If you didn't already know, George Clooney is undoubtedly the prank-master of Hollywood. Yes, this guy is the genius of pranking. He is a planner, a schemer, a creative monster, and executes with brute force on all those he aims to embarrass. Don't worry, most of the people he takes down a peg enjoy it and are the type to do the same back to him. Sure, in some cases a few of the pranks might be slightly questionable and maybe over the line, but in all cases, they're absolutely hilarious.
If anyone took the time to search the dark corners of the Internet they may find a few short lists of some of George's most famous pranks, but I almost guarantee that they won't find a list as comprehensive as this one. Sure, there are a couple classics missing, but I think as you scroll on, you will find ones you absolutely have never read before... Some, in fact, may surprise readers. After all, they did me.
It may come as a surprise to some people that this charming, talented, philanthropic, handsome, A-lister is such an experienced prankster, but after reading this list, I assure you that you will be completely convinced that George Clooney is unequivocally a prank-master.
25 George And Fluffernutter's Litter Box
There's just absolutely no way I can open with any other prank but this one. That's because it's probably my favorite, and perhaps the most famous if you're a George Clooney aficionado. The prank itself is so thought out and somewhat villainous. Frankly, when I heard it for the first time, I grew a whole new respect for George Clooney.
According to few sources (i.e. The Kevin Pollock Show, the Telegraph, and Yahoo), George planned the mother-of-all animal pranks on his old roommate, Richard Kind. I should mention that this event took place before George Clooney was who he is today. He hadn't even appeared on ER yet. He had only done The Facts of Life when he was forced to move into his comedian/actor pal Richard Kind's place.
Richard, a self-appointed "typical New York Jewish comedian." had a big fluffy cat named Fluffernutter. One day, Richard told George that he noticed that the cat hadn't been going to the bathroom for a few days as the litter-box was empty. Richard took the cat to the vet. Got some pills. And for the next week, he noticed that the litter box remained empty. As it turns out, however, George was emptying it while Richard was out to make him think that the pills didn't end up working on the poor cat. Then, one final day, Richard walked in to see that the litter box was in fact full. George had continued to clean up the cat's droppings but left a big one of his own in the box for Richard, causing the nasally voiced comedian to shout out, "Oh my God! Kitty!".
24 Batman Pranks Robin
Though every single actor and actress has a bad movie or two during the course of their career, it seems particularly unfortunate that George Clooney's career has been smudged by his appearance in Joel Schumacher's horrendous Batman and Robin. Seriously, that movie is so bad that it almost makes us forget the great films George has been in, like Up in the Air, The Descendants, Michael Clayton, Ocean's Eleven, O'Brother Where Art Thou, Gravity, and Solaris (okay, kidding about that last one).
Anyway, according to Purple Clover, George Clooney pranked his Batman and Robin costar, Chris O'Donnell, with the help of director Joel Schumacher. One day, George and Joel saw Chris pull up in his new pride and joy, a BMW convertible. After O'Donnell, who played Robin, went to his trailer, George and Joel found bags of popcorn and filled O'Donnell's car to the brim. Luckily for O'Donnell, the popcorn was unsalted and had no butter on it. If it did, he would have had one heck of a mess to deal with as I'm sure his seats were leather and sleek.
It's nice to hear that there was some fun had on the Batman and Robin set, because every time George speaks about the film now, he claims to have immense regrets over doing it. He is even reported to have a poster of him as Batman in his office to keep his head level.
23 Pretending To Host The Jolie/Pitt Wedding
Of course, nowadays the highly publicized Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie love-story is long since over, but back in 2005, it was in full swing. If you remember back to that time, or even to a couple years ago, the tabloids were littered with Pitt/Jolie "news." The pair were followed everywhere and their lives were under constant scrutiny. Even their buddy George Clooney could obviously understand what it was like.
So George decided to use his pranking skills in order to get back at the press a little. According to a Yahoo article, George threw a fake wedding for Angelina and Brad at his estate in Lake Como, Italy.
