It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and it lasted 43 minutes. Those 43 minutes were composed of pure bliss. It all started three days prior to April Fool’s Day, on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. An elaborate prank on a friend ensued, starting off with a confession of romantic interest and admiration for my roommate.
The friend in question was extremely gullible and bit the hook immediately. She offered me sage advice on how best to tell my roommate about my unwavering interest in her. The best part?
My roommate was in on it and we continued the scheme throughout the rest of the week. Two days after I had confessed my fake feelings to our friend, my roommate told our friend that I had told her my feelings toward her. The friend gave her advice as well, but I think she started to catch on to the prank at that point because the conversation between her and my roommate was abrupt.
Our initial plan was to reveal to our friend on April 1st that we are now in a relationship, and to see if she would catch on. However, that plan fell through. My roommate and I pretended to be in a relationship for the entire duration of dinner, a whopping 43 minutes.Instead of revealing our “relationship,” we just revealed to our friend that I am not actually interested in my roommate in the slightest and that we were just playing a prank on her in a way that would seem (somewhat) believable. She did not really have a reaction, per say, and we realized that we should have invested more effort and planning into the prank in order to achieve success.
When it comes to April Fool’s Day pranks, maybe it is best to stay simple and not try to plan an elaborate scheme. Sure, our prank worked to some extent, but not as much as we had intended. Stick with the classic “fill a room with balloons or cups of water” and “cover the toilet seat with plastic wrap” if you want to play a prank on your friends, even if it’s not April Fool’s Day.
The key to pranks is to be unpredictable and to invest a lot of planning into them. Our prank did not really incorporate any of those aspects, and therefore, ended up being unsuccessful in terms of being an effective prank. However, we had fun going through with it, and that’s all that matters.
