The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964. The group promoted the use of psychedelic drugs, then still legal.Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy road trip they took in the summer of 1964, traveling across the United States in a psychedelic painted school bus called "Furthur" or "Further".