Practical joke A practical joke or a prank was a trick played on someone in which humor was derived from the victim ' s embarrassment or discomfort . They were called " practical " jokes because they were " practiced " , instead of being related in oral or written form . The person who performed the practical jokes was called a practical joker . According to Kirk , " " the worst thing you can do to a practical joker is to play a practical joke on them . " " ( ) Tom Paris and Michael Rostov were known practical jokers . ( ; ) Childhood . In 2237 , the Vulcan healer was reluctant to answer a young Spock ' s request that he help I - Chaya , having heard rumors of the child ' s tendency towards practical jokes . The boy admitted that he had played one two years ago , but that this wasn ' t one . ( ) After suffering from Trelane ' s pranks , James T . Kirk compared them to actions he erroneously assumed Spock had performed in his youth ( " " Dipping little girls ' curls in inkwell s . Stealing apple s from the neighbors ' tree s . Tying cans on - " " ) Upon seeing Spock ' s look of dismay , Kirk realized who he was talking to and asked him to forgive him . ( ) Starfleet Academy . Practical jokes were known to occur at Starfleet Academy . During his time at the Academy , Captain James T . Kirk fell victim to one practical joke after another at the hands of Finnegan , an upperclassman . Kirk later recounted the types of pranks Finnegan was prone to play ( always on Kirk ) : During Wesley Crusher ' s first week at the Academy , Cadet Adam Martoni reprogrammed Crusher ' s sonic shower to cover him with mud . Crusher returned the favor by somehow rigging an anti - matter regulator to spray chili sauce ( presumably ) on Martoni . ( ) Lieutenant Commander Data fell victim to several practical jokes during his Academy years . ( ) Aboard " Enterprise NX " . In 2152 , Travis Mayweather pranked Hoshi Sato by claiming he ' d found a new lifeform that he thought might be sentient and that the captain needed her to figure out how to communicate with it . In reality , it was strawberry gelatin . Hoshi recalled this when identifying his supposedly dead body , saying she thought that his death was another practical joke . ( ) Aboard the " Enterprise " . In 2270 , the main computer of the played a series of practical jokes , including : To get rid of the subatomic particle s responsible for the computer ' s malfunction , Kirk played a practical joke of his own , by saying he was petrified of going through the energy field again . The computer promptly diverted them there , clearing the particles from the ship . The Romulan starships , having followed the " Enterprise " through the field , began experiencing similar computer malfunctions . ( ) Aboard the " Enterprise - D " . In 2367 , Jake Potts pretended that his brother Willie had killed him with a toy laser pistol by popping a balloon filled with red pillion dye . This prank backfired when Willie hid and ate a cove palm fruit , thereby infecting himself with a dangerous parasite . Later , when asked by Doctor Beverly Crusher if he ' d ever pulled a prank on someone , Willie said he hadn ' t , explaining that he didn ' t think it was funny to be tricked like that . ( ) On Deep Space Nine . In 2371 , Julian Bashir dismissed Jadzia Dax ' s sudden outburst of passion towards Benjamin Sisko as a practical joke . ( ) In 2372 , Jadzia had broken into Odo ' s quarters four times while he was regenerating and moved all of his furniture a few centimeter s out of place in various directions . Odo found her pranks annoying , and accused Quark of being in on them . Later , he personally saw to it that she fixed her changes , adding that he wanted her to promise that she ' d stay out of his quarters while he was gone . She agreed . ( ) In 2375 , Miles O ' Brien mistook the recurrence of the first line of " A Tale of Two Cities " on the 294th page as a practical joke of Ezri Dax , who had loaned the book to Bashir . Instead , it was proof that they were still inside Luther Sloan ' s mind , as neither man knew what the rest of the book was . ( ) Aboard Voyager . In 2373 , Tom Paris was dismayed by the unfinished status of the holonovel " " Insurrection Alpha " " , wondering out loud if it was someone ' s idea of a practical joke . ( ) At some point before Tuvok ' s promotion to Lieutenant commander in 2374 , Paris and Harry Kim rigged the security console on the bridge so that every time Tuvok accessed the internal sensor s , the message " live long and prosper " would play , which he had to put up with for the rest of his shift because , to his frustration , there was no one available to fix it . He would discover after his shift that the replicator in his quarters had been rigged the same way when ordering Vulcan tea . ( ) In 2376 , B ' Elanna Torres initially dismissed Seven of Nine ' s conspiracy theory about Starfleet plotting with the as a " " Borg practical joke " " . ( ) Also that year , to calm the Fair Haven holographic characters , The Doctor ( as Father Mulligan ) claimed that Paris and Kim pranked them , and that they were " not " spirits responsible for turning Maggie O ' Halloran into a cow . ( ) Tom Paris was also initially accused that year of altering one of Tuvok ' s holoprogram s by putting pajamas on the Oracle of K ' Tal , though he was innocent . ( ) In 2377 , when B ' elanna Torres told Paris that she was his new co - pilot for the " Delta Flyer II " , he mistook it for a practical joke . ( ) Alternate Reality . " In 2258 of the alternate reality , mistook ' s promotion of to first officer in his absence for a prank , pleading confusion over the complexities of such actions . ( ) "