Janitor’s Revenge: The Snow-Shovelling Prank Seen from Above

Somebody had to clear the snow, and somebody decided to have a little fun doing it. In Janitor’s Revenge: How to annoy people when it snows, a camera looks straight down on snowy ground where the cleared paths form a pattern, and the joke appears as people try to follow them.

The Janitor’s Revenge snow prank

The clip was posted on YouTube by Corporate Warrior. Its humour depends on the camera angle. Seen from above, the cleared lines read like a drawing on white paper, and the viewer understands the layout long before anyone walking on the ground does. Those walkers meet the route one section at a time, and that gap between what we can see and what they can see is the whole gag.

Fresh snow makes the trick work. The contrast between dark cleared ground and untouched white is so strong that a path looks like an instruction, and most people follow it without thinking.

The snow shovel: a 6,000-year-old tool

The tool behind the prank has a long history. The oldest known snow shovel, about 6,000 years old, was found in a bog in Russia. Its blade was carved from elk antler and tied to a handle of wood or bone.

Modern shovels come in two main families. Push shovels have wide, shallow blades, around 24 inches across, for sliding snow aside. Lift shovels are about half as wide, with deeper curves for carrying heavy or wet snow. Snow sleds, large hopper-like scoops, let you slide snow away without lifting it at all.

Snow-shovelling injuries by the numbers

Shovelling is real exercise, and it sends a surprising number of people to hospital. A study by Nationwide Children’s Hospital of US emergency department records from 1990 to 2006 found:

• about 11,500 shovelling-related injuries and medical emergencies treated each year;
• the lower back was the most commonly injured area, at 34% of cases;
• 54% came from overexertion, 20% from slips and falls and 15% from being struck by a shovel;
• heart problems made up only 7% of cases but more than half of hospital admissions and all 1,647 deaths recorded in the study;
• people aged 55 and over were more than four times as likely as younger shovellers to have cardiac symptoms.

How to shovel snow safely

Push the snow instead of lifting it whenever you can. The same researchers advise warming up first, taking frequent breaks and clearing snow in several smaller sessions through the day, while it is still fresh and light. Bend your knees, keep your back straight, use the shovel as a lever and avoid twisting while you throw. Wear slip-resistant boots, a hat and gloves, and talk to a doctor before a big clear-up if you have heart problems or rarely exercise.

And if you are the one holding the shovel, you now know that a clever path can turn an everyday chore into a joke.

Related reading

• Chaya the German Shepherd Joins the Snow Shovelling
• A Snow-Covered Car and the Window That Changes the Joke
• A Roof-Snow Release Beside a Ladder
• An Ontario Ice Fort Built One Batch at a Time
• A Wisconsin Cold-Weather Stunt in Its Original Setting
• Dry Ice in Water: Understanding the Low White Cloud
• Snow Is Fun: Simple Ideas for a Shared Snow Day

Sources