No Laughing Matter
I got the idea a few weeks ago to prank my friends by pretending to be an “Appletarian,” meaning somebody who only eats food products that are derived from apples and would only drink apple juice or apple cider. I told them that I had read on the internet that eating only apples was the healthiest thing for you. When I first told them they thought I was joking, but they underestimated how committed I would be to a joke.
So, whenever in the presence of one of my friends, I was very careful to only be seen eating apples or drinking apple juice/cider. Apples whole, apples diced, apple sauce, the inside of an apple pie, baked apples, candy apples with the chocolate shaved off, etc. Finally, after about a week they bought that I had become an Appletarian. Then it really kicked off.
They started giving me information about how unhealthy it was to only eat apples and grew increasingly exasperated by it. Some of them even got angry. But I wanted to stick with the joke. Finally, after the end of three weeks, I walked into what I was told was a movie night but was actually an intervention for me. They were all super concerned about my well-being and had all sorts of information or whatever.
Finally, I started laughing. They were confused, so I told them I had been faking it the whole time and had been eating real meals outside their knowledge. I even took out some beef jerky from my pant pocket to prove it and munched it. I thought they’d appreciate the joke but they were actually really annoyed. My girlfriend even broke up with me over this because a few days ago I had ruined our date night when I told the waiter I only wanted apples because I was an Appletarian and had “embarrassed her for a dumb joke.”
In my opinion, the joke was solid and they should appreciate my commitment to the prank. But, did I go too far?