By CHELSEA JENSEN
By CHELSEA JENSEN
Stephens Media
An April Fools’ Day prank can be funny, but a jokester always has to be ready for the tables to be turned on him.
Just ask one Kealakehe High School student who had the tables turned on him April 1, 2011, when his mother gave him a good scare — payback for a very personal prank, one which Stephens Media is not disclosing, he’d previously pulled on her.
“Tsunami, tsunami,” 16-year-old John Robison remembers his mother yelling, waking him out of a sound sleep less than a month after a real tsunami damaged West Hawaii. “I freaked out. I almost cried. I was packing my things getting ready to leave and then she says, ‘April fools.’”
The two continue to prank one another with Robison often getting grounded for the jokes. But, it’s all in good fun, he said.
“She gets mad and grounds me, but I still do it,” he said explaining it’s almost a game for the two. “I got to find a good one for this year.”
Robison was just one of a handful of Big Island residents on Saturday to tell a story about a good April Fools’ Day prank they’ve pulled. Most people shared ideas for pranks, but had no true stories.
Among the ideas suggested for pranks were putting plastic wrap between a toilet boil and seat, switching keys on a keyboard, completely taping off a door and putting tape across a roadway.
April Fools’ Day, or All Fools Day as it is sometimes known, is celebrated on April 1. The day is for practical jokes and pranks. The tradition is believed to have started in the 1500s, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Honokaa resident Cassie Pira deviates from the usual practical jokes, opting instead to scare her boyfriend into going to the emergency room. She’s even gotten away with that same joke twice, including once on April Fools’ Day 2011.
A hostess and waitress by trade, Pira said she came up with idea one night to tell her boyfriend, a nursing student, she’d dropped a glass and it cut her badly. She was headed to the ER, or so he thought.
While Pira was at home taking a shower after a long day of work, her boyfriend was at the hospital trying to find her. Frantic searches of computers found nothing, so, he went home and found her there, relaxing. The couple is still together.
“He was mad, but it was a good one,” she said. “April fools.”
For 17-year-old Erwin Jadraque, of Kailua-Kona, the best prank is one that irritates many people but causes no injuries.
With that in mind, and some inspiration from online video resource YouTube, the Kealakehe High School senior and a few friends put clear tape, sticky-side-up, on a road in downtown Kailua-Kona last year for cars to drive over.
“There was a lot of traffic and they just stared at us, very irritated,” he said. “It was fun, especially at noon.”
But he cautioned others considering a good April Fools’ Day prank to remember a few rules: Don’t get caught and don’t do anything to hurt people. And, never disclose your prank prior to pulling it off.
“It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt,” he said.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.