WHERE CLIQUES,
OLD AND NEW,
COME TOGETHER IN HARMONY
Merry Pranksters
by Hella Cliques
November 10, 2026
First Edition
Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters were a counterculture group led by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey in the 1960s. They played a foundational role in shaping the early hippie movement, psychedelic rock, and communal living.
In 1964, the group bought a 1939 International Harvester school bus, painted it in vibrant Day-Glo and psychedelic colors, and labeled its destination sign as "Further".
Beat generation icon Neal Cassady (the model for Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's On the Road) drove the bus. They traveled from La Honda, California, to the New York World's Fair, experimenting with LSD, marijuana, and amphetamines while filming hundreds of hours of raw footage (later compiled in the documentary Magic Trip).
Returning to California, Kesey and the Pranksters hosted underground parties called Acid Tests featuring strobe lights, black lights, art projections, and live music.
The Warlocks, who soon evolved into The Grateful Dead, served as the house band for these psychedelic gatherings.
Tom Wolfe famously documented their wild early escapades in his 1968 non-fiction book, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
Their Purpose?
The Pranksters' central aim was to shift consciousness through inclusive, immersive experiences rather than traditional political activism.
