h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is my favourite April Fool's joke... though my parents were not happy.

You place talcum powder over the fan so that when the victim turns the fan on, a cloud of talcum powder is created. It can also be placed on the a/c vents. The bad part is that everything is covered with talcum powder, making it very messy, and it might ruin electronics or anything harmed by dust...

I wouldn't advise that... too much powder and you risk causing a rather large explosion.

Uh oh...

And some rather scary allergic reactions.

That's probably even worse than the explosion... at least the explosion's over quick, right Mina?

But the nasty allergy would be part of the Evil, Thoughtless joke, no?

Although I'm the Minister for Evil and the Muse of Evilness, even I could not condone such a terrible, ghastly April Fools joke.

I think it would be thoughtless, rather than evil. I wouldn't have thought about it if I didn't have asthma.

And yes, I would prefer a quick bang to being covered in talcum powder.

I just had a thought - what if you scooped all the chocolate spread out of the chocolate spread jar and replaced it with Marmite. Either that or just mixed, say 25% Marmite in with the chocolate spread.

I didn't think talcum powder could explode... I know flour will though!

More or less any fine powder in air like that is capable of exploding because in a powder the surface area is massively increased over a solid lump, so the chances of a reaction with air are much higher. And I'm fairly sure talc can burn. Flour's probably more likely to than talc is though.

Any finely divided *flammable* powder is potentially explosive when dispersed in air.
Talc (if it's *actually* talc) is magnesium silicate hydroxide - I wouldn't have thought there was much in it *to* burn.

Ack, anything'll burn if you give it enough chance.

Of course, "enough chance" is the key thing...

He's right. Talc'll go bang. Not as much as sawdust will tho'!

You're right about allergies as well. Probrably not the best idea, but it'd be fun to watch. How about small polystyrene balls (like the ones used in a bean-bag).

Still goes everywhere, but much fewer hazards

Oh yeah, and they get charged with static very easily, so they stick to everything - especially people!

At least Talc would smell ok. You may want to take a look at the exploding kipper scenario which I just posted.

Oh don't talk about those bean bag balls. I had to clean one, and so I put all the balls in a black bin bag. Or rather 3 black bin bags. Or rather, all over the floor, up in the air, over the worktops, and I couldn't collect them up, it's like trying to pick up mercury.
I hoovered them up after that. I really need to say that word that means illegitimate now, but I can't. So illegitimate things! I hate them.

Which is exactly why it would be funny for the perpetrator, Mina. For some terrible reason, people take amusement from the suffering of others.

Try not to pick a woman with PMT. It makes then VERY ANGRY. I still get angry with the memory and it must have been 4 years ago. Pick on someone else!

Talcom powder?!? back in my day we'd have used cayenne pepper.

Disclaimer: the thought expressed above is not necessarily the opinion of DrGoofLithium. DrGoofLithium cannot take responsability for any injury, death or loss of earnings brought about as a result of any use or missuss of the above information.