a friend and professor at utah state once confessed to the class I sat in that day that he had received a phone call from a woman who had an unmistakable fake accent. It was so strong that in fact he assumed it to be his wife, playing a practical joke. Believing he had gotten the better of her before her cover was revealed, he played along with the joke - taunting and mocking her relentlessly - knowing that any minute her facad would have to be admitted. When the woman continued in this manner without interruption, my friend realized he had made an awful mistake: the stranger was indeed a stranger, and indeed the accent was real. Humiliated, he did what I think is one of the best recoveries I have ever heard of. Dropping the phone, he rattled it around a bit, picked it up again, and speaking in a thick masculine voice, said "I'm sorry! this is Mike Christiansen and that other person was not supposed to be in my office. How can I help you?"
I mean, really, who would have thought that up spur of the moment? You must admit - genius.
1 comment:
something kind of similar happened to me... I was in Jr. High - and came home from school before anyone else got home. The phone rang. It was a representative from The Concerned Women Of America (or something like that) looking for my mother. The problem? The man at the other end of the phone had the kind of stereotypical effeminate voice that made the Wayans Brothers famous...
So I'm giggling - because I'm convinced it's one of my friends playing a practical joke... Only it wasn't. It was an honest-to-goodness effeminate man speaking to me on behalf of The Concerned Women of America... sigh.
He said I sounded young... and he'd call back when my mother was home... tee hee.
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