For two weeks he had tables and tents set up on his property. He leaked information about the wedding and essentially caused some tabloids to spend a ton of money to fly out and survey his property only to find out that it was all a complete sham. Clooney said they were even flying helicopters over to try and get a closer look.
As brilliant as this is, it's a pretty remarkable way of wasting money. I can't imagine how much he spent while trying to fool these guys. Although, he did have a big party at his estate a few days before this, so it's logical that he would have kept a bunch of the things he rented for the other party.
Additionally, he raised an important issue about the lengths these tabloids will go to just to capture a moment they claim that the public wants to see.
22 Ryan Gosling's Pants
I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that Ryan Gosling is one of Hollywood's most beloved actors. He absolutely enchants most people. In fact, he seems to be the type of guy people are completely obsessed with. If you don't believe me, I implore you to take a look at another article on TheThings titled Ryan Gosling Doing Things.
George Clooney is no stranger to working with beloved icons, especially ones that many people lust over. One of his best friends is Brad Pitt, after all. But in this next prank, George took his pranking talents to Ryan, who easily represents Hollywood's newest generation of heartthrobs.
According to Parade Magazine and The Hollywood Reporter, during the production of The Ides of March, a political drama that George directed and starred in with Ryan, George would go up to Ryan and give him serious direction while spraying Ryan's crotch with a water spritzer. Due to the serious discussion and light spray, Ryan wouldn't notice this was happening to him until later when it looked like he had peed his pants.
There's no doubt that half of Ryan's fanbase would instantly lose their intense lust over him if they thought he constantly peed his pants. Well, played, Clooney, well played.
21 The Outrageous Bumper Stickers
According to IGN and Yahoo, during the shoot of Ocean's Twelve, Brad Pitt sent out a letter to the Italian crew members stating that his co-star, George, didn't want to be looked in the eye and was only to be referred to as his character name, "Danny Ocean." It's not completely absurd to hear that some stars require that no one but their castmates look them in the eye. It happens occasionally. As ludicrous and narcissistic as it may sound, the actor's excuse usually has something to do with them needing to be in the zone of their character. But, of course, most of us would think that's just plain silly.
But in the film industry, these wacky things can happen. Therefore, it's not hard to believe that the Italian crew actually respected these wishes.
Once George started to notice how the crew was treating him, he asked around and found out the truth of the scenario. As retaliation, because we all know George and Brad just can't lay off the pranks, George stuck a bunch of inappropriate bumper stickers to the back of Brad's car without him knowing. These stickers stated were a little too graphic to post here, but let's just say they're bumper stickers Brad Pitt wouldn't normally have on his car.
Apparently everywhere Brad drove people would honk at him until he finally figured out what his pal did.
20 Collateral Damage
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly Radio on Sirius XM, Julia Roberts shared a story about how she was collateral damage in a pranking war between her Ocean's Twelve co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. She explained that during the filming of Ocean's Eleven, she would be the target of the pranks, but that changed when shooting the sequel because she was pregnant at the time, something the filmmakers actually incorporated into the film in a meta way. But because she was pregnant, the male-heavy cast of the film didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable in any way. She even explained that they didn't want her walking up a flight of stairs.
But this all changed when the production moved from Lake Como in Italy to Rome. Julia said that when she opened up her suitcase in the new location she found a heavy bronze statue head inside. Initially, Julia was a bit surprised that the boys would prank her with something so heavy while she was pregnant, but she soon found out that she was actually just collateral damage in a pranking war between George and Brad... It turns out that George had seen Brad carry Julia's suitcase into the car during travel and so he thought it belonged to him. So he had actually tried to prank Brad by putting in that heavy statue head but ended up pranking his pregnant costar instead.
