Boy Did I Play You: Parody of Mr. Taranta's Enthralling Prank

— Dedicated to the class of 2022 (formerly 7-1, 7-2, 7-3, and 7-4) and Mr. Taranta

The clock strikes 12:05 PM. A doorbell sound plays as seventh graders’ faces pop into Mr. Taranta's 7th-grade algebra I zoom room one by one. Feeling stuffed after their lunch break, the students are overcome by a wave of excitement. They refrain from giggling as they join a different zoom link and face a teacher they could only remember catching brief glimpses of in the hallways in years prior. And so the great seventh-grade-April-fools-math-class-swap prank was set in motion.

“Good morn— afternoon! It’s the afternoon right?” Mr. Taranta says as he checks his watch. Taking a moment to realize that he was staring at a sea of unfamiliar seventh grade faces, he asks in an offensive tone, “what are you doing in my class? Go back to class.” The students, unknowing of what's to come, fumble with the “Leave Meeting” button as if their cursor couldn’t find it fast enough. Being the last few of the pre algebra students left in the meeting, Mr. Taranta holds four of them back while he takes down their names. Thoughts of their once perfect record are slammed at their paling faces. Meanwhile, the students who managed to leave contacted their friends who were currently holding up their part of the prank and waiting to enter Mr. Ostrikov’s zoom room.

***

Before the other half of the class could join Mr. Ostrikov’s 7th grade pre-algebra zoom, they received texts, discord messages, instagram DMs, and emails from their classmates who were kicked out of Mr. Taranta's class. Messages like “You have to go back— your teacher [Mr. Tarnata] is angry!” and, “Abort mission!” were racing through phones faster than the doorbell sound could play.

The Algebra I class trickles back into their correct class as the four pre-algebra students faded from the ever growing gallery of tiles. They were met with the stern visage of Mr. Taranta; he was full of disappointment. The zoom tiles blinked and faces popped on the screen. His true algebra I class was back and Mr. Taranta sighed, “I thought this class was better than this. You can’t pull pranks on teachers.” Every student’s eyes wavered left and right to see how their fellow classmates were faring— not a single pair of eyes left the screen.

***

Every student hears him dial ten digits. Every student hears the phone ring. He forgets to mute himself; the students wonder whether or not reading his lips would have been better than hearing what he was about to say. Every student’s heart beats loudly and in sync as the once exhilarating prank takes a turn for the worst and Mr. Taranta begins with his first four words: “Hello? Ms. Harrison, hi.”

All 32 eyes stare at Mr. Tarnata’s tile hoping that maybe, just maybe, they could change his train of thought if they stared intensely enough. “I wanted to report an incident,” Taranta continued, “my students decided to play a prank on me— I feel disrespected and to be honest I am just so surprised.” With each second that passes, the sinus rhythm of each student oscillates between periods of calmness and periods of panic.

“Here, would you like me to give you a list of names? I’m sorry for bothering you— are you sure? — Give their parents a phone call? — And fill out a few pink slips. — Yes, thirty two students and four from the other class.” If only they could hear the other end of the line. As he goes down the alphabetical list of names on zoom’s participant’s list, the students instinctively pray that maybe, just maybe, he’d miss their name. To their dismay, he mentions every name. Missing not one syllable. He even included the names of the four students that he had noted at the beginning of class. The students knew at this point that this was no joke and there would be no classic Mr. Taranta puns today.

Tears well in the students’ eyes. Some were scared for their futures, others thought of the scolding they would have to endure at home, still others were still confused by this entire ordeal.

“Yeah. Sorry. Thanks. Bye.” Tarnata said in a low, disappointed voice. He closed with those four words. Finally looking up after his seemingly eternity long phone call, he stared at his webcam (his students stared back).

A minute passed before he said, with a poker face, “Boy did I play you.”

Still another couple seconds pass before any student is able to move. Whether they were frozen or lagging didn’t matter. Not a single person blinked; not a single person moved. It took the students some time to fully comprehend the reverse prank that Taranta had played on them. “Gotcha!” he mumbled with a smirk. The light hearted Mr. Taranta that everyone all knew was back. As if the switch that kept their hearts synchronized flipped off, the students began to laugh, or cry, or both. Mr. Tarnata could only see their silent reactions and was satisfied with his acting.

***

One student asked, “can I quote you on that Mr. Taranta?”

“Of course!

“Boy did I play you!” He exclaimed.

Epilogue

More people spoke in class than ever before. Everyone was talking over each other— a rarity when it comes to zooming— to let out the emotions that had built up within them throughout their thrilling 15 minutes that already seemed like a forever ago.

Based on real events— when Mr. Tarnata’s Algebra I class and Mr. Ostrikov’s/Ms. Mistry’s pre-algebra class switched classes on April 1st to prank the math teachers back in 2017.

