A Practical Joke

We were asked to prepare a product for a practical joke. Not only did we enjoy preparing the sign, but we still laugh at the prank behind it. Here's the story:

A guy was visiting his friend after a recent move into their new home. Since they were very good friends, he decided to remove a loose knob from the cabinet above their bathroom toilet. His original intent was to hide it or devise some other prank to drive his friend crazy looking for it. Instead, he became distracted with conversation and realized after he returned home that he still had the knob in his pocket. 

Time elapsed and on another visit to his friend's house he discovered that the knob had been replaced with no mention as to its whereabouts. His creative and mischievous mind set to work planning ways to trick his friend. He removed the replacement knob with the intent that his friend would HAVE to know it was him that was pulling this childish prank. 

His friend's response: Crickets...

More time passed and yet nothing was said about the missing knob even though it had again been replaced. This time, it wasn't only replaced but secured with superglue. Now, this was a challenge!

Did the friend know who was stealing the knobs and didn't want to oust his kleptomaniac friend? Or was he truly unaware of the source of the missing knobs? Where did he think they were going? So many questions! 

Instead of confessing, our sly friend decided to up his game and continue to steal random knobs from the home over a period of two years. It even became a game that spread to others in the group of friends. A flurry of texts were sent when he visited this friend's home about if and how he would take another knob. He even earned the nickname "Knob-Ninja". 

Eventually, he decided that his friend was never going to confront him about his knob-stealing condition so he had to find a way to announce his trick as a planned joke and not a psychiatric illness.  That's where we came in. 

After the hubby had sent many encouraging texts and we had joined in on the laughter over the practical joke, we already felt involved. We wanted to add our own contribution to the prank. We took the random, stolen knobs and attached them onto a Kentucky sign so that our mutual friend could display them proudly in his home. 

*Kentucky sign made from reclaimed tobacco tier rails 

*Stolen knobs attached

 After the display was created, all that was left was the presentation. Several dates were proposed and declined. This prank occurred over an extended period of time and MUST be presented in the best possible way. But how?

More time elapsed, as it tends to do with busy, hardworking adults, and the sign was almost forgotten. Luckily for us, some of the group of friends decided to rent a cabin for a weekend. During this time away, the wife casually mentioned that they needed to call a plumber when they got home because their toilet was slow and she is convinced that it is because the knobs keep falling into the toilet and her kids are flushing them.

Did she know?!?!? Was she trying to get someone to confess to the crime? Was she really planning to call a plumber? 

Well, it's all fun and games until someone calls the plumber. No one wanted them to experience the cost of an unnecessary plumber visit so a party was quickly devised in their honor. Unfortunately, since they didn't realize that they were the guests of honor, they backed out at the last minute due to some work deadlines. We had fun without them but were still worried about the plumber situation. 

Eventually, the second presentation day arrived. The story had been told, and retold, many times leading up to this point. The mood was light and the anticipation high as we waited for his response. We sat our friend down as the center of attention. The prankster read aloud a poem describing his misdeeds and presented the sign with all of the knobs stolen from his home. 

It turned out that the joke was on us! This friend didn't even know where the knobs originated. But his wife did! The joke was intended to drive the husband crazy but no one thought to consider that his wife was the one that was slowly losing her mind. As he sat there, confused by the poem and gift, his wife's face morphed into understanding and astonishment. She shouted, "It was YOU!" and "I blamed my kids for that!". A few minutes later, the daughter of the couple walked up, took one look at the sign and simply replied, "Mom, I told you that we didn't do it." 

After the shock wore off, the wife entertained us with her story of gradual decline into madness as she made multiple trips to the hardware store for replacement knobs, applied superglue to ensure that it wouldn't fall off (but it did!) and repeatedly blamed her kids for flushing them down the toilet. 

What did we learn from this story?

     -- Practical jokes are fun!

     -- Make sure that you know who is being affected by the prank. 

     -- We are lucky that we have great friends that can appreciate a joke even if it didn't go exactly as planned.