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Students brilliantly pranked the school yearbook with the most obnoxious Hawaiian shirt

It was supposed to be just six kids. Then it got a little out of hand.

Photo by Dave Husselbee / Imgur
How an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt became the running joke in a high school yearbook

The Hawaiian shirt is a controversial piece of fashion. People who live in Hawaii know how to wear them with taste and they are welcomed at almost every occasion. The shirts (known locally as Aloha shirts) originated in the 1930s and often have buttons made of shells or coconuts.

Off the island, they are usually worn by two different people: rich dudes who wear $125 Tommy Bahamas to show they can be chill on the weekends or the drunk frat guy who picked up an obnoxious one at a thrift store. The Aloha shirt is meant to portray a sense of fun and zaniness, but in the hands of the average American, it comes across more than a little "try-hard" in most cases.

Then there's writer Hunter S. Thompson, who's loud choice in fashion equally matched his flamboyant lifestyle. He's one guy who could properly pull the look off. There's also Ace Ventura.


ace ventura, hawaiian shirt, jokes, laughs, humor, funnyAce Ventura could definitely pull off the Aloha shirt lookGiphy

In 2016, Dave Husselbee, a junior at Sleepy Hollow High School in Westchester, New York, got five of his friends together and bought five loud Hawaiian shirts to wear on picture day. The idea was that the ugly shirt would be a running joke throughout the annual yearbook.

"We bought five shirts and about 10 kids knew about it before picture day," Husselbee told ABC News. Initially, the yearbook would be dotted with obnoxious Aloha shirts once every couple of pages.

Then the idea began to grow.

Other kids who lined up to have their photos taken loved the idea and put on the shirt as well. Then, some of the high school staff got in on the joke. "Some of the staff was unsure but once the chair of the science department decided to do it, all the others were enthusiastic," Husselbee said.

The lighthearted "prank" quickly grew out of Husselbee and his friends' control. All in all, sixty people wore the shirt in their yearbook photos, literally taking over the publication and turning the solemn pages into a sun kissed island-style daydream.

jokes, pranks, hawaiian shirt, fashion, kids, teens, high school, teachers, education, yearbookIt was supposed to just be five kids...via DaveHusselbee / Imgur

Once you notice the shirts, it's pretty much all you can see on any given page!

You almost have to feel bad for the other kids who put effort into choosing nice outfits for their portraits.


jokes, pranks, hawaiian shirt, fashion, kids, teens, high school, teachers, education, yearbookMore and more students and teachers kept joining in.via DaveHusselbee / Imgur

Here's just one yearbook page with 14 different kids wearing the exact same yellow Aloha shirt.


jokes, pranks, hawaiian shirt, fashion, kids, teens, high school, teachers, education, yearbookDozens of kids per page were wearing the shirt.via DaveHusselbee / Imgur

The running gag gets even more impressive the deeper you get into the yearbook.


jokes, pranks, hawaiian shirt, fashion, kids, teens, high school, teachers, education, yearbookThe coordination to pull off such a prank is impressive.via DaveHusselbee / Imgur

Seriously, how did a group of teens manage to pull this off?

When it comes to laughs, jokes, and pranks, young people really have a special talent.


jokes, pranks, hawaiian shirt, fashion, kids, teens, high school, teachers, education, yearbookMore and more students and teachers kept joining in.via DaveHusselbee / Imgur


Yes, even the teachers got in on it. That's the mark of a truly good school prank — no one gets hurt, everyone can participate, and it inspires smiles even years later.


jokes, pranks, hawaiian shirt, fashion, kids, teens, high school, teachers, education, yearbookMore and more students and teachers kept joining in.via DaveHusselbee / Imgur

The school's principal, Carol Conklin-Spillane, thought the prank was a great expression of the school's fun-loving spirit.

Senior pranks, in particular, have a tendency of getting out of hand. One group of kids poured cement into the school's toilets, causing thousands of dollars in damage. Others have doused the stairwells in baby oil or destroyed the school's classroom communications equipment.

This group from Westchester definitely did it right.

"The best part is that this is who we are here at Sleepy Hollow High School," she explained. "Kids and teachers have wonderful relationships. It's a very warm, wonderful place. That's really what's special about this place. It's an example of how these four years in a person's life can be transformative. It's all about the relationships these young people have with adults."

