The best thing you'll see today: John P. Harvard goes Halo

41 Comments by Justin McElroy Sep 25th 2007 1:00PM
Filed under: Hacks, Microsoft Xbox 360

As you may already know, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a long history of pranking (or hacks, as they call them) both on their own campus and at other schools. Though there have been some real winners over the years, this new one, captured today by MIT newspaper The Tech, really takes the cake.

To mark the Halo 3 release, MIT students gifted the John P. Harvard statue in Harvard Yard with a Spartan helmet (with "Master Chief in Training" written on the back) and an assault rifle. All we can say is "Wow." We may not be able to talk to MIT students very long at parties without getting sleepy, but when it comes to pranks, it's clear that we all speak the same language: Nerd.

[Thanks, Brad]

Tags: halo3, mit, pranks

Read

(Page 1) Reader Comments

Noam Chomsky: Sep 25th 2007; 1:11PM

Not funny.

Hello: Sep 25th 2007; 1:34PM

Not funny, awesome.

T3H WICKERMAN: Sep 25th 2007; 2:02PM

I doubt anything could bring a chuckle out of old Mr.Linguistics himself!. Go write some more books for odonian press on our governments vile foreign policies, and leave the laughs to the big boys.

Noam Chimpsky: Sep 25th 2007; 7:18PM

Lighten up, brudda, Herbert S. Terrace says you need to get a sense of humor.

Rihanna: Sep 26th 2007; 6:26AM

That is awesome, well done. The helmet looks quite real.

Nicole @ Prank Videos

jimy: Sep 25th 2007; 1:11PM

'the best thing you'll see today'?!?!?!

Clack: Sep 25th 2007; 1:16PM

They haven't seen my girlfriends boobs.

Pretty creative though. Bet there are several students sleeping through classes today.

ScreamingSkull: Sep 25th 2007; 1:36PM

Yeah your girlfriends boobs are pretty nice.

Nyroska: Sep 25th 2007; 1:40PM

Neither have you, oddly enough :V

zymagoras: Sep 25th 2007; 1:23PM

Nice!

NaeemTHM: Sep 25th 2007; 1:24PM

I love those guys. The did the Tri-Force on the lawn once.

Sleestak: Sep 25th 2007; 1:27PM

So this is what smart people do with their free time.

mastafool: Sep 25th 2007; 1:32PM

"They haven't seen my girlfriends boobs."

I have........ Best thing I saw today :)

j/k

T3H WICKERMAN: Sep 25th 2007; 1:34PM

i was to busy shagging em to get a good look! oh too much too bad!

Matt B (SDF ): Sep 25th 2007; 1:37PM

When you are the MIT level of nerd, alcohol and sex are not a distraction. This frees up a lot more more time for stuff like this.

OnimushaSoki: Sep 25th 2007; 3:17PM

I figure if it wasn't the students, then blame must then be shifted upon those guys 'BroRape' parodies.

shoos: Sep 25th 2007; 1:39PM

truly, this makes my proud to be an alumnus. ranks up there with when they turned the Dome into R2D2 back around '98. if you've been to Harvard Yard and seen the sacred John Harvard statue, you know what this means...

Bo Williams: Sep 25th 2007; 2:07PM

Was this photo altered by Joystiq?

The reason I ask is because the statue in question sits in the middle of a grassy field in between two streets, not in front of a building.

Korova: Sep 25th 2007; 2:09PM

If you go to The Tech's website, that same picture is there on the front page.

Hashbrown_Hunter: Sep 25th 2007; 2:35PM

If you go to the source page, it shows the same picture. So no, Joystiq didn't photoshop it.

And to add my two cents: Awesomely Nerdy.

Bo Williams: Sep 25th 2007; 2:40PM

I figured it out- there are TWO statues of JP on the campus. One is the one I was thinking of, which is right in the middle of Mass Ave. The other statue (which is identical) is in Harvard Yard, and is the one they turned into Master Chief.

I have no idea why that bugged me as much as it did.

rpnguyen: Sep 25th 2007; 3:44PM

Uh...the John Harvard statue has been in front of that building as far as I can remember.

HineyWipe: Sep 25th 2007; 3:46PM

For some reason (ahem) Joystiq would not allow me to post the url to other photos. Yes, Joystiq took some liberty in enhancing the image as TungShen Chew should get the credit of the images. The images are dark. BTW, the prank was finished at 8am.

Try here:

hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2007/halo3_john_harvard/additional_information.html

HineyWipe: Sep 25th 2007; 3:48PM

Dammit, I've posted 3x now to tell you that the image credit should go to TungShen Chew. That image here is his, but Joystiq enhanced it (as original is dark).
(Joystiq is not allowing me to paste the MIT url that has more pics. The prank was removed by 8am)

Justin McElroy: Sep 26th 2007; 10:23AM

Hiney, we didn't do anything to the picture. Click on the link, you'll see. I am going to add an image credit though, that's a good point.

