Pranksters

     Image by Danilo Rizzuti via freedigitalphoto.net

Another April Fool's Day is nearly here.
Will your friends endure a prank this year?
I think any holiday that's hundreds of years old
should have a few celebrants that do it up bold.
Of course, due to the yin yang of personal taste,
some don't appreciate humor being prank based.
I think litigation squashed most of the foolish fun
but wish more of the rich would try for a big one.

A read through the top one hundred hoaxes of all time,
shows that the best ones definitely aren't dreamed up on a dime.
The island The Guardian staff invented in 1977, San Serriffe,
must've taken many months to plan so cleverly and complete.
Though less was required for the 1957 Swiss Spaghetti Harvest,
these "news" stories still represent pure pranking at its best.
It's sad that these days people would most likely sue you,
otherwise, instead of this, I'd write a fake news story too!

I used to wonder why people got so upset about pranks,
but now know a few pranksters who may deserve spanks.
The first is Porky Bickar, who thought he should throw tires
into a volcano, scaring locals with non smoke and mirror pyres.
I also think it's mean to offer people a phony bargain deal.
Even I would have to call to learn if the deal was fake or real.
But by far the least funny I've heard of was from World War I,
when the French thought dropping a football bomb would be fun.

Laughing it off gets harder when pranksters prey on primal fears.
Most agree that only evil people laugh when creating others' tears.
So if you prank this year, try to make it a happy smiley one.
I can't wait to see what's next from the famous Richard Branson.
I hope more companies make fake ads with the truth in fine print
and that reporters again test the public's intelligence for a stint.
I say that as long as it's a witty test of intuition or observation
it's fair game for any prankster's April Fool's Day celebration.

© Rachel Hoyt 2011. All rights reserved.

This rhyme is being shared via One Shot Poetry,
who, incidently, just won an award... a Shorty!

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Entertainment, Blogging, Fail, Humor, April Fools, Writing