Poking holes in someone’s straw, covering the toilet seat with plastic wrap or filling a person’s water bottle with vodka are all pranks that have been done at some point or another to celebrate, April Fool’s Day.
On this day, many people choose to limit themselves to harmless pranks while others tend to “think outside the box,” taking their jokes too far and later regretting that spark of creativity.
A good example is a practical joke done by Randy Wood, a 33-year-old man from N.Y.
In 2004, Wood called his ex-wife asking her to go over to his house.
When she arrived at the house, she saw him hanging from a tree in his front yard.
Before he could explain that it was all a joke and that he was actually being held by a lineman’s harness, she called 911 and his house was soon surrounded by policeman and firefighters.
Wood was forced to pay a $1,000 fine, and one year in jail for his joke.
Whether the consequences were worth the expression on his ex-wife’s face, it’s up to each individual’s opinion, but the severity of the possible consequences is what people should keep in mind before pulling their pranks.
April Fool’s Day is celebrated in the United States every year on the first day of the April and it’s a celebration intended to pull all sorts of practical jokes on people.
It’s believed that this celebration began in France and was spread throughout Europe, and that it was the British who later brought this tradition to the United States.
Whether people are trying to get back at someone or just have a good laugh, they often celebrate this day as if it where their last and it’s these jokes that usually go wrong.
On April 1, 2009, a man in Chandler, Arizona, lit a match next to a gas tank while his friend pumped gas into the car as a joke, unfortunately for him his stunt didn’t amuse anyone when a fire burst out.
And if that wasn’t enough, just picture the two men running away from the scene, with the prankster on fire, and the second man coming back for a baby that was in the back seat.
This video can be watched online on weeklyworldnews.com by searching worst April Fool’s Day prank.
If anything, people might learn a lesson from these pranks and decide to stick to more ordinary jokes.
After all, students might still be able to get a good laugh out of hiding their friends’ phone, or putting salt on someone’s toothpaste.
But whether a person is thinking of planning a joke or not, it’s always good to be prepared because  anything can happen on April 1, and the person who planned the joke might end up being the victim.
Either way it is always good to remember what Max Eastman once said:
“It is the ability to take a joke, not make one, that proves you have a sense of humor.”