THOSE
APRIL SHOWERS
April Fools Day
could be called “Let's Pull Charlie's Leg Day”. If Charlie is naive,
absent-minded or a serious minded humorless individual, a prankster will pull
both his legs, simultaneously. Some jokers have no greater aim than to provoke
a bewildered but benign response from Charlie. Others hope Charlie will fall on
his duff, providing them with a laugh at his expense.
The 1938 Orson
Welles radio broadcast of the Martian's landing in the New
Jersey meadows has to rank as the best prank ever. He
fooled millions of gullible listeners into believing such utter nonsense. All
other practical jokes pale by comparison.
No one ever made
me the foil of an April Fools Day stunt, but a practical joker burned me once.
A teenage pal gave me a “hot foot,” Do you recall that practice? My buddy stuck
a match into the sole of my shoe near the big toe and lit the extended end
without my being aware. When the flame reached and ignited the match head, it
generated tremendous heat. It caused me to perform some unusual dance steps not
easily choreographed or replicated. It hurt like hell, and ruined my shoe. It
may not have been April 1, but it made me feel like a fool and a public
spectacle.
This incident did
not match what befell a teen friend of mine whose tormentors stripped him naked
before tossing him over the railing of the grandstand during half-time at a
high school football game. He turned embarrassment into triumph by standing
perfectly still, making no attempt to cover himself. Laughter turned to silence
as he gained sympathy rather than derision. He shamed those who looked and
laughed at him. Those who did should fall victim to April Fool’s Day stunts
like the ones I have played on a few neighbors of mine in the past.
On one occasion, posing
as an IRS agent, I called a particularly
unpleasant man and made an appointment to see him at his home in order to
review his computer records for the past three years, and that a complete audit
of his files would follow.
In a subsequent
year, I called another neighbor claiming to be an FBI agent, seeking to set up
an appointment in order to investigate a money-laundering scheme to which his
firm had been linked. I requested that he make copies of all his expense
reports for the past year prior to our meeting.
Last year I
targeted yet another neighbor.
“Hello, is this
Charles Jones? It is? Good. In ten minutes, a representative of the Publisher's
Clearing House will be at your door with TV coverage. To win the prize, please
verify your subscription to Playboy
when the camera focuses on you.”
No, I did not play
these tricks!
April Fool!
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