101 WAYS TO MESS WITH YOUR ROOMMATE
1.Insist that you are a vegetarian and protest anytime your roommate eats meat. Then leave
"Slim Jim" wrappers on the floor and lie on the bed holding your stomach everytime your
roommate walks in. If he/she asks about the wrappers, say you know nothing about them.
2.Get some hair. Disperse it around your roommate's head while he/she is asleep. Keep a pair
of scissors by your bed. Snicker at your roommate every morning.
3.Every time your roommate walks in yell, "Hooray! You're back!" as loud as you can and
dance around the room for five minutes. Afterwards, keep looking at your watch and saying,
"Shouldn't you be going somewhere?"
4.Trash the room when your roommate's not around. Then leave and wait for your roommate
to come back. When he/she does, walk in and act surprised. Say, "Uh-oh, it looks like,
THEY, were here again."
5.Every time you see your roommate yell, "You son of a..." and kick him/her in the stomach.
Then buy him/her some ice cream.
6.Set your roommate's bed on fire. Apologize and explain that you've been watching too much
"Beavis & Butthead." Do it again. Tell him/her that you're not sorry because this time, they
deserved it.
7.Put your glasses on before you go to bed. Take them off as soon as you wake up. If your
roommate asks, explain that they are Magic Dream Glasses. Complain that you've been
having terrible nightmares.
8.Eat lots of "Lucky Charms." Pick out all the yellow moons and stockpile them in the closet. If
your roommate inquires, explain that visitors are coming, but you can't say anything more, or
you'll have to face the consequences.
9.Set up meetings with your roommate's faculty advisor. Inquire about his/her academic
potential. Take lots of notes, and then give your roommate a full report. Insist that he/she do
the same.
10."Drink" a raw egg for breakfast every morning. Explain that you are in training. Eat a dozen
donuts every night.
11.Every Thursday, pack up everything you own and tell your roommate you're going home.
Come back in an hour and explain that no one was home. Unpack everything and go to
sleep.
12.Every time you wake up, start yelling, "Oh, my God! Where the hell am I?!" and run around
the room for a few minutes. Then go back to bed. If your roommate asks, say you don't
know what he/she is talking about.
13.Draw a tiny, black spot on your arm. Make it bigger every day. Look at it and say, "It's
spreading, it's spreading."
14.Buy a McDonald's "Happy Meal" for lunch every day. Eat the straw and the napkin. Throw
everything else away.
15.Buy a plant. Sleep with it at night. Talk to it. After a few weeks, start to argue with it loudly.
Then yell, "I can't live in the same room with you," storm out of the room and slam the door.
Get rid of the plant, but keep the pot. Refuse to discuss the plant ever again.
16.Buy a Jack-In-The-Box. Every day, turn the handle until the clown pops out. Scream
continuously for twenty minutes.
17.Hang up pictures of chickens all over the room. If your roommate eats eggs, yell at him/her
and call him/her a cannibal.
18.Buy some knives. Sharpen them every night. While you're doing so, look at your roommate
and mutter, "Soon, soon...."
19.Lock the door while your roommate is out. When he/she comes back and tries to unlock it,
yell, "Don't come in, I'm naked!" Keep this up for several hours. When you finally let your
roommate in, immediately take off all of your clothes, and ignore your roommate.
20.Bring in potential "new" roommates from around campus. Give them tours of the room and
the building. Have them ask about your roommate in front of him/her, and reply, "Oh,
him/her? He/she won't be here much longer."
21.If your roommate comes home after midnight, hit him/her on the head with a rolling pin.
Immediately go to bed, muttering, "Ungrateful little..."
22.Pile dirty dishes in your roommate's bed. Insist that you don't know how they got there.
23.Collect hundreds of pens and pile them on one side of the room. Keep one pencil on the
other side of the room. Laugh at the pencil.
24.Feign a serious illness for two weeks. Have a priest come to your room and visit you. Write
out a will, leaving everything to your roommate. One day, miraculously "recover." Insist that
your roommate write out a will, leaving everything to you. Every time he/she coughs,
excitedly say, "Oooh, are you dying?"
25.Live in the hallway for a month. Afterwards, bring all of your stuff back into the room and tell
your roommate, "Okay, your turn."
