this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
9 points (84.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

37622 readers
2249 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Neighbor has short hedges rimming their yard to about ankle height. I’d like to extend them a bit every night by using my own hedge clippings, until they notice.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Gullible@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I feel I need to be able to understand what a worthwhile prank looks like to you, in order to understand what you mean by that

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Subtract effort involved from expected emotional benefit.

To actually make your neighbors hedge bigger, you would need to plant new plants next to the additional plants, and tend to them to ensure they don't die after being transplanted. Which is basically landscaping. Which us a job that pays decently primarily because it is a lot of effortful and unpleasant work. And to make your prank work, you will be doing additional labor to hide the fact that you are landscaping your neighbor's yard, and will also be working at odd hours - either the middle of the day when they are at work, or more likely (assuming you have a job) late at night. So you are basically taking on a part time job for several months to do this right.

Then, the payoff. Most likely, this person doesnt notice at all for quite a while. When they do notice, the maximum possible payoff you will get is that you run into them in their yard, and they make some offhand small talk comment about "my hedges sure are growing a lot this year", just before they take a hedge trimmer to them, destroying months of your labor in a few minutes.

A good prank is higher in payoff than it is in effort. Like handing someone a gross prank-flavored jellybean. Or (if you want revenge on someone for some reason) hiding raw fish in their car.

Your idea doesn't meet this critia. It seems like a lot of work for something the person being pranked wont even notice