|
We were shooting this prank for Yahoo! People of the Web, a news show about Internet personalities. I was being interviewed by superstar journalist Kevin Sites, who became famous as an NBC war correspondent, then did a project called Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone where Yahoo! sent him to every military conflict on the globe. The dude is money under pressure, which made him the perfect reporter to cover one of our pranks.
As the security guards tried to shut down Kevin's cameras, I tried to win the crowd back over. I recounted Benjamin Franklin's life: his move to Philadelphia, his travels to France, Poor Richard's Almanac. I threw in a few jokes, and some audience participation. "My face is on one of your bills!" I proclaimed. "Which one?" People shouted out some guesses. "The $100 bill!" a woman said. "Right!" I answered. "There's a famous rap song called It's All About the Benjamins! Do you know which Benjamin they're referring to? Me! Boo-yah!"
"How many of you here have slaves?" I suddenly queried the audience. "Show of hands." No one raised their hands, but a few people began to look worried. "None of you have slaves, because I was a prominent abolitionist! America has now freed her slaves, thanks to the efforts of people like me, Ben Franklin." "I'm on money," I announced. "Is anybody else here on money? No? I didn't think so."
"I, Ben Franklin, invented many items that you probably take for granted. I invented bifocals! And the iron furnace stove! I also invented the urinary catheter, a device that is inserted into the penis or vagina in order to allow a patient's urine to drain from their engorged bladder." A few parents, upon hearing the words "penis" and/or "vagina," began to move their kids away, not realizing their kids own one. The security chief now joined the other security guards, and all of them were trying to figure out what to do. It wouldn't look good to arrest America's founding father, but I needed to get out of there. It was time to cut to the climax. | ||||||||||
|
|