26.Keep a tarantula in a jar for three days. Then get rid of the tarantula. If your roommate asks,
say, "Oh, he's around here somewhere."
27.Tell your roommate, "I've got an important message for you." Then pretend to faint. When
you recover, say you can't remember what the message was. Later on, say, "Oh, yeah, I
remember!" Pretend to faint again. Keep this up for several weeks.
28.Bowl inside the room. Set up tournaments with other people in the building. Award someone
a trophy. If your roommate wants to bowl too, explain that he/she needs bowling shoes.
29.Walk backwards all the time. Then pretend to trip and hurt yourself. Fake an injury and go
through a long, painful recovery. Start walking backwards again.
30.While your roommate is out, glue your shoes to the ceiling. When your roommate walks in,
sit on the floor, hold your head, and moan.
31.Explain to your roommate that you're going to be housing a prospective student in the near
future. One day, bring in a pig. If your roommate protests, hug the pig and tell your roommate
that he/she hurt its feelings. Watch T.V with the pig, eating lots of bacon.
32.Make a sandwich. Don't eat it, leave it on the floor. Ignore the sandwich. Wait until your
roommate gets rid of it, and then say, "Hey, where the hell is my sandwich!?" Complain
loudly that you are hungry.
33.Punch a hole in the T.V. Sit and watch it anyway, complaining about the poor picture quality.
34.Wear a cape. Stand in front of an open window for about an hour every day. Then, one day,
when your roommate is gone, go outside and lie down underneath the window, pretending to
be hurt, and wait for your roommate to return. The next day, start standing in front of the
window again.
35.Collect potatoes. Paint faces on them and give them names. Name one after your roommate.
Separate your roommate's potato from the others. Wait a few days, and then bake your
roommate's potato and eat it. Explain to your roommate, "He just didn't belong."
36.Fill an empty shaving cream can with whipped cream. Use it to shave, and then spray some
into your mouth. Later on, complain that you feel sick. Continue this process for several
weeks.
37.Cover your bed with a tent. Live inside it for a week. If your roommate asks, explain that
"It's a jungle out there." Get your roommate to bring you food and water.
38.Keep a vacuum cleaner in the middle of the room. Look at it with fear for a few days. Then
stay out of the room entirely, opening the door only a crack and whispering to your
roommate, "Psst! Is it gone?"
39.Break the window with a rock. If your roommate protests, explain that you were hot. Open
and close the broken window as you normally would.
40.Throw darts at a bare wall. All of a sudden, act excited, telling your roommate that you hit
the bull's eye.
41.Send flowers to your roommate, with a card that says, "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
When you see them, start ripping up the flowers. Repeat the process for a few weeks.
42.Call your roommate "Clyde" by accident. Start doing so every so often. Increase the
frequency over the next few weeks, until you are calling him "Clyde" all the time. If your
roommate protests, say, "I'm sorry. I won't do that anymore, Murray."
43.Hire a night watchman to guard the room while you are sleeping.
44.Move everything to one side of the room. Ask your roommate if he knows how much an
elephant weighs, and look at the floor on the empty side of the room with concern.
45.Practice needlepoint every night. At one point, grab your thumb and scream,
"Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" Cry hysterically for a few minutes, and then go to
bed. Sob and sniff all night.
46.When your roommate comes in, pretend that you are on the phone, screaming angrily and
shouting obscenities. After you hang up, say, "That was your mom. She said she'd call back."
47.Every time your roommate comes in, immediately turn off the lights and go to bed. When
he/she leaves, get up and loudly yell, "Okay, guys, you can come out now."
48.Start wearing a crown, all the time. If your roommate tells you to take it off, say, "What the
hell do you think you are? A king?"
49.Sit in front of a chess board for hours, saying nothing, doing nothing. Then, look up and say,
"I think this game goes a lot faster with two players."
50.Talk back to your "Rice Krispies." All of a sudden, act offended, throw the bowl on the floor
and kick it. Refuse to clean it up, explaining, "No, I want to watch them suffer."
51.Change the locks on the door. Don't let your roommate in unless he/she says the secret
word. Change the secret word often. If your roommate can't guess the secret word, make
him/her pay a tithe.
