Taking A Stand: Standard reporters no longer pranksters
The newspaper used to be a leader when it came to April Fools jokes, a tradition which has been lost over the years for some reason.
I can recall papers back 20 or 30 years ago in which April Fools jokes were placed on the front page, pulling the collective legs of the readers. I recall one in particular, back when trick photography was really trick photography. Nowadays any smoe with Photoshop can put your head on the body of a supermodel and send it around the globe on the World Wide Web.
The paper I’m referring to had a truck at the bottom of what appeared to be a ravine, telling readers a sink hole had given way, sucking in a vehicle. What actually happened was that my predecessor, Chuck Dodson, had taken a toy truck, put it in a hole and shot it in such a way to make it look like it was a wrecked truck. This was the kind of horseplay we used to have around April Fools Day.
However, his year, we were the intended target of an April Fools joke played by none other than your Clerk and Master Richard McGregor. What happened is he sent me a letter, which followed up on a phone call the day before April Fools, telling me he had contacted CNN about the discovery of a prehistoric bison bone found by workers downtown while working on the Main Street project. His letter said CNN was planning to have a camera crew here at 3 p.m. that day. He further sweetened the pot by attaching a realistic-looking letter in which a scientist vouched for the legitimacy of the bone.
OK, while I may like to do interesting stories, I must point out I’m not totally gullible, so I didn’t just go running up there with a camera. Instead I took a closer look at the circumstances. First, the letter said the Main Street project would be stopped for two years due to the find. Hmmm. Seems like we would have already heard about that. And then there was the name of the scientist, Dr. D.M. Witt. Hmmm. Smells fishy.
Strongly suspecting a prank, we decided to retaliate April Fools Day. To do this we enlisted the help of Ingrid Canterbury, who now works in advertising, due to the fact she kind of sounds like one of those Yankee operators you get when you call information.
She called Mr. McGregor and introduced herself as a member of the CNN staff and said she’d talked to me on the phone and would be interested in coming down to see the bone. All the time we’re standing there, listening to the conversation.
It actually appeared we might have him on the run at one point until Ingrid started talking about landing the helicopter with her news team.
“Just land it on top of High Funeral Home. They have a flat roof and they won’t mind since everybody is dead in there,” McGregor said, obviously repressing a laugh while letting us know we were busted.
At that point, we started wondering how far to carry it. Should we call the sheriff and tell him dope was being cultivated on the funeral home roof (which it’s not) to get a chopper hovering around, to perhaps get the clerk and master to worry a helicopter might actually try to make a landing on the roof? Talk about egg on his face if a chopper did try to land over there.
No. It ended up being a push. No one was got this year. However, it provides a new spark for April Fools in the future. Maybe next year I can call in a favor from CNN.
Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].