Nine Inch Nail’s art director Rob Sheridan has shared details of a prank he subjected the band’s former manager to.
Sheridan shared details of the prank after learning that the gadget company Thinkgeek is shutting down. As it turns out, one of their gadgets was the source of a particularly harsh joke that he once played on his co-worker.
“For those unaware, the Annoy-A-Tron was an absolutely insidious office prank device, a very tiny contraption with an adhesive back designed to be hidden and stuck in difficult-to-find places,” Sheridan shared on Twitter.
“When activated, the Annoy-A-Tron would emit a loud high-pitched electronic beep, not unlike the horrible beep smoke detectors make when low on batteries. The beep had an incredible way of piercing an entire room, but here’s the genius part, the part that made it truly evil. The beeps would emit at RANDOM INTERVALS.”
Sheridan then proceeded to explain how he hid the device in the band manager’s office, who he simply names “J”. The device continued to beep while J frantically searched for the source of the noise, unplugging every device in the room while Sheridan watched in horror, realizing the prank had gone too far.
“As J grew more furious and obsessed, we started to get concerned. This had gone too far. But we couldn’t get into his office to turn the device off without revealing our prank, which at this point would be a very dangerous thing to admit to. So we watched, nervously, as J proceeded to physically remove EVERYTHING from the office. Unplugging wasn’t good enough, he had to completely clear the office out to eliminate possible culprits of the terrible noise.”
He continued: “He removed everything… except his desk. We were biting our nails watching this unfold … Sweating and filled with rage, J stands on the desk and starts ramming the ceiling tiles with a broom handle, knocking them down one by one, convinced there must be something in the ceiling. He’s a man possessed, and the joke has gone way too far at this point.”
You can find out what happened next here.