52.Scatter stuffed animals around the room. Put party hats on them. Play loud music. When your
roommate walks in, turn off the music, take off the party hats, put away the stuffed animals,
and say, "Well, it was fun while it lasted."
53.Hang a tire swing from the ceiling. Act like a monkey. If someone besides your roommate
comes in, cease acting like a monkey and claim that the tire swing was your roommate's idea.
When you and your roommate are alone again, continue acting like a monkey.
54.Unplug everything in the room except for one toaster. Pray to the toaster. Bring it gifts.
Throw some of your roommate's possessions out the window. Say that the toaster made you
do it.
55.Challenge your roommate to a duel. If he refuses, claim that you have won by forfeit and
therefore conquered his side of the room. Insist that he remove all of his possessions
immediately.
56.Sign your roommate up for various activities. (Campus tour guide, blood donor, organ
donor).
57.Start dressing like an Indian. If your roommate inquires, claim that you are getting in touch
with your Native-American roots. If your roommate accuses you of not having any
Native-American roots, claim that he/she has offended your people and put a curse on your
roommate.
58.Wear your shoes on the wrong feet, all the time. Constantly complain that your feet hurt.
59.Hit your roommate on the head with a brick. Claim that you were trying to kill a mosquito.
60.Steal something valuable of your roommate's. If he/she asks about it, tell him/her that you
traded it for some magic beans. Give some beans to your roommate.
61.Instead of turning off the light switch, smash the light bulb with a hammer. Put a new bulb in
the next day. Complain often about the cost of light bulbs.
62.Videotape yourself hammering a nail into a wall for a while, and then stopping. Play the tape
in your room. Right before the hammering stops on the videotape, look at the screen and say,
"Don't do that."
63.Buy a lamp. Tell your roommate it's a magic lamp, with a genie inside it. Spend a week
thinking about what to wish for. At the end of the week, report that someone has released the
genie from the lamp. Blame your roommate.
64.Whenever your roommate brushes his/her teeth, watch him/her do so. Take notes. Write a
paper on it, and circulate it around campus. If your roommate protests, say, "The people
have a right to know!"
65.Collect potato chips that you think look like famous people. Find one that looks like your
roommate. Burn it, and explain, "It had to be done."
66.Read the phone book out loud and excitedly. ("Frank Johnson! Oh, wow! 837-9494! Holy
cow!")
67.Shadow box several times a day. One day, walk in looking depressed. If your roommate
asks what's wrong, explain that your shadow can't box with you anymore due to an injury.
Ask your roommate if you can box with his/her shadow.
68.When you walk into the room, look at your roommate in disgust and yell, "Oh, you're here!"
Walk away yelling and cursing.
69.Put up flyers around the building, reporting that your roommate is missing. Offer a reward for
his/her safe return.
70.Buy a watermelon. Draw a face on it and give it a name. Ask your roommate if the
watermelon can sleep in his/her bed. If your roommate says no, drop the watermelon out the
window. Make it look like a suicide. Say nasty things about your roommate at the funeral.
71.Draw a chalk outline on the floor. When your roommate comes in, say, "Don't worry. It's not
what you think." If he/she asks about it again, immediately change the subject.
72.Drink a cup of coffee every morning. When you finish it, gnaw on the mug for about ten
minutes. Then, look at your roommate, immediately put the mug away, and quickly leave the
room.
73.Paint a tunnel on the wall like they do in cartoons. Every day, hit your head as you attempt to
crawl through it. Hold your head and grumble, "Damn road runner...."
74.Leave memos on your roommate's bed that say things like, "I know what you did," and
"Don't think you can fool me." Sign them in blood.
75.Hold a raffle, offering your roommate as first prize. If he/she protests, tell him/her that it's all
for charity.
76.Make cue cards for your roommate. Get them out whenever you'd like to have a
conversation.
77.Talk like a pirate, all the time. Threaten to make your roommate walk the plank if he/she
doesn't swab the deck. Arrrrrrrrrrrgh!
78.Set up about twenty plants in an organized formation. When your roommate walks in,
pretend to be in the middle of delivering a speech to the plants. Whisper to them, "We'll
continue this later," while eyeing your roommate suspiciously.
