And now that we're grownups...I've never been a big fan of April Fool's Day. It seems—how to put this?—foolish. Yes, some pranks are amusing. Some are elaborate (though it's not always obvious who the elaborators are, now is it?). And some are hard work (as when one of my Caltech classmates returned from a weekend trip to find his room missing; his Fleming House mates had plastered over the door and carefully repainted the wall to disguise their handiwork).
But pranks for April Fool's Day? I tend not to like them.
The following is not an actual dialog. It's more of a composite of a couple of incidents. Redacted into a single fictionalized exchange, it suffices to demonstrate why I'm always glad when April 1 is past.
My college roommate bursts into the apartment.And they all lived happily ever after.
“Grab your keys! It's an emergency!”
“What is it?”
“We have to get to the student health center right away! Joe has a rare blood type and I'm a match. I have to get there right away!”
“Omigosh! What happened?”
“It was a lab accident!”
“Huh? A lab—? What was a math grad doing in a lab? You've got to be kidding! ... Wait a minute! You are kidding, aren't you?”
“No, dammit! I swear! It was one of his electives! We have to go right now!”
“Okay! Okay! I have my keys!”
“Ha! April Fool!”
“God damn you! That's not funny!”
“Sure it was! You should have seen the look on your face!”
“Yeah, lab accidents and emergency blood transfusions are hilarious.”
“I really fooled you!”
“Really? I wouldn't say that. When I thought you were kidding you swore you were telling the truth. That's not fooling me. That's just lying.”
“Oh, you don't have a good sense of humor.”
“Yeah. Remember that for next time. So there isn't a next time.”
P.S.: The hey-the-building-is-on-fire prank isn't that funny either. Just saying.
Posts
1 comment:
Why can't some folks tell the difference between clever implications and flat out lies? Are there larger implications here?
Post a Comment