There’s this prank that you can play on someone that involves a bowl of water and a broom. It also involves a ceiling. If you use a plastic bowl and a room without anything really valuable in it, it can be a pretty harmless prank, and videos of it have floated around the internet for a while.
The prank is this – you get a bowl full of water, and then you stand on something so you can reach the ceiling, and you put the bowl up against the ceiling. You make sure there’s a broom nearby. Then you call in the intended victim and just sort of casually say “Hey, can you help me with something,” and when they come in, you ask them to grab the broom and use the handle to press the bowl into the ceiling. You’ve got to have that perfect tone in your voice so that the person doesn’t question why they’re asked to do this absurd thing.
Then, when they’re essentially using the broom to hold the bowl against the ceiling, you let go and climb down. Then you just leave.
Because now the person is holding a bowl of water above their own head against the ceiling, and there’s no good way to get it down without just letting go and it falls on you. I may not be explaining this super well, so just watch:
Why am I talking about dumb internet pranks?
Because sometimes you do this to yourself. You don’t mean to, but sometimes you just solve a problem in a way that is essentially holding it up against the ceiling with a broom. Once you realize it, it’s too late. You’d love to construct a more permanent solution, but you can’t. The only way to do that is to just let the water fall and start over.
So then the only thing to do is look around and decide how much damage the water’s going to do. Either that, or hold the broom forever.
The Opportunity Machine 