79.Buy a telescope. Sit on your bed and look across the room at your roommate through the
telescope. When you're not using the telescope, act like your roommate is too far away for
you to see.
80.Keep some worms in a shoebox. When doing homework, go and consult with the worms
every so often. Then become angry, shouting at the worms that they're stupid and they don't
know what they're talking about.
81.Watch "Psycho" every day for a month. Then act excited every time your roommate goes to
take a shower.
82.Wear a paper hat. Every time your roommate walks in, say, "Welcome to McDonalds, can I
take your... Oh, it's just you." Take off the hat, sit, and pout.
83.Go through your roommate's textbooks with a red pen, changing things and making random
corrections. If your roommate protests, tell him/her that you just couldn't take it anymore.
84.Leave the room at random, knock on the door, and wait for your roommate to let you back
in. If he/she asks about it, go on a tangent about the importance of good manners.
85.Hang a horseshoe above the door. Make up stories about having had good luck. Then, take
the horseshoe down and wrap your head in bandages. When you see your roommate, look
above the door where the horseshoe used to be, hold your head, and mutter, "Stupid
horseshoe...."
86.Carve a jack-o-lantern. Complain to your roommate that the jack-o-lantern has been staring
at you. The next day, tell your roommate that the jack-o-lantern thinks he/she has been
staring at it. Confide in your roommate that you really don't like the jack-o-lantern, but you
can't convince it to move out.
87.As soon as your roommate turns the light off at night, begin singing famous operas as loud as
you can. When your roommate turns on the light, look around and pretend to be confused.
88.Hang a basketball net on the wall. Challenge your refrigerator to basketball games, and play
them in front of your roommate. Do so for about a month. Confide in your roommate that
you think the refrigerator has been taking steroids.
89.Drink lots of lemonade. Talk obnoxiously for hours about how much you love lemonade.
Then, one day, paint your face yellow. From then on, complain about how much you hate
lemonade.
90.Late at night, start conversations that begin with, "Remember the good old days, when we
used to..." and make up stories involving you and your roommate.
91.Whenever your roommate sneezes, go and hide in the closet for about an hour. Look around
nervously for the rest of the day.
92.Sit and stare at your roommate for hours. Bring others in to join you. Eat peanuts, throwing a
few at your roommate. Then say, "Boy, these zoos just aren't what they used to be."
93.Tell your roommate that your toe hurts, and that means there's going to be an earthquake,
soon. While your roommate is out, trash everything on his/her side of the room. When he/she
returns, explain that the earthquake hit, but only on one side of the room.
94.Buy a gun. Clean it every day. One day, put a band-aid on your forehead, and refuse to
discuss the gun ever again.
95.Buy a lobster. Pretend to play cards with it. Complain to your roommate that the lobster is
making up his own rules.
96.Make pancakes every morning, but don't eat them. Draw faces on them, and toss them in the
closet. Watch them for several hours each day. Complain to your roommate that your
"pancake farm" isn't evolving into a self-sufficient community. Confide in your roommate that
you think the king of the pancakes has been taking bribes.
97.While you are ironing, pretend to burn yourself. Start a garbage can fire in the middle of the
room. Toss the iron inside. If your roommate objects, explain that you are just trying to get
even.
98.Buy some turtles. Paint numbers on their backs. Race them down the hall.
99.Create an army of animal crackers. Put them through basic training. Set up little checkpoints
around the room. Tell your roommate that the camel spotted him/her in a restricted area and
said not to do it again. Ask your roommate to apologize to the camel.
100.Put out a plate of cookies at night. Tell your roommate that they're for the Sandman. Take a
bite out of one of the cookies while your roommate is asleep. The next morning, accuse your
roommate of having bitten one of the cookies. If he/she tries to tell you the Sandman did it,
insist that you know what the Sandman's teeth marks look like and that those are, in fact, not
the Sandman's teeth marks. Grumble angrily and storm out of the room.
101. Take all of your things in the room and neatly pile them on top of your bed. Crawl under your bed and start muttering "It's gotta be clean, it's gotta be clean."
Email: mcgi0104@tc.umn.edu