Happy April Fools’ Day. Are you more prankster or prankee? What’s the best prank you ever pulled…or that got pulled on you?
11 thoughts on “Reader Friday: April Fooling”
I’d say it’s about 50-50 in my case… though I try to be wary…
The best prank didn’t happen to/by me – it was one a friend pulled on her husband in retaliation for his over-sugaring her coffee one April first.
She got a bag of Oreo’s, took out the first couple of cookies, unscrewed ’em, scraped the cream filling off, replaced it with toothpaste, put ’em back together, and back in the bag, which she left conspicuously on the counter along with some other groceries, knowing he’d come in and “sneak a couple” before dinner (and not put up in the cupboard).
As planned, he came in from work and was equally surprised/”disappointed” as she’d been with her coffee…
Revenge, it seems, is best served disguised…
A very fitting revenge indeed!
I wrote a blog post on famous pranks today…here’s one that I found:
In a 1996 prank, Taco Bell took out newspaper ads saying it had bought the Liberty Bell and would turn it into the Taco Bell. Even some senators were taken in, and the National Park Service even held a press conference to deny the news. At noon, the fast-food chain admitted the joke and said it was donating $50,000 for the landmark bell’s care. The value of the joke, of course, was priceless.
One April 1st, the local paper had a badly doctored picture of a submarine in our city lake. The caption mentioned that the submarine had made a disastrous navigation error and ended up in our land-bound, not connected-to-any-river city lake which was several hundred miles away from our coastline. The sad part is lots of people showed up at the lake to check out the submarine. Yes, they were that dumb. So the paper gave up on a yearly prank.
I’m not much of a prankster, myself. However, I’m happy to report that that timeless classic, locking a public restroom stall from inside, then wiggling out under the stall wall, was still alive and well when I left the library in December, 2019. We even had a special tool (essentially, a long rod) that let us unlatch the “lock” from above and outside the stall 🙂
Have a great Friday! Take everything you read today with a huge chunk of salt 😉
I’m not much of a prankster either. But after reading George’s comment, I may stop at the grocery and buy a bag of Oreos. 🙂
I can’t remember if it was AFD or not, but years ago I worked as a medical assistant to a surgeon in an orthopedic office.
Because of my reputation as a complete klutz, from a tadpole to this very minute, I was presented with a gift during an office party.
A trophy. It was a small gold figure of a business woman, dressed in skirt and jacket and carrying a briefcase. Our cast technician fashioned some plaster on one leg and an arm.
I remember with fondness the reactions when I was called up in front of 30 or so employees to receive my Klutz of the Year award.
🙂
I grew up with a sadistic oldest brother who victimized us younger children with no ability to protect ourselves because he was the oldest and cherished first boy, and the parents never believed us or the housekeeper/baby sitter who quit because of his abuse of her. It’s just a boy being a boy playing pranks like holding my toddler brother by the ankles over the balustrade railing just to make us shriek in horror. So tiny me who was ten years younger had to lure him away from my younger sister and brother to keep them safe because they had no other protection. Using my words to taunt him away taught me the power of words so writing was a natural outcome from that. Plus, I learned grey rocking long before some doctor labeled the term. Show no fear to monsters.
My dad passed years before that pile of scum died, and Mom was genuinely shocked when none of us cared. I told her we would weep for her grief, but not for him.The greatest day of our childhood was when he left town to escape a jail sentence and never came back. She finally believe our truth and apologized to all of us.
So, long backstory complete. No, I do not prank or like pranksters because it’s often just bullying that endings with “Can’t you take a joke?” so the victim is blamed for the abuse. Anyone who tries that on me is rarely stupid enough to do it again because I go raging Hulk-monster on them, and I never trust them again if I’m forced to be around them.
I’ll skip altering the mural in the UCLA Commons, and go right to the infamous Hideki Saito telegram:
Over black Russians in a steakhouse after work on March 31st, Ken Klinko and I thought this up. We had the telex operator at work print this telegram off-line:
So sorry it must be informed that pipe which are on your purchase order number P5135012 is all failing test because of voids in circumferential welbment (sic) each 3 meter. So sorry. Hope you have not install yet. –Hideko Saito, Chief Metarrurgist (sic), Kobe Steel Co.
The telegram was placed in the dour Purchasing Agent’s in-box early on the morning of April 1st. We had bought some cheap pipe for a low pressure line, but even if there were bad welds (allegedly used to make standard 20′ lengths by welding 10′ lengths together!), the piping would not have been replaced.
Well, the PA fell for it, hook, line and sinker. It was all over the plant in half an hour. We tried to let the pipe supplier in on the gag, but we couldn’t reach him, so we decided to shut the hoax down. We chose to be well away from the PA when the receptionist told him a Japanese man was in the lobby, then cackled “April Fool’s” at him as he went out to meet the “chief metarrurgist.” All he said was, “I guess I should have known.”
It all blew over in a few days, and he went back to giving us the finger on sight as he usually did.
If you like such witty chicanery, get a copy of H. Allen Smith’s “The Compleat Practical Joker.”
