Tricking Someone Into Believing They Won the Hamilton Lottery Is the Best Prank of 2016
This past Saturday was Lin-Manuel Miranda’s final performance as Alexander Hamilton in the Epic Rap Battles of History-turned-Broadway sensation Hamilton. Tickets to the show were reportedly being sold on secondary markets for four-to-five figures, which would have made it particularly painful to have discovered that you missed an email announcing that you had won $10 tickets to the performance through the play’s limited lottery system.
So went the helpless cries of precisely four people on Twitter, including semi-prominent and relatively unknown members of your trusted media industry:
i just got a very convincing fake e-mail saying i won the hamilton lottery and i hope whoever did this has a mother who doesn’t love them
— Matt Bellassai (@MattBellassai) July 9, 2016
I WON THE HAMILTON LOTTERY FOR LIN-MANUEL'S LAST DAY.
— Hannah Orenstein (@hannahorens) July 11, 2016
... and just saw the email today, two days later.
a special shoutout to my junk mail folder on this lovely monday morning pic.twitter.com/2JS1j6Op7o
— nate lee (@nately) July 11, 2016
Apparently I won the Hamilton lottery and I'm not even there and I didn't even sign up for it I am balling ITS LINS LAST SHOW WTF
— Rachel Deluga (@racheldeluga) July 9, 2016
Now the “plot twist” here is that the above four people did not actually win the Hamilton lottery. Instead, they were pranked by a website created by this guy called “Hamiltowned” (let’s forget that part) which generates a fake Hamilton lottery winner email.
This is a plainly great prank, given the rampant hysteria over Hamilton, and harmless, given that nobody’s life is severely effected by not receiving tickets to a Broadway play. Please prank your friends who love Hamilton too much or at least any and every member of the Buzzfeed Hamilton Slack room.