The Greatest Prank Ever

The 21st century has to be the Golden Age for Pranks and we have technology to thank.

The invention of the doorbell led to the classic Flaming Bag of Poop on the Doorstep and Ring the Doorbell. The Crank Call ("Is your refrigerator running? Well, you'd better catch it!") needed the telephone.

Now we have the Internet and iPhone access to it. A recent TV commercial shows a harried Mom on the road to the airport, shepherding her family to a vacation. With her trusty iPhone, she confirms flight reservations, scopes out airport restaurants, and even chooses the movie that her little ones will watch in flight. Her doltish husband asks, "Did we remember to turn off the lights at home?" Through the magic of the Interweb, her iPhone indicates that that her home is lit up like Times Square on New Year's Eve. With a touch, she saves countless Kilowatt hours. The iPhone confirms "Lights Out".

Wouldn't this "app" be an ideal platform for pranksters? Let's say that Mom and Dad are out on the town leaving little Josh and Tiffany with Grandma as baby sitter. Teen Brandon is allowed to hang with his miscreant buddies as long as he is home by 11 and has the family's back-up iPhone with him. Brandon waits until past the little ones' bedtime, then repeatedly hits the Home Lights switch on his iPhone. The kids wake up screaming. Grandma makes panic calls to, in no particular order, the police, the power company, and the Vatican ("Send an exorcist! The Devil is in the wires of this house.). The wacky neighbors rush into the street certain that a UFO has landed in Brandon's backyard.

All in all, it would only be The Greatest Prank Ever. Thanks, Steve Jobs!