We keep hearing about how more and more teachers are leaving the profession, how the kids are too unmanageable and rowdy and disconnected, not to mention the other systemic problems involved in education. But it's so fun to see that strong connections between students and teachers still exist.

This article originally appeared six years ago.

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Joy

11-yr-old erupts in infectious giggles over his National Spelling Bee word and then nails it

He couldn't keep it together, and his joy made everyone laugh.

Scripps National Spelling Bee/Facebook

Kennyi Aouad totally lost it when he tried to say "sardoodledom."

Almost 100 years ago, nine newspapers joined forces to create a national spelling bee to help promote literacy. Now the Scripps National Spelling Bee has become so popular that was televised for 27 years on ESPN before moving to its own network in 2022.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a serious competition with students who have studied arduously to memorize root words, phonetic rules and unusual spellings in the hopes of being crowned the nation's spelling champion. The honor also comes with a $50,000 cash prize, so the competition is fierce.

But that didn't stop one competitor from bursting into giggles at being asked to spell the word "sardoodledom."

During the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, 11-year-old Kennyi Aouad approached the microphone with serious concentration when it was his turn to spell. But when the judges told him the word he was to spell and he repeated it, he burst out laughing.

"Sardoodledom" isn't a word most of us have ever even heard, much less recognize. (It means "mechanically contrived plot structure and stereotyped or unrealistic characterization in drama"—basically "melodrama"—according to Merriam-Webster.) It does sound a bit funny saying it out loud, and even one of the judges started giggling at the young contestant's reaction to it.

Watch Kennyi lose it repeatedly as he tries to make it through his turn:

Despite how serious the competition is, these kids are still just kids and people loved seeing his joyful reaction to a silly-sounding word.

"His laugh!! ❤️ I love that in the seriousness of spelling bees, he was able to be himself. This made me smile!" wrote one person.

"So cute. Smart with a touch of sense of humour," wrote another.

"Talk about breaking the tension!!" shared another. "I love it and he got it right!"

If you're curious, Kennyi placed 34th in that year's spelling bee. He would go on to compete again, however, and tied for 5th place in the 2009 bee.


This article originally appeared on 9.28.23

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Family

This son sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself. She got the last laugh.

Amazing work, mom.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

A collage of Dalton Ross .


Dalton Ross wanted to make sure his family didn't miss him too badly while he was studying abroad in London.

To help them cope, the 22-year-old Tennessee native did what any selfless college student would do...

He sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself.

art, imaginative, artistic, family dynamics

The life-size cutout of Dalton Ross.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

"I thought maybe they'd put it in the living room corner until I got back to remember I exist," he explained about the cutout, which came with a short note: "You're welcome.”

But like any clever mom, Susan Talley couldn't just stash this amazing piece of work away when it arrived about two months ago.

tomfoolery, family tradition, clowning

Guess who’s coming to dinner.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

No, no — she had better plans in mind.

Talley decided the cardboard version of her son could be a great companion "while the real one is in Europe." So she brought him along with her to events, like basketball games ...

Can you spot cardboard Dalton in the stands?

farce, levity, witticism

Defense! Defense!

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... trips to the doctor's office ...

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Hello doc.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... and sub sandwich runs.

sub sandwich, family pranks, photography

One meatball sub please.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

Fake Dalton celebrated Valentine's Day with a fellow inanimate object.

Valentine\u2019s Day, inanimate object, dating

The strange and uncomfortable.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

He enjoyed playing with a furry, four-legged friend in the sunshine.

dogs, parks, family pets

Some complicated fetching.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

And he appreciated a good bedtime story, just like the rest of us.

Dr. Seuess, bedtime story, community

Reading Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!"

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

The photos of fake Dalton are spreading like wildfire.

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Out and about for lunch.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

Without showing her son the photos first, Talley went ahead and uploaded them to Facebook. And after Dalton shared them on Imgur — explaining his mom "seems to be entertaining herself" while he's gone — the story sent the Internet into a buzzy frenzy.

"The attention is crazy," Ross told Upworthy, noting the story has gained so much traction that a restaurant featured in one of the photos, O'Charley's, sent the family a gift card.

