 was orbiting Earth when NASA’s Mission Control received a startling message from astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford. The two reported seeing an unidentified flying object traveling north to south. They said it consisted of one command module with eight smaller modules in front and that the pilot of the command module was wearing a red suit. The folks at Mission Control were mystified—and a little alarmed—until they heard the sound of “Jingle Bells” being played on the harmonica and sleigh bells. Schirra and Stafford had sneaked the instruments onboard and decided to play an out-of-this-world Christmas prank.
One of the largest crop circles ever found.
One of the longest-running extraterrestrial hoaxes in history started in the late 1970s when a weird “sign” appeared in a field in England. Stalks of corn had been flattened to the ground to form a huge, perfect circle. A few years later, more circles appeared in a wheat field, and this time reporters rushed to the scene, followed by hundreds of tourists. Everyone wanted to know what had produced the mysterious pattern. Was it air currents? Was it crazed animals running in a circle during mating season? Or was it a prankster—and if so, why were there no footprints or other signs of human involvement? Maybe it was a landing site for an alien spaceship?
Over the next decade, hundreds of other crop circles appeared in fields, mostly in England, but also in other parts of the world. People known as “cerealogists” became obsessed with the circles. Most believed they were coded messages left by creatures from another planet. In 1991, two creatures from Earth named Doug Bower and Dave Chorley confessed that they had created most of the crop circles as a hoax. They wanted to fool people into thinking that UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) had landed on Earth. Their method was simple: They used wooden planks and a string to flatten crops at night when no one could see them. What about the circles that the two pranksters did not make? Chances are that copycat pranksters created them—although no one knows for sure.
ALIEN FROM THIS PLANET?
On March 31, 1989, motorists in West Sussex County, England, were astonished to see a giant, saucer-shaped spaceship land in a field. Some were so frightened they drove to a phone to call the police. When the police arrived and started walking toward the glowing vehicle, a door opened in the bottom of the craft and a little alien in a silver spacesuit stepped out. The officer closest to the “alien” ship took one look and ran away. It turned out there was nothing to fear. The tiny alien was a man hired by Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of Virgin Atlantic airline. Branson, who loved pranks and hot-air ballooning, had engineered the stunt for April Fools’ Day. He had had a hot-air balloon built to look like an alien spaceship. His original plan was to land in a park in London, but the wind blew him down in the field a day early.
Richard Branson with his daughter and the “spaceship.”
