Abercrombie and Fitch warehouse sale. Disney characters on the Dandelion Square clock tower. The Mad Propper Manifesto. Sound familiar?
There?s a new prankster on campus and it is not the reincarnation of Azariah Boody. In January, a group of students formed the Tiny People and have been responsible for a spat of campus-wide antics.
?Our main goal is just the entertainment of the campus,? freshman Jeff Grover said.
They just got bored one week, started doing funny things and recording them for their amusement, junior Justin Dagen said.
The group now has nine members ? Grover, Dagen, sophomores Brian Rea, Dave Orlando, J.C. Rondash and Mike Egolf, juniors Kwi Lee and Brendan Vaughn and senior Shawn Goldman.
So far, the Tiny People?s pranks have included a series of posters insulting the Computer Interest Floor and a flier that purported to call for the end of women?s suffrage.
The Tiny People were also responsable for the montage of videos that documented student?s reactions to a student who had fallen directly in front of them.
?It was actually rather sad how people just didn?t seem to care,? said Dagen.
They put up posters sending students to an Abercrombie and Fitch warehouse sale on April Fool?s Day. Last year, members of the group distributed fliers saying that the band Moxy Frvous would be playing in the Louis Alexander Palestra.
And the Mad Propper?
Well, he was UR Security?s archenemy who made it his goal to prop open every door on campus.
But seemingly absent from the Tiny People?s hoaxes has been any real malevolence.
?We have codes never to do any damage,? Grover said.
?It?s all in good fun,? Rea said. ?The basic idea is to get people to laugh at themselves.?
However, others have not found the Tiny People?s brand of humor amusing.
Junior and Women?s Caucus President Alison Schroth said she thought the poster targeting her group was not funny.
?The thing that really annoyed me was that they completely tried to disguise it as a [Women?s Caucus] poster, down to the ?Women’s Caucus is SA funded,? and I was afraid people wouldn’t look closely at it and think we were having a really badly organized event,? she said.
In response to the poster, Associate Director of Student Activities Anne-Marie Algier said, ?I think it?s very irresponsible. I think they have a lot of energy that could be spent elsewhere.?
But sophomore and CIF President Chris Howell-Little said the poster aimed at his group ?really had no impact whatsoever.?
Caught
Two members of the Tiny People were recently charged with disorderly conduct at the Eastview Mall in Victor for throwing 20 pounds of dry ice into a water fountain. Eastview Mall security declined comment.
The two are scheduled to make an appearance in court April 22.
Visit the Tiny People online at www.tinypeople.net.
