Wednesday, April 02, 2008

April Fool's pranks

Yesterday was kind of weird. Two people e-mailed me to say they were resigning their responsibilities in church, and another called to tell me something similar. All these were sorry attempts at an April Fool's joke, but maybe this pattern reveals something I should be worried about? Hm ...

Ideally, an April Fool's prank is not something that causes extreme anguish or worry. I wouldn't call someone up to tell them their house burned down, for example. That's just mean. Instead, you need to think of something that will make your targets feel foolish and able to laugh at themselves. It has to be funny.

I made my own attempt at April Fool's. I sent the email below to my coworkers yesterday morning. Believe it or not, but several of them were duped and later came to me and said, "I clicked on the link, but all I saw was this 80s guy singing and dancing."

From: Tyson
Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:01 AM
Subject: Tyson as child TV star
Importance: Low

Well, sort of … I just found out yesterday that a PBS documentary on 1980s television has finally used some footage that I shot as a 10-year-old for Miami Vice. The scene I was in was cut from the show and I thought it was lost forever!

It’s an episode where Crockett and Tubbs travelled to New York for a rendezvous with some Chinese gangsters. I played a bit part in the show, when they have a gun fight in a playground. I’m the little kid who gets caught in the crossfire. You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

2 comments:

Jim S. said...

The first time I met my future in-laws, I told them a long 15-minute story about how I got kicked out of the Marine Corps for trying to set an officer's house on fire, and then was on the run on Oahu for about 48 hours. When I segued into, "and that's when the aliens abducted me and began their 'examination'..." they realized they'd been had. Whether this was a good introduction is yet to be seen, 11 years later.

Tyson said...

Man, that was pretty ballsy, Jim! Incredibly funny, though. And certainly fodder for years of remembrances.