In the world of “my life is completely bizarre” yesterday’s antics have led me to pick up a new gig. A new, totally rocking, gig.
It goes something like this. Rob had carpal tunnel surgery on Monday and came home with a Giant Block of Foam strapped to his arm. I found this amusing. So did John Scalzi, who linked to it.
It got INSANE amounts of traffic.
And this is where things get interesting. As if they weren’t already. One of the 16,000 people who clicked through to see the GBoF works for the National Pork Producer’s Council. You think you can see where this is going, but I promise you that it is even less believable than that.
One of their big events is the Legislative Action Conference and they have a full-body puppet of Petunia Pig to do a meet and greet. Madhu Caesar, the program director for the NPPC had a problem. Their puppeteer had just been sent to the hospital with a broken leg and the Conference is today. She was frantically looking for a replacement and a chance link about a Giant Block of Foam and Bacon dropped her onto my site where she noticed the link to my puppetry reel.
Would I be willing to come to D.C. on short notice? Sure! I like D.C. and I like body puppets.
And then she dropped the kicker, “Of course it will depend on if we can get your security clearance fast enough.”
“Um…why?”
“The president will be there.”
My jaw dropped. Literally. I didn’t think that really happened.
Fortunately, my brother worked for the state department and I’ve apparently already got a file. Who knew surveillance could be handy?
So I’m going to get to meet Obama, while dressed as a giant pig.
Edited to add: For those folks stumbling across this after the day, this was my April Fool’s post for this year.
Hee hee. Good one! You had me going there for a little while. That’s what happens when one is awake at an insane hour.
Ahaha, that is too awesome! I am happy for you, for realz.
You know Obama is a furry, right? This might be kind of awkward.
Thank heavens that pigs are largely hairless.
Is this real or an April Fool’s Day joke?! It’s so crazy I can’t tell!
I would have totally fallen for that, were I not watching Obama on tv at a UK airport on CNN right now! You can’t have him back!
Oh, piddly details.
LOL, you sure got me! I showed this to Bob, saying, “You would not believe all the wonderful things that happen to this lady…” I’ve been taken by bacon! Too cute
It would have been great to meet him…LOL, good one!
It’s nice Rob’s home and recovering
Definitely one of those things it’s nice to have over with.
You started my day with a laugh–though I have to say I am a bit worried about your husband. In the pix with the bacon he looked less than conscious, perhaps like a puppet whose strings have been cut.
Happy spring!
At first I was like
…
Then I saw the comments and was like D:
Would have been ubercool, though.
Ha! I love you. Have a BLAST!!!
I’m sure you’ll tell us all about it. Unless they make you sign something. Like they did when you won that trip to the moon.
This is lovely! Maybe afterwards, the pig and giant foam hand can go out for pork chops.
PS. You are wicked funny.
Curse you, Kowal and your pagan holiday!
Now, that’s a round about way to get a job. LOL! Still, COOL! I already followed you on Twitter, so I knew about the GBoF. Still, I clicked thru the link from Whatever to confirm my suspicion he was talking about you. LOL! His site sure can drive the traffic!
It really can!
OK – Does Rob really have a GBoF attached to his arm or have you just been setting us up for this?
Dad! After all the years you’ve know me, how could you possibly doubt me? Yes, Rob really does have a Giant Block of Foam attached to his arm.
All these years of knowing you is why I asked.
You totally had me. I’m so gullible.
Yes! These are the best compliments.
You had me until the part about your already having security clearance because of your brother. The rest of it was totally believable. =D
P.S. Love the pig.
And yet, my brother really did work for the state department!
Brilliant
I so wish you had posted this on a different date.
I love this story so much. Have fun.
you had me going too until you mentioned Obama, as everyone is aware he is over here visiting my workshop ;o)
if you add this one to last years you get:
PIGS IN SPAAAAAACE
coincidence?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! I’m sooooo gullible!!!!
Now that is a fabulous fabulous April Fool’s joke…you had me right up until the end!
Happy day to you, to Rob, to the Giant Block of Foam, to Petunia Pig, and to Obama too!
Woooooot! Unbelievable! God bless the internets.
Okay, wait. April Fool’s. Damn it, that’s the third time today I’ve been had and it’s only 10:00. That’ll teach me to comment before reading the other comments. I bought that you had a security file; my husband deals in homeland security and I would not be one bit surprised if I had a file.
Good job on the fool!
I am viewing all posts with a wary eye today. LOL!
This was one of the only ones that I *wanted* to be true so far.
Still, bacon can work wonders….
~PJ~
Gah! Last year, I had no trouble with your AF but this year, you just about got me – I was coming over here to go “This can’t be right, Obama’s in London at the G20″, but hadn’t twigged it as an AF.
Good work.
You are fabulous! Best AF I’ve seen this year.
haha, you had me for a moment! the interwebs are filled with bacon
That’s just too scary to be true.
You got me, what a burn! Thanks for the laugh!
You got me pretty well too, though it seemed odd they would need your skill set to just wear the petunia suit. Of course, the only reason you managed to trick so many people is because you are the one person something like this actually COULD happen to!
Excellent April Fool. The pig gig is hysterical. I checked out the LAC page on the National Pork Producer’s Council Link. There’s nothing funnier than the Pork lobby lobbying for pork on Capitol Hill. Is that for real? Hope Rob is feeling ok.
I believed this (I forget about April Fools) until I read the comments.
Because I was going to leave a comment saying “You know, you couldn’t make this stuff up. No one would believe you. Real life really is stranger than fiction.”
So now I’m thinking “it was fake, but I thought it was real, so I was going to comment on how it couldn’t be fake because it’s too crazy to be real, but it turns out it was fake, yet that makes it even more real…”
There’s a whole meta-thing going on in my brain and I’m still working on parsing it.
Well done!
- yeff
Ha ha ha! You got me too. In spite of the fact that one does not need to be a professional to be a suit-puppet operator, that the president has better things to do than pal around with the Pork Producers’ Council, and that as a vegetarian, you probably would not choose to work for such a company! (Or would you?)
Wow, good one. You got me, and it’s April 2nd!
Well, on April 2nd you’re hardly looking for pranks, so it’s easier.