April Fools' Day
Another April Fools' Day has come and gone for me without any practical jokes. I usually don't find humor at someone else's expense all that funny. But that wasn't always the case.
My freshman year at college, I decided to play an April Fools' Day prank on my parents. I managed to swipe a few pieces of school letterhead and an official school envelope while the secretary of the music department was away from her desk. Then I used these tools to craft a letter to my parents, supposedly from the Dean.
The letter explained that their daughter was on academic probation due to poor academic performance, and was in danger of losing her scholarship. (Of course, none of this was true and I was sailing through my freshman year with a 4.0.) After several paragraphs of warnings and advice on how to handle such a shameful situation, the letter concluded with a statement along the lines of, “We would hate to see someone with Amanda’s abilities end up flipping burgers and wearing a paper hat. Sincerely, Dean Byron L. Hawbecker.”
So, I sent the letter and waited. I expected a phone call from Mom and Dad on April 1st that would go something like, “We got a letter from ‘the Dean’ today. Yeah, we were pretty worried until we read the last line. Ha, ha. Very funny.” But April 1st came and went without a word, then the 2nd, the 3rd...still nothing. Finally, I called home. The conversation is kind of a blur, but it went something like this:
ME: Hi, Mom.
MOM: (Trying to be civil) Oh. Hi.
ME: Soooo, any interesting mail lately?
MOM: Mandy, that was NOT FUNNY. I opened the letter, started reading it and burst into tears. I couldn’t even finish it because I was crying so hard. Your father came to see what was wrong, so I threw it at him and screamed, “See what your daughter’s been doing?!” Reading the letter, his face turned beet red. When he finally got through it, he threw it back at me and said, “Read the last sentence!” So I did...and I wanted to kill you even more!
ME: I’m...sorry. I only meant it as a joke.
MOM: Well, it was not funny.
Oops. As Ellen Degeneres explained in Here and Now, I obviously don't understand how kidding works, because my parents and I should all be laughing.
My freshman year at college, I decided to play an April Fools' Day prank on my parents. I managed to swipe a few pieces of school letterhead and an official school envelope while the secretary of the music department was away from her desk. Then I used these tools to craft a letter to my parents, supposedly from the Dean.
The letter explained that their daughter was on academic probation due to poor academic performance, and was in danger of losing her scholarship. (Of course, none of this was true and I was sailing through my freshman year with a 4.0.) After several paragraphs of warnings and advice on how to handle such a shameful situation, the letter concluded with a statement along the lines of, “We would hate to see someone with Amanda’s abilities end up flipping burgers and wearing a paper hat. Sincerely, Dean Byron L. Hawbecker.”
So, I sent the letter and waited. I expected a phone call from Mom and Dad on April 1st that would go something like, “We got a letter from ‘the Dean’ today. Yeah, we were pretty worried until we read the last line. Ha, ha. Very funny.” But April 1st came and went without a word, then the 2nd, the 3rd...still nothing. Finally, I called home. The conversation is kind of a blur, but it went something like this:
ME: Hi, Mom.
MOM: (Trying to be civil) Oh. Hi.
ME: Soooo, any interesting mail lately?
MOM: Mandy, that was NOT FUNNY. I opened the letter, started reading it and burst into tears. I couldn’t even finish it because I was crying so hard. Your father came to see what was wrong, so I threw it at him and screamed, “See what your daughter’s been doing?!” Reading the letter, his face turned beet red. When he finally got through it, he threw it back at me and said, “Read the last sentence!” So I did...and I wanted to kill you even more!
ME: I’m...sorry. I only meant it as a joke.
MOM: Well, it was not funny.
Oops. As Ellen Degeneres explained in Here and Now, I obviously don't understand how kidding works, because my parents and I should all be laughing.
posted by Amanda at 12:12 PM
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