Korova: Sep 25th 2007; 2:07PM

Oi! Kids these days! No respect, I tell ya, no respect at ALL!

Poor JP probably turning in his grave. Oi!

FrankTheCrank: Sep 25th 2007; 2:32PM

I wonder if J Allard put it up himself...

It's sad to see a prank that involves pushing a certain IP(intellectual property). Almost seems more like viral marketing.

Yeah, hey, GO MICROSOFT!! YOU RULE! YESSSSS!!!

Kinda gay.

Robobagins: Sep 25th 2007; 2:47PM

Yeah, during the Dome into R2D2 was totally shilling for Lucas.

Defenestrator2.0: Sep 25th 2007; 4:43PM

Kinda gay? Kinda sums you up, Frank.

Defenestrator2.0: Sep 25th 2007; 5:01PM

Obvious troll is obvious.

You should use this as your avatar, Frank.
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/5292/1189960203870cp7.jpg

shoos: Sep 25th 2007; 3:06PM

a little perspective is required here: these hacks are notoriously difficult to pull off logistically. my friend was involved in the R2D2 dome hack (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/r2d2.html), and told me about all the precautions they took to ensure the safe installation and removal of the hack -- both to avoid damaging the dome, and to encourage the campus police to leave it up for a while (which they did). so they had to meticulously plan every detail, because it needed to be installed in a matter of hours, in the middle of the night. and no one wanted to get caught.

this statue sits right in the middle of Harvard Yard, and Harvard's CP's are numerous, so I imagine they would have had to devise a way to dart in, slap it on safely, and get the hell out.

it's all in good fun though; MIT and Harvard have a friendly rivalry. and it has nothing to do with "pushing M$ IP" (if any group of CS folks are anti-MS, it'd be MIT CS folks). they're just having fun with a sci-fi figure that's currently in the public consciousness -- you could hardly accuse them of being "pro-20th Century Fox" for doing the Star Wars hack...

I hope that's somewhat enlightening; I feel it's my duty to defend my old school :)

Andrew Fong: Sep 25th 2007; 3:55PM

YES!!! Hope it's still there when I go to visit Boston next week.

Emophia: Sep 25th 2007; 5:57PM

Nifty. What material?

calvin: Sep 25th 2007; 7:46PM

thats cool

Paul: Sep 25th 2007; 11:55PM

brilliant! =D

rnadler: Sep 26th 2007; 12:53AM

I should point out that getting the actual helmet onto Johnny Harvard's head was probably not difficult at all. The statue really sits around unprotected because security has learned to turn a blind eye to it, as it's a frequent target for less creative pranks and vandalism. Usually they find it much more efficient to just clean the interesting smells off the statue every morning. So when it's something like that, or ...

http://photos-086.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v82/33/1/21086/n21086_32584777_8041.jpg

... like that, it just gets taken off in the morning as well.

LawGeek: Sep 26th 2007; 5:44PM

Does that mean they would have cleaned it up already? I just saw this and was about to head out, with camera!

ThornedVenom: Sep 26th 2007; 4:21AM

MIT is a role model. =)

emily: Sep 26th 2007; 6:28AM

I'm not a fan of halo, but that's still freaking awesome

Rihana @ http://www.prankvideoz.com

Jason: Sep 27th 2007; 9:10AM

Awesome picture.

I love Halo

Jason @ http://www.Sceneparty.com

JenF: Sep 27th 2007; 4:48PM

New Zealand had some pretty ace stuff going on too...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0709/S00282.htm

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0709/S00289.htm

SOCOM Confrontation: new screens showcase action, UI PixelJunk Eden certainly is different MotorStorm Pacific Rift features photo mode, custom soundtracks	Bring back the Warlord's Battlegear model WoW Rookie (End of the Semester Edition): Dealing with difficult people Insider Trader: Enchanting, the final stretch
HouseMarque's XBLA game: Golf Tee it Up Frank O'Connor leaves Bungie for more Halos Community Content: Back at Blackout Edition	Headache de Amigo: busy screenshots, possible maracas Dr Mario: Take ten of these screenshots in the morning Friday Video: Tresling
DS Fanboy Lite: May 10 - May 16 Metal Slug 7 trailer introduces new Super Vehicles Nintendo sponsors Handheld Learning Conference	The funky fresh intro of Phantasy Star Portable Bleach: Soul Carnival trailer hidden in Heat the Soul 5 PSP maintains easy dominance in Japan

Breaking News »