Blogging today wouldn’t be complete without sharing one high school story that I still tell at dinner parties from time to time.
My friend Doug, was sort of the class clown. When we were in high school the movie Platoon came out (Yes, I know I’m officially old). Somehow Doug got a copy of the movie on VHS and told our history teacher that he had it. She agreed to let all her classes watch the film to learn about the Vietnam war. So Doug went home and got the tape but there was a bit of room left on the end of the tape–so he decided he was going to tape some footage of the Playboy Channel on the end of the tape and then cue the tape up to that point and tell our teacher to “just hit play” we’re all set.
And so the die was cast. Doug and I had an English class first period right next door to the history class that was about to view the movie. Doug had let me in on the joke. What he didn’t plan (And this made the joke even better) was that our high school was a trade and technical high school and the first period history class was filled with a bunch of rowdy guys who were specializing in Carpentry as their trade. When the teacher hit play–and that tape engaged we heard a huge ROAR come from the class. Moments later 3 of the hugest guys I have ever seen come bursting into our english class: “DOUG! You are in some serious trouble, dude!” The history teacher came in and started hitting him with the tape and Doug came clean and told her the movie was actually on the tape and she just needed to rewind it.
Doug, ironically, did not get suspended. In fact, he got into NO trouble whatsoever.
Sometimes a good joke is in fact well played–and deserves some respect. In this case we all doff our caps (and nothing else!) to Doug for one of the greatest practical jokes of all time–that we still talk about 20 years later.