Allison, Chris, and the Long Forgotten T-Shirt Prank

So this photograph deserves some explaining. But before I do that, I’d like you to just take a moment to bask in the awesomeness of this t-shirt. Look deep into those sad dog eyes, and feel moved.

Ok. So this was taken a few months ago – around March 5th, 2012 to be exact. The shirt arrived as a package for Chris, with no real clue as to who sent it or why. Chris didn’t order it, and was pretty confused.

But! Despite attempts to remove all identifying information, Chris spotted a small reference to Allison somewhere on the receipt.

And so… Chris decides the best thing to do is to bury the shirt. Never mention it online anywhere, never acknowledge receiving it. Pretend it never happened.

In the interim, plans are made.

Fast forward to March 26th, 2012. Chris works with Jane, who creates a custom Allison-faced t-shirt using a photo of her from Flickr. I think she used some kind of home printer solution, creating the image from four separate iron-on applications that she printed out.

I was never directly involved in any of these plannings, and mostly just overheard Chris talking with Jane and other Design Team folks about how to exact some kind of revenge.

The idea came up for multiple people to all get similar full-size t-shirts… and incredibly, people started to order them independently (from The Mountain and Fab). Meagan had the excellent idea that everyone would hang out at a bar together somewhere (karaoke, maybe), and each shirt would slowl be revealed through a series of photos posted onto Flickr or Facebook. With Chris humongo Allison-faced shirt being the last image in the set.

Shirts were purchased, and plans were made… but it kind of all remained pretty theoretical. That is, until last Friday.

We found out Allison was coming in for a lunch visit with Soren, and so everyone decided that Friday would be the day. The plan would go something like this:

First, Alexandra would greet Allison at the door. She would use some kind of loud greeting as a way to announce to everyone else that she had arrived. The hope was that Allison would notice Alexandra’s shirt, and comment how she had sent something similar to Chris, many months ago.

Then, when Allison walked in to the Design Team area… Jane, Meagan, and Utopia would all gather round… with their respective shirts.

Amazingly, there were two extra t-shirts to be had. Ben had gotten himself a fantastic Meerkat shirt… but since he was away in Dallas, Justin got to wear it. And the original dog shirt that was sent to Chris was also up for grabs, which I ended up wearing.

In sequence next would be Justin, then me… with Chris showing his shirt at the very end, when Allison started to realize everyone had on the same thing.

Chris, posing for a photo.

L to R: Alexandra and Utopia.

L to R: Jane, Meagan and Alexandra.

Like a meerkat, Justin is all smiles.

Here’s a bit of video I took, with a Flip cam mounted on a tripod. The audio is pretty low (even after I tried bumping it up, prior to exporting). So you might need to crank the volume on this, as it was pretty far away the whole time.

Group portrait. It’s like we’re the most awesome and confusing street gang, ever. Whenever they decide to do a remake of “The Warriors,” you know where to find us.

Though I wasn’t directly involved, I feel honored to have taken part in the day’s festivities. Kudos to Chris, Jane, and everyone else for pulling off one very impressive, long play prank… over six months in the making.

Related:
Bryan and the Great “International Male” Prank
Chris Returns from a Week’s Vacation: “The Tent” Prank
Wait… What Is That? Is That Someone Singing?
Watermelons: the Fruit, the Shirt, the Poem
RIPT Apparel: T-Shirt Designs That Only Live for 24 Hours