I love practical jokes. When I was growing up I would always try and play jokes on my brother and sister. I remember one time we even went as far as to pull the mattress out of a sleeper couch and roll myself and a friend inside (in place of the mattress) and wait for my sister and her friend to come along and sit down, then reach through the couch to scare them.
When I was in Tech School I actually drafted paperwork to have a friend redirected from her current assignment to go to Greenland instead. This involved the paperwork and all of the instructors to be in on the joke. She reported to the TI’s and complained about the new assignment but was relieved when she found out it was a joke.
And that is the key here. When it was all said and done, in the end, it was just a joke. We all had a good laugh about it. She swore revenge and I was all for it. I don’t mind jokes played on me. If they are good ones, I will suffer the humility of being gotten and laugh with the rest of them.
Since all of this, I have come to realize that there is really a time and a place for jokes in the caliber that I enjoy. That time and place is April Fools Day. April 1st comes around once a year and if you know anything about anything you know that if something gets announced on that day, take it with a grain of salt.
Just this year we saw a Project venture between Google and Virgin, Vir-gle, for a mission to Mars. agree on a buyout price, and a full new lineup of Think Geek products. Now, the un-knowing person may think, “MS and Yahoo are merging? I should buy stock!!” But a knowing person would realize that 1: it’s April Fools day, and 2: These people do this all the time.
Yesterday I got a few people. Most of them got a little giggle when it was revealed to be a joke. Some people saw through it right away. I will admit that offing my cat may have been is bad taste, which is why I only let the joke go for about 4 hours. This is certainly not the worst I have done, and it really wasn’t even the worst that I was planning to do. But in the end, it was just a joke, and a reminder that you really shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet, ESPECIALLY on April 1st.
To those who were horribly offended by this joke, I apologize. Yes, it was dipping into the bottom of the humor barrel, but after some of the other things I have pulled, I really was amazed that anyone didn’t see it as a joke.
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