Joke’s on you

April 1 is a day many play harmless pranks on their family, friends or strangers. Sometimes these jokes don’t go as planned, but two West High students and a teacher had April Fools’ days that went over without a hitch.

Reagan Hart, Reporter, Distribution Manager|April 6, 2018

Art by Angie Zirbes

Sticky Situation

An orange, blue and pink car drives down the road. It’s not a bad paint job, but a car covered in sticky notes. Marijke Nielsen ’19 decided to use five whole pads of sticky notes for an April Fools’ Day prank on the exterior of her mom’s car.

“There were so many of them. They were all over, [even] the whole top of the car. I used a ladder to get [up there],” Nielsen said.

Then she waited for her mom to come out and yelled, “You’ve been pranked!”

“Obviously she noticed pretty quickly, but she walked out and thought everything was normal and [then] did a double take,” Nielsen said.

Since her mom wasn’t able able to safely see out of the windshield, Nielsen’s mom took an ice scraper to the sticky notes. It worked well, but her mom had to get to work so there wasn’t enough time for them to remove the rest, so they drove off with them still attached.

Nielsen found it funny to watch the cars coming down the opposite lane stare at their car.

“The [sticky notes] that [were] on the hood of the car…would fly up, but stick to the car. You would think they would fly off but they didn’t,” Nielsen said, “That’s why it was so fun driving because there was just a bunch of sticky notes sticking up in the air.”

Nielsen enjoys April Fools’ day every year, so this prank is just one of many. “Sometimes people take life too seriously. April Fools is a good day to take a break from that and have a good laugh,” she said.

Fun Fact

French-speaking countries have a tradition called Poisson d’Avril, translated to “fish of April.” On April 1, children try to sneak a paper fish onto each other’s backs. It is similar to the classic prank of taping a ‘kick me’ sign to people. Although the beginnings are sort of unknown, in the past, a real dead fish was used.

The Monster Essay

When a student falls asleep in class they might miss out on important content or homework assignments. In English teacher John Conner’s class a student might miss out on the planning of an April Fools’ prank.

Cooper had a student in class that kept falling asleep. In the past, if he had someone fall asleep, he would just startle them with a mask he kept in his desk. However, after doing this a couple times, he knew it wasn’t effective for this student. Cooper had to step it up a notch. After another student reminded him the next day was April 1, he knew what he had to do.

“[I said to the rest of the class] we are just going to pretend like it’s normal and … after class you have to tell her there is a paper due explaining why using the mask was more effective or less effective than my normal teaching,” Cooper said. “I put the mask on and then someone kick[ed] her and she jolted awake and we just keep going. Everyone played along really well, no one was laughing.”

After class, the girl went home and wrote a paper about the mask. The next day she came to class ready to hand in her two-page essay.

“I started giggling because I didn’t think she was going to fall for it as hard as she did. There was other kids in the class that started laughing first,” Cooper said.

They then proceeded to explain that it was an April Fool’s prank. However, it didn’t just serve as a little fun for the rest of the class as it got his point across.

“She said she felt really stupid, but she got the point. She didn’t fall asleep again in class, which was pretty good,” Cooper said.

Minty Fresh Oreos

A seven-year-old Dylan Philibert ’20 licks the cream filling off of some Oreos. She avoids the cookie part, but not because she dislikes it. It’s because she has plans to use them later. Philibert filled the Oreos with toothpaste so it looked like the creme. Then filled the empty toothpaste bottle with mayonnaise.

Her targets were her older siblings. Unfortunately for her, mayonnaise does not look like toothpaste, and her prank was discovered before it could play out. However, the Oreo prank went according to plan.

“So for the Oreos, I just heard [them when] they must have gotten out the Oreos. I heard a bunch of yells and ‘what the heck’s. Then there was a lot of questioning of all the siblings,” Philibert said.

They threw away the toothpaste Oreos and discovered their younger sibling was the culprit. Although funny for Philibert in the moment, it wasn’t so funny when she had to go to her parents for protection.

“[My parents] thought it was pretty funny. They said, ‘Don’t do it again, you will probably get beaten up by your siblings,’” Philibert said.

Even though the prank was several years ago, Philibert still enjoys April Fools’ Day.

“I think it can be super fun depending on your age. You know what, [for] all ages [it can be fun]. It’s not a big holiday but it can really fun if done correctly,” Philibert said.