Each month, over 1.5 million people tune into Sir John Hargrave's comedy Web site, zug.com, which shronicles his cleverly crafted pranks on such high-profile targets as Michael Jackson, Ashton Kutcher, and the entire U.S. Senate.
Born on April Fool's Day, Sir John secretly began his site on a company computer in 1995, making it the world's oldest comedy site. Co-workers loved reading about his hilarious, real-life stories such as subsisting on a diet of Olestra-laden potato chips for a solid week, or trying to kiss Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at a technology Industry party.
That kind of establishment-tweaking stunt became Sir John's speacialty. But it was a 2001 piece called "The Credit Card Prank" that turned the Internet humorist into an Internet Celebrity. "I was tired of being asked to sign my name every time I used my credit card," he explains,"So I started signing every wacky name I could think of. to see if anyone would notice."
No one did. But the photos of his credit card receipts--forged with names from "Mariah Carey" to "Zeus"--did get noticed by bloggers, who passed around the article nearly 20 million times.
In his new book, Prank The Monkey, Sir John goes after targets like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, e-mail spammers, Madonna, and even the British Royal Family, skewering each target with a cleverly orchestrated prank. He challenges the IRS by filling out his tax returns in Roman numerals; he tricks Elizabeth Hurley into signing a will the bequeaths all her assets to Hargrave estate.
Despite its bad-boy stylings, Prank The Monkey is a wickedly funny book, proving that one man armed with nothing but a cell phone and a computer can take on the world's most powerful institutions. And in the process, he might just become an Internet institution himself.
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