19 George Uses Pitt To Get To Meryl
In an interview on Britain's insanely popular and hilarious chat show, The Graham Norton Show, George spoke about his illustrious pranking history with his Ocean's Eleven co-star Brad Pitt. He even stated that the two have done "terrible things' to one another for the sake of a laugh. He spoke about a hilarious time, not mentioned on this list, where he found a sticker of a pot leaf with a derogatory comment about cops on it and stuck it to Brad's car bumper.
Anyway, according to this Telegraph article and The Graham Norton Show, George had some stationery made up with Brad's name on it and would send letters "from him" to other actors; one of whom was Meryl Streep.
You know Meryl Streep... arguably the greatest actress of our generation, or as some morons like to call, "overrated." (And yes, I wholeheartedly disagree.)
Along with a letter to Meryl from Brad, George included a stack of dialect CDs to "help" her prepare for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Apparently, Meryl was very confused by this. There's no word on whether or not she was insulted by Brad's acting tips, but someone of her caliber should certainly have been.
18 Matt Damon's Weight Gain
Since Matt Damon is the third wheel to George and Brad's Ocean's Eleven characters, it seems only fair that they would include him in on their pranking charades. In fact, there's a couple reference to Matt Damon on this list, so keep your eyes out.
During the shoot for George's The Monuments Men, which, unfortunately, was not nearly as good as it could have been, George embarked on an villainous prank that was inspired by what he did to his old roommate, Richard Kind.
During the costume-fittings, and the shooting of the film, George knew that his co-star, Matt Damon, was in the process of losing some weight in order to appear the best he could in the film. George paid the tailor of Damon's costumes to take in Matt's pants by an eighth of an inch every single day of the shoot. Obviously, Matt was completely blindsided by this. He legitimately felt that he was gaining weight because every single day the pants would feel tighter and tighter.
If you think it was a bit mean of George, well, according to a Telegraph article, it was actually in retaliation for when Matt told a reporter that Clooney was gay and in the closet. Will these acting-buds ever rest when it comes to their pranking wars?
17 The M&M Underwear Prank
Producer Jerry Weintraub got a free helping to everybody's favorite chocolate candy when he woke up to find that his underwear was filled with M&M's. According to Yahoo and MTV, the movie mogul got more than he bargained for when he was challenged to a drinking contest by George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Weintraub, of course, was one of Hollywood's most beloved producers. He passed away a couple of years ago but was one of the guys who helped get HBO's Westworld off the ground. Additionally, he also was responsible for Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and Ocean's Thirteen, which starred Clooney and Pitt.
During this long flight, the Ocean's pair tricked Weintraub into passing the time with them by drinking vodka. Although it turned out that Weintraub was the only one actually drinking, Clooney and Pitt were, in fact, drinking water and pretending to be drunk.
Weintraub passed out on the plane and while he was unconscious, Clooney and Pitt absolutely filled his underwear with M&M's.
I doubt that Weintraub was all that upset, after all, he became quite close to both of these actors during their time working together. And at the end of the day, he was probably happy he got to be part of a great story.
16 Massaging Jerry
Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, and Ocean's Thirteen producer, Jerry Weintraub, got to be the focal point of yet another masterful George Clooney prank, or so he told Ellen Degeneres on The Ellen Show.
Apparently, Jerry was in the midst of getting a back massage at his home by a very beautiful young woman when George and Brad Pitt snuck into the room with a camera. George silently used his charm to shoo away the young masseuse and proceeded to take over her duties. Weintraub told Ellen that he was so into the massage that he had absolutely no idea that there had been a switch in masseuses.
George continued to massage Jerry for a time while Brad stood in the corner snapping photographs of it going down. Jerry even claimed that he was making vocal noises because he was enjoying it so much. Then George removed the towel that was covering Jerry's back end and slapped it extremely hard. Jerry jumped up and realized what was really going on, as well as the fact that Brad had captured the climactic moment on camera.
It's very lucky for George and Brad that they had this kind of relationship with their boss because most other people would never in a million years get away with something like this.
