A snipe hunt, also known as a fool's errand or wild goose chase, is one of a class of practical jokes that involves experienced people making fun of newcomers by giving them an impossible or imaginary task. For example, inexperienced campers are told about a bird or animal called the snipe as well as a usually ridiculous method of catching it, such as running around the woods carrying a bag or making strange noises. Since real snipes (which are often mistakenly thought to be non-existent) are difficult enough to catch for experienced hunters, the hunt never succeeds for newcomers.

Snipe hunts are similar to hazing except that the abuse is embarassment from trickery rather than physical humiliation.

The name comes from a family of shorebirds called snipe that are notoriously difficult to shoot.

Snipe hunt variations

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Left in a corn field

A victim is taken into a corn field at night. The perpetrators carry flashlights while the victim only has a bag for catching the snipe. When they are deep enough in the maze-like field, someone yells, "snipe!" Everyone runs away from the victim, leaving him lost in the dark in a large corn field.

Fool's errands

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Fool's errands are tasks that cannot be accomplished because of fate or because it is a joke. They are often employed as hazing or to get an annoying subordinate out of the way. They mainly come in two varieties: trying to track down something that does not exist, or trying to accomplish an impossible task. Others in on the joke will often redirect the victim to several different places. Sometimes, especially with military commissaries, people will stock up cans, bottles, and such with fake labels. For example, Air Force commissaries often stock up on fake bottles of "prop wash".

Common items

• a long stand or long weight (wait)
• a left-handed screwdriver, wrench, knife, squeegee sharpener, etc.
• a swimming pool located on an upper floor or roof of a building
• the folder of missing documents
• a plinth ladder
• a length of WLAN cable
• a lobster gun (supposedly for stunning lobsters)

Work crews, workshops, etc

• a bucket of vacuum, steam, sparks, etc
• a box of grid squares
• frequency or lanyard grease
• a box of ohms
• a metric shifter
• a can of striped or checkered paint
• a board stretcher
• a rafter jack
• a sky hook
• the ID10T (idiot) tool

Auto shops

• muffler bearings
• Blinker (turn signal) fluid (also alleged to be used by mechanics to price gouge customers)
• spark plugs for a diesel engine (diesel engines do not use spark plugs)
• Having someone check the coolant in an older Volkswagen vehicle. (Air cooled engine - no radiator)

Boy Scouts of America

• teflon-coated sponges to clean dutch ovens
• a bacon stretcher or soup slicer
• a "left-handed smoke-shifter", supposedly a branch with a fan on the end used to deflect smoke from a campfire
• a non-existent electrical outlet in the woods, or a "tree adapter"
• a sky hook, for hanging tarps/rain flys
• dehydrated water, styrofoam stakes, or the glass hammer. Generally used less often, as these items are self-contradictory, and most marks will get wise to the joke.

General Military

• winter air for tires
• lightstick batteries
• a can of night vision
• a length of chow line (the line in a mess hall), gig line, or flight line
• radar contacts
• frequency oil
• a bucket of prop wash
• a box of grid squares
• "Go paint the last post" (Commonwealth military nations)

A few sound like military nomenclature:

• BA-1100N (balloon)
• TR-2E (tree)
• ST-1 (stone)
• ID10-T Form (idiot form)
• K9-P Solution (canine pee)

Aviation and airborne military units

• the keys to a drop zone
• canopy lights (for parachute canopies; supposedly for night jumps)
• afterburner flints
• a bottle of prop wash (the airflow from a propeller)
• the key to the approach gate (the airspace an aircraft flies through during its landing approach)
• a length of flight line (part of an airfield)

Military units aboard ships

• the golden rivet
• "mail buoy watch" a non-existent buoy a sailor is asked to watch for
• a bucket of propeller pitch
• several feet of fallopian tube
• the keys to the ship
• sound powered phone batteries
• bulkhead remover
• a length of waterline or shoreline
• relative bearing grease
• a bucket of A-1-R (Air)
• report sighting of a CGU 11S (Seagulls)
• keys to the sea chest (where a seawater pump takes suction or discharges overboard)
• a machinist's punch (provided by an obliging Machinist's Mate)
• boatswain's nuts

Farms and ranches

• Replacement tractor suspension springs (tractors have no suspension system)
• A rooster egg
• The testicles of a cow or steer
• A cat that barks or a dog that meows (often used when there are a lot of dogs or cats around)
• The lost collar for a dog (when said dog has never worn a collar)
• A chainsaw with an upside-down chain (this is almost a physical impossibility)
• A backward chain
• A 1/3" wrench.

Miscellaneous

• In marching bands: the cymbal key (supposedly for tuning cymbals)
• In hotels: a room that does not exist
• In television: the chroma key to open the genlock
• In baseball: the keys to the batter's box, and a container of curve balls
• In the grocery business: food for the lobsters (which don't need to be fed)
• A common food one, a shoulder of salmon.

Regional

In Bavaria, tourists were taken on extended expeditions to search for chamois eggs, or on all-night Wolpertinger stakeouts. In Scotland, tourists are told about the wild haggis hunts, while in the Western United States, they may be warned about the savage jackalope.

In crafting circles in Sweden, it is popular to send someone looking for a "synvinkel" or an "ögonmått", this supposedly being some kind of measuring tool. ("Synvinkel" is a reference to a set square, which is "vinkeljärn" in Swedish. The expression "synvinkel" actually means "point of view" though. "Ögonmått" is similar, meaning measuring by eye)

Popular culture

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Variations of snipe hunts are a common plot device in comic literature, including:

• In the premiere episode of the US cartoon Doug, the titular character is pressured by bully Roger Klotz into searching a local pond for a "neema toad" a play on the word nematode.
• In the machinima comedy series Red vs Blue, the newly arrived Private Donut is sent to the store for elbow grease and headlight fluid.
• In an episode of the cartoon Ren and Stimpy, the pair join the Scouts and are sent on a snipe hunt which Stimpy successfully completes, to Ren's chagrin.
• In an episode of King of the Hill, Bobby and his friends are sent on a snipe hunt and wind up injuring an endangered whooping crane, believing it to be a snipe.
• In the first episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, "Help Wanted", SpongeBob is sent off to look for a "nonexistent" spatula, (a hydrodynamic spatula with port and starboard attachments and turbo drive) which he finds.
• In an episode of Cheers, the guys at the bar take Frasier snipe hunting in the woods, and drive off, leaving him. On his return, he manages to convince the others that he had a great time, and fools them into going on another snipe hunt, while planning to take the car and abandon them.
• In the DC Comics mini-series JLA: Year One, Green Lantern asks the naive to the surface world Aquaman to find a "bulb wrench".
• In the episode "Great Snipe Hunt" from the cartoon Camp Lazlo, Lumpus sends the Bean Scouts on a snipe hunt.
• In the daily comic FoxTrot by Bill Amend, the characters Jason and Peter send their father on a snipe hunt in the woods outside of Uncle Ralph's Cabin.
• In the movie Hackers new students at a high school are informed of what turns out to be a nonexistant pool on the school's roof. The door from the roof to the school locks behind the students.

See also

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• Guy L. Steele wrote of the pool on the roof in the 1983 publication of The Hacker's Dictionary

Further reading

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• The Little Red Book of Firehouse Pranks by Jeff Hibbard (ISBN 0966781007)

Practical jokes | In-jokes

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