A delicious prank on a professor has gone viral after students at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan decided to celebrate April Fool’s with their macroeconomics professor, Stephan Barrows. The video is below and begins with student Taylor Nefcy getting a cellphone call. Barrows makes anyone who gets such a call in class answer it on speaker mode. On this occasion, there was a prankster on the other end.
When the call was put on speaker, the class heard the voice say “Per your request, I am calling to inform you that the test results have come back positive. Congratulations!” Barrows is horrified and says “OK, you might want to shut that down.” However, the call continues with the voice saying “I know you told us the father is no longer in the picture, but we will be in contact with you throughout this whole process, so don’t worry about anything. We provide counseling and other maternity services at no charge.”
Nefcy quietly says “Thank you, I’ll call back later” As Barrows begins to apologize. Nefcy then delivers the coup de grace: “That’s OK, I’ve been expecting this. I already know what I’m going to name the baby. The first name will be April, and the middle name will be Fools.”
Well done, Ms. Nefcy. I hope this counts as extra credit on the final macroeconomics grade.
A little humor is ok, wakes everyone up at least for one class.
Groty, My old man called them “The perpetually offended.” Good comment, we need your critical thinking and biting sarcasm, so stick around. You’ll see some “perpetually offended” here, you can call them on it. Hell, a few might appear on this thread, PC lives here, although it has been WNL of late.
Classic.
In the hypersensitive fantasy culture we’ve decided to create and live in, humor is nearly impossible to pull off because someone can claim – or pretend to claim – to be offended by just about anything. I’m trying to figure out who can be aggrieved by this stunt.
I see three possibilities. First, hard core privacy advocates need to be offended. I mean how on earth can a professor have a policy of making students who receive phone calls that interrupt the class be put on speaker phone? The professor ought to be suspended for violating her privacy. If this were not an April Fool’s stunt and the girl really did receive a call from her doctor confirming her pregnancy, he very well might be subjected to disciplinary action. No wonder he seems like such a good sport – he’s breathing a sigh of relief that it was only a joke and he gets to keep his job. Second, all of the students and the teacher who appear in the video appear to be white/Caucasians, and the students appear to be disproportionately female. The school clearly has discriminatory, sexist and racist policies. Finally, if all else fails we can pretend the professor is going for an imaginary gun by keeping his hands stuffed in his trouser pockets. That surely violates the school’s zero tolerance policy against imaginary guns.
That’s what I came up with quickly. I’m sure there are others.
Am I a bad person for thinking it would have been funnier if the call was “Miss, the test results are back, and we think it’s best for you to make an appointment with the oncology department…” ?
Very few politicians have self deprecating humor.
Humor and laughing is an important part of leading a good life. Any person w/ self deprecating humor, who can laugh @ themselves, shows real self esteem and is in my book, OK!
Prof. Barrows handled it very well.
Priceless!
What a good sport the prof was.
Wonderful prank. Wonderful reaction by the professor.
Learning a lesson in class …drop the “cl” and record the teacher!
The professor has a good sense of humor.