Prank at Merck SeQuant
Some guys at Merck SeQuant built a pneumatic cannon and pranked a labmate. The result:
You can view a longer video here. This prank seems almost too crazy to be true. Is it fake? How could you pull this off in industry in this day and age (of heightened awareness about safety and liability)?
December 10th, 2010 at 11:52 PM
No way. Fake.
December 10th, 2010 at 11:53 PM
He’d have been hurt REAL BAD.
December 10th, 2010 at 11:58 PM
They did a really good editing job if it’s fake.
If you look at the long version, it seems like they can tune the strength of the cannon so as to inflict as much or little damage as desired. Or perhaps you’re saying he’d be really hurt from the looks of this particular blast. Indeed, it looks like the back of his head went straight into the lockers.
December 11th, 2010 at 10:54 AM
I think it’s the locker impaction that would REALLY hurt. Maybe it’s fake and there’s padding there?
December 11th, 2010 at 1:44 PM
Yeah, well if it’s not fake, it’s really stupid. What’s the point of wearing lab safety coats if you’re going to be so reckless? And they never test the device on themselves at higher pressures. Really weird.
December 11th, 2010 at 4:27 PM
They can do it because they are doing it in sweden, which has far less of a ludicrous litigious culture than the US. Unless your initials are JA.
December 11th, 2010 at 6:23 PM
If that’s not fake, it might just be one of the greatest pranks ever.
December 12th, 2010 at 1:33 PM
FAKE!!!!! That guy would get carried out of there on a gurney if that was real.
January 28th, 2012 at 7:22 AM
This is certainly fake. He would have died of pulmonary/gut hemorrhage within minutes if he had had this momentum input. This is extraordinarily dangerous, do not do this at home or anywhere else.