I’d say it’s about 50-50 in my case… though I try to be wary…
The best prank didn’t happen to/by me – it was one a friend pulled on her husband in retaliation for his over-sugaring her coffee one April first.
She got a bag of Oreo’s, took out the first couple of cookies, unscrewed ’em, scraped the cream filling off, replaced it with toothpaste, put ’em back together, and back in the bag, which she left conspicuously on the counter along with some other groceries, knowing he’d come in and “sneak a couple” before dinner (and not put up in the cupboard).
As planned, he came in from work and was equally surprised/”disappointed” as she’d been with her coffee…
Revenge, it seems, is best served disguised…
A very fitting revenge indeed!
I wrote a blog post on famous pranks today…here’s one that I found:
In a 1996 prank, Taco Bell took out newspaper ads saying it had bought the Liberty Bell and would turn it into the Taco Bell. Even some senators were taken in, and the National Park Service even held a press conference to deny the news. At noon, the fast-food chain admitted the joke and said it was donating $50,000 for the landmark bell’s care. The value of the joke, of course, was priceless.
One April 1st, the local paper had a badly doctored picture of a submarine in our city lake. The caption mentioned that the submarine had made a disastrous navigation error and ended up in our land-bound, not connected-to-any-river city lake which was several hundred miles away from our coastline. The sad part is lots of people showed up at the lake to check out the submarine. Yes, they were that dumb. So the paper gave up on a yearly prank.
I’m not much for pranking, but here are some famous ones.
http://hoaxes.org/aprilfool
And here are some you might want to try.
https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-april-fools-pranks/
Just remember what day it is when you surf the net.
I’m not much of a prankster, myself. However, I’m happy to report that that timeless classic, locking a public restroom stall from inside, then wiggling out under the stall wall, was still alive and well when I left the library in December, 2019. We even had a special tool (essentially, a long rod) that let us unlatch the “lock” from above and outside the stall 🙂
Have a great Friday! Take everything you read today with a huge chunk of salt 😉
I’m not much of a prankster either. But after reading George’s comment, I may stop at the grocery and buy a bag of Oreos. 🙂
I can’t remember if it was AFD or not, but years ago I worked as a medical assistant to a surgeon in an orthopedic office.
Because of my reputation as a complete klutz, from a tadpole to this very minute, I was presented with a gift during an office party.
A trophy. It was a small gold figure of a business woman, dressed in skirt and jacket and carrying a briefcase. Our cast technician fashioned some plaster on one leg and an arm.
I remember with fondness the reactions when I was called up in front of 30 or so employees to receive my Klutz of the Year award.
🙂
I grew up with a sadistic oldest brother who victimized us younger children with no ability to protect ourselves because he was the oldest and cherished first boy, and the parents never believed us or the housekeeper/baby sitter who quit because of his abuse of her. It’s just a boy being a boy playing pranks like holding my toddler brother by the ankles over the balustrade railing just to make us shriek in horror. So tiny me who was ten years younger had to lure him away from my younger sister and brother to keep them safe because they had no other protection. Using my words to taunt him away taught me the power of words so writing was a natural outcome from that. Plus, I learned grey rocking long before some doctor labeled the term. Show no fear to monsters.
My dad passed years before that pile of scum died, and Mom was genuinely shocked when none of us cared. I told her we would weep for her grief, but not for him.The greatest day of our childhood was when he left town to escape a jail sentence and never came back. She finally believe our truth and apologized to all of us.
So, long backstory complete. No, I do not prank or like pranksters because it’s often just bullying that endings with “Can’t you take a joke?” so the victim is blamed for the abuse. Anyone who tries that on me is rarely stupid enough to do it again because I go raging Hulk-monster on them, and I never trust them again if I’m forced to be around them.
I’ll skip altering the mural in the UCLA Commons, and go right to the infamous Hideki Saito telegram:
Over black Russians in a steakhouse after work on March 31st, Ken Klinko and I thought this up. We had the telex operator at work print this telegram off-line:
So sorry it must be informed that pipe which are on your purchase order number P5135012 is all failing test because of voids in circumferential welbment (sic) each 3 meter. So sorry. Hope you have not install yet. –Hideko Saito, Chief Metarrurgist (sic), Kobe Steel Co.
The telegram was placed in the dour Purchasing Agent’s in-box early on the morning of April 1st. We had bought some cheap pipe for a low pressure line, but even if there were bad welds (allegedly used to make standard 20′ lengths by welding 10′ lengths together!), the piping would not have been replaced.
Well, the PA fell for it, hook, line and sinker. It was all over the plant in half an hour. We tried to let the pipe supplier in on the gag, but we couldn’t reach him, so we decided to shut the hoax down. We chose to be well away from the PA when the receptionist told him a Japanese man was in the lobby, then cackled “April Fool’s” at him as he went out to meet the “chief metarrurgist.” All he said was, “I guess I should have known.”
It all blew over in a few days, and he went back to giving us the finger on sight as he usually did.
If you like such witty chicanery, get a copy of H. Allen Smith’s “The Compleat Practical Joker.”