"I hope my mom's holding up all right," he said. "It's awesome though.”

Fake Dalton has been hitting the batting cages...

batting cages, unique travel, fun activities

Batter up.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... taking in some nightlife...

entertaining, Dalton Ross, family love

Out on the town.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... and celebrated Easter with his family.

Easter, connections, life abroad

Easter with the Ross family.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

Although the viral reaction to the photos has been a bit nuts, Ross isn't all that surprised his mom was up for a good laugh.

mom, life-size, humor

Out and about.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

"Oh yeah, my mom is very funny," he explained to Upworthy. And it's a good thing, too: Laughter can be a great tool in improving the quality of family dynamics and boosting a loved one's emotional health. (A student studying abroad should especially keep that in mind, considering being away from loved ones and familiarity can be tough.)

"We're a big family of jokesters."

Bravo, mom, for setting the bar very high ahead of April Fools' Day.

uplifting, parents, laughter

Let’s clean it up.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

This article originally appeared on 03.30.16

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Joy

A Golden Retriever mistook his owner's cherished coat for a toy and pure chaos ensued

"This is not how I want to go out, Grissom!"

@justttmakayla/Tiktok (via Upworthy Instagram)

Grissom was in ful-on tug-of-war mode.

Golden Retrievers have a reputation for being good-natured, friendly, reliable dogs, making them ideal family pets. But even the most affable of good doggos turns into a die-hard tug-of-war warrior when presented with a furry pull toy.

That's a bit of an issue when they mistake the fur lining of a coat hood for a toy—and even more of an issue when the coat is attached to a human.

Dog owner and TikTok user @justttmakayla shared a hilarious encounter with Grissom, her Golden Retriever, that was captured on her Ring camera. In the video, Grissom grabs hold of her coat hood, perhaps heroically saving her from the squirrel that was clearly attacking her, or perhaps assuming she was offering it to him as a toy (because why else would fur exist?). Once he had a hold of it, the tug-of-war began.

"No one prepares you for what to do if this happens!" the woman exclaims as Grissom takes hold of her hood. "This is not how I want to go out, Grissom!"

She tries to wrestle the hood away from the dog, but as anyone who has played with a dog could anticipate, that just makes him pull back. It doesn't take long before she collapses into peals of laughter as her tail-wagging pup takes her for a ride around her deck.

Watch:

People in the comments, for the most part, were in stitches right along with her.

"Grissom was really doing all of this just to hear the laugh," wrote one commenter on Instagram. "He succeeded 😂😂😂😂."

"Her laughter is so infectious, it's hard not to smile hearing it 🥰," shared another."

"I just couldn’t stop laughing once she started," added another. "I think it’s her ability to see the absurdity and humour in the situation maybe? Whatever it is ❤️❤️."

Someone else wrote a brief ending to the story: "😂 …..And she died laughing with her best friend…"

But a few expressed concern that the dog wasn't going to let go, citing bad behavior and dangerous habits. However, as others pointed out, at no point did he appear to be aggressive. His body language is playful, and he even lay down to take a break from what he apparently thought was a pretty fun game right in the middle of it. She clearly wasn't afraid, and if she hadn't been laughing hysterically, she probably would have thought to take the jacket off to free herself.

Most people, however, simply delighted in the joy of a human enjoying a silly moment with her dog. And the woman herself addressed some of the concerns in a follow-up video in which she shared some terrible comments people have left calling for her to be violent with Grissom, writing, "Owning a reactive dog isn’t easy. It requires a lot of patience and a lot of training. But we are a team and Grissom is the best dog with the most loving heart."

She also shared how she has been working with Grissom with a great deal of love and patience to work through his reactive tendencies:

@justttmakayla

Replying to @katiejohnson7862 I am so thankful that I get to be Grissom’s owner🤍 #reactivedogawareness #reactivedogtraining #leashreactivedog #leashreactivity #positivereinforcementdogtraining #clickertraining #goldenretrieverlifestyle #goldenretrieversrule #goldenretrieversoftiktok #reactivedogsaregooddogs #englishcreamgolden #womansbestfriend

She and Grissom do make a good team, and if her laughter is any indicator, there's plenty more fun to be had for these two.

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