Some thoughts from '22

“We were waiting for Ostrikov when the pre algebra kids came running and they were like ‘Go back! Go back! Abort!’ I remember arriving to a very pissed Taranta talking to the lone pre-algebra kids. He stood there in silence for a good 20 seconds as we were all internally panicking and regretting everything. I was terrified. Then confused. Then relieved. Then I cried all the way into English. That was traumatizing.” -Audi Soetiono (11-4 | 7-3/4)

“I don’t think people were really worried until they got into the room and saw Taranta. He sat us all down and started chewing us out. Seeing him mad didn’t really bother me. [It was] honestly the best thing that happened to me that year. None of the other teachers would have or could have done that.” -Kenneth Wang (11-4 | 7-1/2)

“When he told us we were all in trouble I was so scared— I could feel everyone’s tension in the class too. He actually acted really well and so genuinely” -Megan Chan (11-1 | 7-1/2)

“He played that off really well. He kind of turned the prank back on us which was really funny. And I was pretty worried too— I had a good record until then.” -Will Taylor (11-4 | 7-3/4)

“[Mr. Taranta] asked for 31 not including a couple of people including Brayan and Queenie. Everyone believed him. And then he turned around and went ‘Gotcha!’ and the entire class screamed” - Jocelyn Chiu (11-1 | 7-1/2)

“We all thought it would be funny to switch classes with the prealgebra kids and I’m pretty sure Mr. Ostrikov hadn’t even shown up by the time Mr. Taranta sent the Ostrikov students back. Taranta was super mad and everyone was freaking out about if their highschool applications would be threatened. Oliver was sitting smugly as part of the third or so of the kids who hadn’t pulled the prank saying he knew something bad was going to happen. I remember a few classmates crying because they were so stressed. I was worried but also skeptical since it was a harmless joke that cost at most five minutes of class time.” -Oona Toman (11-4 | 7-3/4)

“I remember running down the hallway trying to get back to class after word spread that he was mad about us switching classes. He had me pretty fooled… I actually believed he was serious when he acted like he was irritated at our prank and was pretending to call the office for more pink slips” -Darlene Leohansson (11-2 | 7-3/4)

“I didn’t want to believe it when he pranked us. He was a pretty good actor and held the role well. I was hoping that it was a joke but I also just accepted that it could be real.” -Calvin Lo (11-2 | 7-1/2)

“I followed the crowd to the other classroom (pre algebra 308) and then I just walked back to Taranta’s [classroom] and assumed other people would come eventually. I just sat in an empty classroom with Brayan for like three minutes.” -Queenie Chen (11-1 | 7-1/2)

“” -Grace Chang (11-1 | 7-1/2)

“I respected Mr. Taranta too much to do something like that… I was probably tired from gaming all night so I kinda just laid my head down and waited for the prank to end. I think the first one in was Charles and he seemed pretty upbeat. He caught me by surprise when he started taking names. His poker face is top tier, no joke. When he fake called the main office, he included my name amidst the people who had gone to the other room for Mr. Ostrikov’s class and I was like ‘this man’s definitely faking bruh.’ He pulled it off well enough to actually get some of [the students] to start freaking out, especially when he pulled out the pink slip card.” -Harrison Sanford (11-4 | 7-3/4)

“Taranta was a pretty chill guy so we all thought he would handle it well. When the call came in, I was a little panicked… some people didn’t participate so I thought for sure we were gonna face the brunt of it. We did the speed walk of shame back to class… I felt like I already accepted my fate. He revealed [his prank] and we were all clowns, I felt a little offended that it backfired against us.” - Xiaoxin Li (11-2 | 7-3/4)

“He was the one who really made a fool out of us. I remember initially not believing Mr. Tarnata’s prank of calling [Ms. Harrison] because I thought he could take a joke. I was laughing at him the whole time… when I saw people next to me freaking out, I started to get a little worried too.” -Sarah Cooperman (11-1 | 7-3/4)

“I wasn’t fooled by it because Mr. Saint Claire did something like that to my class when I was in sixth grade… some people actually cried because they thought they really were in trouble.” -Cherilynn Chow (11-1 | 7-1/2)

“We’re all going to remember this forever.” -Kera McCarthy (11-3 | 7-3/4)

“Seeing that I was one of the few students to not get the memo so to speak, my side of the story is mostly being extremely confused at the start… Thankfully it wasn’t long before he hit us with the ‘gotcha’ and assured us this was just his own prank. It was pretty funny.” -Brayan Orozco (11-3 | 7-1/2)

“I remember that day being epic because Taranta really just fooled all of us. I was just confused the whole time and seeing the people around me starting to cry made me think that this stuff was actually real.” -Angelo Sali (11-3 | 7-3/4)

“I didn’t really know what was going on and I just went with the stream of my peers. I was confused when he called mainly because I didn’t know we could be convicted of such a petty crime. He is quite the clever cookie though.” -Helena Saven (11-4 | 7-3/4)

“My stomach seemed to learn gymnastics when he said my name into the phone… I was so mad at myself for going along with the plan. The sheer relief that broke over me— tentatively, at first, then overwhelmingly— when he yelled ‘April Fool’s!’ remains unparalleled. I think it’s clear to all juniors that a single victor emerged from the prank battlefield that day, and it certainly wasn’t any of us. ” -Maria Karakousis (11-2 | 7-3/4)

“I remember being really worried about my parents. I also remember looking around and a lot of people were crying which was pretty funny.” -Natalie Kim (11-2 | 7-3/4)

“I remember being so stressed and I remember crying actually wehn Mr. Taranta was calling the office… there wasn’t a single person who didn’t fall for Mr. Taranta’s reverse prank but looking back, it’s pretty funny” -Sophia Matje (11-2 | 7-3/4)