Practical jokes made by Florentines during the height of the Italian Renaissance, could be said to be made famous by Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent), were often outrageous and "took things too far." Later generations found these practical jokes to be often downright cruel. A practical joke or prank is a practice intended to be humorous (usually in action, not just in words) in which another person is fooled, annoyed, or embarrassed in what the perpetrator imagines to be a mild and light-hearted fashion. ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance -French Renaissance -German Renaissance -English Renaissance The Italian Renaissance was the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century following the Middle Ages. ... Lorenzo di Piero de Medici (January 1, 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman and ruler of the Florentine Republic during the height of the Italian Renaissance. ...

A somewhat famous example was of a practical joke that Lorenzo "the Magnificent" and his friends played on a doctor friend of theirs. They took the doctor, got him drunk, and shipped him off to the country. They then spread the rumor that the doctor had died, even convincing the doctor's wife he was dead. When the doctor made his way back to Florence a couple months later, dishelved and pale, his wife refused to let him back into his house, thinking he was a ghost. Florence - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...