In honor of April Fool's Day, View staff members opted to share some of the best practical jokes they have used on others, had used on them or heard about from family and friends.
In college, I attached a box outlet to my studio mate's wall, taped over his real outlet and painted it all to match the wall. For three weeks, he tried switching light bulbs and lamps until he finally turned to me and said, "I think something is wrong with this outlet."
I walked over as if carefully studying the problem, and then I knocked the false outlet off the wall with a hammer and said, "Well here's your problem, it's not connected to anything."
I then ripped off the tape and said, "Try this one." It took him a long time to see the humor in it.
-- F. Andrew Taylor, Southeast View reporter
My husband once played a trick on his supervisor, who had gone on vacation. He and his co-workers stripped his desk from a corner piece and two side pieces to just one piece. They then took down the cubicle walls that separated their department from another and put them around the desk, making a very tiny cubicle. They also replaced his three computer monitors with an old portable black and white TV. They replaced his keyboard and mouse with really old ones, circa late '80s, and connected speakers to the TV. When his superviser returned, he joked about taking the day off to watch TV in his new "cubicle." It took his superviser about an hour to put everything back to normal.
-- Laura Ludwick, Spring Valley, Southwest and North Las Vegas View copy editor
Southeast View reporter F. Andew Taylor has claimed he cannot be fooled, but View photo editor Dale Dombrowski regularly plays small jokes on him. Once, Dombrowski snuck up behind Taylor while he was on the phone and replaced his computer's mouse with a banana. Taylor turned around and reached for his mouse, but found the small yellow fruit instead.
A 17-year-old girl I know graduated from high school last year and right afterward, her dad received a letter from the Clark County School District saying she was short a physical education credit and wasn't eligible to receive her diploma unless she took summer school. The teenager cried and cried and insisted she had all her credits.
Later, she found out that her dad and our kung fu instructor had concocted the whole story and put together the "official" letter to play a prank on her. It was hilarious!
-- Laura Carroll, View education reporter
My stepfather, the ultimate prankster, inspired my craftiest trick. I swapped the handkerchiefs in his pockets with lacy, pink, skimpy women's panties. I wish I could have been there to see the look of shock on the burly truck driver's face as he stood on the loading dock holding the underwear to his nose. Fortunately, he found the joke funny. But he was not nearly as amused as his buddies were.
-- Ginger Meurer, View assistant managing editor
I once started a job on April Fool's Day. I remember getting ready for work in the morning and thinking, "Hmm, today is April Fool's Day. I wonder if the big joke is going to be on me at 5 p.m." But the day went well; no surprises. It wasn't until the drive home that I realized if my new employer was going to play a joke on me it would happen the next day -- "thanks for coming in but we really didn't mean to hire you." The next morning, I walked into the office, looked sheepishly around and headed straight for my desk. When I sat down, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought, "Whew, I just played the best April Fool's Day joke on myself."
-- Jeannette Carrillo, View managing editor
It was always April Fool's Day in our house. One year, my older sister Diana, after my younger brother Jerry and I went to sleep, came into our room and took our shoes and hid them. The next morning, she said someone came into the house and stole our shoes. Jerry and I looked all over the house and couldn't find them. I remember he started crying. I think I hit my sister after she screamed "April Fool" while handing our shoes back to us.
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