I’m not a practical joker. Well, maybe a little, but one with significant limits. I don’t enjoy embarrassing people publicly or causing damage to someone’s property, or mentally scarring them, so I guess a real practical joker would say that I am not one.
Most friends just worry about busting your chops (and vice-versa) once in a while. But most of my co-workers in my first real job were… different. I worked in engineering, and most of these guys (and especially some of the gals) had elevated the practical joke to fine art, merged with blood sport. No one was safe, not even the jokesters themselves. Everyone was destined to eventually fall victim.
As unabated and unfiltered as they were, I had a very sensitive radar within my surroundings. I tried to always know what was behind every corner, inside every shadow. (Which was true for anyone who wanted to stay out of their clutches.) Situational awareness was my survival instinct.