After MIT's Captain America shield hack, here are the top 6 most epic pranks pulled off by the 'hackers' on campus
With the world gripped by the 'Avengers: Endgame' fever, some students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided to take their fandom to a whole new level and pulled off an epic prank.
They successfully turned their campus' great dome into the Captain America shield by placing a large piece of fabric which replicates the superhero's shield. The students refer to themselves as "hackers" — a term used to describe an amusing prank. The MIT "hacks" have been a long followed tradition resulting in some truly epic pranks.
6. Giant Tetris game
Hackers/Pranksters at MIT decided to turn the university's Green Building into a huge, playable, and multi-color Tetris game in 2012. The prank also had a console, allowing players to move, rotate and drop blocks. MIT's Green Building houses the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. The side of the building is the perfect place to create the iconic Tetris grid.
Hackers had reportedly been talking about the Tetris prank on the Green Building since 1993. The prank took around five years to be planned.
5. The Upside Down prank
The Upside Down hack of 2010 was a pretty impressive one given how much effort it would have taken to pull it off. New students along with their parents got an opportunity to see the hack first hand. The hack was fixed onto MIT's Weisner building which is located on Ames Street and featured a fully-furnished rec room hanging upside down. The room featured a pool table, lamp, coffee table, and chairs. It also had hardwood floors and a fake cat was sleeping on one of the chairs.
4. 'Breaking Bad' with the Alchemist
In order to pay tribute to the show 'Breaking Bad', pranksters at MIT decided to turn the Alchemist into the show's protagonist, Walter White with his iconic black hat and mustache, back in 2013. The University's 'Alchemist' sculpture was gifted to them on their 150th anniversary and was designed by artist Jaume Plensa. Just the day after 'Breaking Bad' released, MIT students gave their university a big makeover.
3. The Pac-Man Dome
Prankster's at MIT love the campus' great dome and it seems like the perfect place for a good hack. For one of MIT's most epic pranks, Pac-Man and his arch-enemy Blinky the ghost were seen on top of the construction scaffolding on the Great Dome in 2013. At night, the scaffolding showed a trail of "power pellets", which are white dots that Pac-Man eats in order to gain points.
2. 'Civil War' prank
Before the more recent Captain America prank, pranksters had decided it would be a good idea to honor the release of 'Captain America: Civil War' by hanging the superhero's shield on the great dome facing Killian Court. The Alchemist statue was also given an Iron Man mask as part of the hack done in 2016.
1. Circus in Lobby 7
Thanks to the hackers, the circus came to Lobby 7 in MIT in 2012. The prank featured a masked ringmaster standing on one of the pedestals and welcoming visitors to the circus while a trapeze artist swung back and forth over the entrance of the lobby. The ceiling of the lobby had been transformed to the inside of a Big Top Tent which was decorated in colored banners.