The “Hilarious” Classic Sports Pranks Of Professional Athletes

Published by Interrobang Staff at August 5, 2014

With a pro athlete’s sense of humor, it’s amazing that they’re not making a living in the comedy clubs across America instead of sports arenas and playing fields. There’s a list of things that have to be checked off for an athlete to think something’s funny. Humiliation is top of the list. Some physical damage either to a teammate or their possessions always helps. And of course, making a mess is a must-have in getting a laugh from sports’ greatest players. Here’s some of the classic gags that athletes find absolutely hysterical.

1. The Rookie Haircut.

Whether it’s the “Friar Tuck” look or the “Penis-Shaped Mohawk”, giving a rookie a bad haircut is just as funny to NFL players from the day it happens till the time it finally grows out. The National Football League has proven there’s nothing funnier than a partially bald 23 year old. Unless it was Matt Hasselbeck.

2. The Gatorade Shower.

All these many, many, many years later, nothing lights up a football player’s face like pouring a giant cooler of Gatorade over his coach after a big win. It’s hard to tell which is more difficult to understand – players still finding this funny or coaches still surprised that it happened. This funny joke is also credited with killing former Redskins coach George Allen. He had gotten a Gatorade Shower from his players at Long Beach State. Afterward, he said he hadn’t been feeling well since the drenching. He was dead 6 weeks later. Hilarious.

3. NBA Players Catching Teammates Sleeping.

It started with the LA Clippers and game they invented called “Got ‘Em”. The object is to catch your teammate sleeping while you travel together and take his picture because everyone knows how funny it is to be tired after a big game. A fellow player even yawning will give most NBA stars a case of the giggles.

4. The Shaving Cream Pie.

One of baseball’s favorites, the shaving cream pie in the face is given to a player who had a great outing during a winning game and usually during the post-game interview. It’s a hilarious way to not only recognize a player for excellence, but to also take the spotlight off their achievement while letting the nation see that you’re the funny one on the team.

MLB’s Comedy King of the Shaving Cream Pie, AJ Burnett (go to the 1:20 mark)

5. The Ice Cold Water Dunking.

This is the opposite of the Gatorade or Water Shower. Here, instead of the water coming to the player, he gets taken against his will to the bath. The cold water dunking made headlines when it happened in the NY Giants locker room when Prince Amukamara got dunked by Jason Pierre-Paul. The video went viral and turned NFL hilarity into a question of bullying.

6. The Sunflower Seed Shower.

If there’s sunflower seeds in the dugout, they become a baseball comic’s biggest prop. It’s the less threatening, but equally hilarious cousin of the shaving cream pie. Players who find themselves on camera being interviewed during the game can expect a 100% chance of it raining sunflower seeds. Most players probably think they were the first one to come up with the idea too. The Kansas City Royals Jeremy Guthrie gets a seed bath. Guthrie has trouble finding the universal humor in this and gets a little testy at the :40 mark.

7. Icy Hot In The Jockstrap.

A pure classic. Icy Hot or some other balm in a player’s jockstrap has to be the sports version of the rubber chicken. Maybe it’s a thinking man’s joke, but you have to picture a player in agony as their balls feel like they are on fire. One of the best examples of the Icy Hot hilarity was when somehow Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg got something in his jock and had one his worst outings during a game against the Padres. Manager Davey Johnson confirmed that Strasburg had some “hot stuff” in “the wrong place”. That day, Strasburg went into the game with a 1.64 ERA and left with a 2.25 after giving up 7 hits and 4 earned runs. A joke really can’t be considered funny until it messes with the stats.

No, there’s no photo of this you sick bastard.

8. Messing With Someone’s Car.

A lot of guys really value their cars and see them as their prize possessions. So, why wouldn’t his loyal teammates want to mess with it all in the name of comedy? Players have had their cars stolen, left up on blocks with no tires and Saran wrapped. One of the greatest moments in sports comedy was when the Denver Nuggets’ Kenyon Martin had his car filled with popcorn during a game on April 1st. Martin, who must have no sense of humor, charged back into the locker room to find out who had done it. See Kenyon, it’s funny because the interior was ruined.