Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 882, Playing a Practical Joke.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 882.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Become a member of ESL Podcast by going to our website.
This episode is a dialogue between Patricia and Luis about someone playing a practical joke on someone else.
Let's get started.
What are you doing?
I'm setting up a practical joke for Bobby.
I can't wait to see the look on his face when he walks outside and finds his bike in pieces.
It'll be the best prank ever.
You're not really going to take apart his bike, are you?
He's really going to freak out when he thinks that you've run over his bike with the car, though.
I think this is more cruel than mischievous.
Lighten up.
When he realizes he's the butt of the joke, he'll think it's hilarious.
Trust me.
Couldn't you just play some other kind of practical joke?
Maybe with a whoopee cushion?
A whoopee cushion?
That's child's play.
This practical joke is worthy of a master prankster.
Patricia begins our dialogue by saying to Luis, What are you doing?
Luis says, I'm setting up a practical joke for Bobby.
To set S-E-T up is a phrasal verb meaning I'm getting ready.
I'm getting organized.
I'm putting together.
Luis is putting together a practical joke.
A joke is when someone says something funny.
It could be a story.
It could be something funny else that makes us laugh.
A practical joke is some sort of physical action, some sort of trick that's supposed to be funny.
The trick is always on another person.
So you do something so that the other person looks silly or foolish, not very intelligent.
That's what a practical joke tries to do.
It tries to make another person look silly, look ridiculous.
Well, Luis is setting up a practical joke for Bobby.
We often use the verb to play a practical joke, which is in the title of this episode.
Luis is going to play a practical joke for Bobby or on Bobby.
I can't wait to see the look on his face.
Luis says when he walks outside and finds his bike in pieces.
The expression I can't wait to something means I'm really looking forward to something.
In this case, Luis is looking forward to the look on his Bobby's face when he sees what has happened.
He's looking forward to the reaction that Bobby will have when he walks outside outside of their building where they're working, probably and finds or discovers his bicycle in pieces.
When we say something is in pieces, P-I-E-C-E-S, we mean it has been taken apart.
It has been disassembled with all of the individual pieces laying on the ground or on the floor.
So Luis has taken Bobby's bike, and he has taken it apart.
He has disassembled it, and now the bike is in pieces.
Luis says it will be the best prank ever.
A prank, P-R-A-N-K, is another word for a practical joke.
More recently on a popular television program.
Instead of using the term practical joke or prank, they use the verb to punk P-U-N-K.
To punk here means the same as to play a practical joke on someone in the television show Punk'd.
They play practical jokes on famous people, typically on celebrities.
Patricia says you're not really going to take apart his bike, are you?
Luis says I'll let you in on the joke.
To let someone in on a joke means to let someone know how you are going to do your practical joke, how you're going to play your practical joke, giving them the details of what is going to happen.
Of course, Bobby doesn't know what's going to happen.
Luis is going to tell Patricia.
Luis says, Bobby will just be looking at spare parts.
Spare S-P-A-R-E parts are things that you use typically when you have a machine and it breaks down.
You need to fix just part of the machine.
We would call the thing you use to fix it.
With that you replace the old thing that doesn't work with spare parts.
Luis is saying that when Bobby sees his bicycle, it will look like it's just a bunch of parts, just a bunch of pieces.
I've hidden his bike in the garage, Luis says.
So now we understand what Luis is doing.
He's not actually going to take Bobby's bike and take it all apart and leave it on the ground.
He's going to take some spare parts, some other parts of another bicycle and put that on the ground.
Or I should say, put those on the ground, those parts on the ground.
Bobby's real bike will not be the one on the ground.
It will be in the garage.
That's the joke.
Patricia says he's really going to freak out when he thinks that you've run over his bike with the car, though.
So that's the trick.
Luis is going to pretend like he ran over the bike.
To run over means to hit and actually have the, in this case, car drive over the bicycle.
Which, of course, I don't recommend if you have a bicycle.
Or at least you should get off the bicycle before someone runs it over.
Anyway, Patricia is talking about how Bobby is going to freak out.
To freak out.
F-R-E-A-K out is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to become very upset, very angry, to lose control of yourself.
It's an informal way of saying to go wild or to go crazy, to be so angry you start yelling and screaming.
Patricia says...
I think this is more cruel than mischievous.
Cruel, C-R-U-E-L, means very mean, when you are trying to hurt another person.
Cruel is something that is not kind.
Mischievous M-I-S-C-H-I-E-V-O-U-S is used to describe a thing or person who is causing problems, or causing trouble, but usually in a fun way, or at least in order to be funny.
It's an adjective we would most typically use with children who are getting into trouble.
They're not bad children, except my neighbor's children, but they're children that are causing problems.
Luis says to Patricia, Lighten up.
This expression, lighten, L-I-G-H-T-E-N, up, is a phrasal verb meaning relax.
Don't take things so seriously.
Don't get so excited.
Try to have more fun.
Luis says when Bobby realizes he's the butt of the joke, he'll think it's hilarious.
Trust me.
To be the butt, B-U-T-T, of the joke means you are the person that people are laughing at.
You are the person who has had this practical joke played on or, more grammatically, on whom the practical joke has been played.
Luis says Bobby will think it's hilarious.
Hilarious, H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S, means very funny.
So Bobby will think this is very funny.
That's what Luis says.
He says, trust me, meaning believe me, I know what I'm talking about here.
Patricia, lighten up, Patricia.
Seriously.
Patricia says, couldn't you just play some other kind of practical joke?
Maybe with a whoopee cushion?
A whoopee W-H-O-O-P-E-E cushion C-U-S-H-I-O-N is basically a small rubber bag that has one opening in the bag so that when you sit on it it makes a noise.
It makes a funny noise.
The idea is that you would put this cushion underneath someone and they wouldn't realize they were going to sit on it.
And then when they sit down, it makes a funny noise.
It's the sort of thing you would see in an old 1930s or 1940s movie, perhaps.
Luis says a whoopee cushion.
That's child's play.
The expression child's play is means something is very easy to do.
Something doesn't require any planning.
It's too easy.
That's the idea.
Louis says this practical joke is worthy of a master prankster.
To be worthy of something means it's good enough for or it's appropriate for.
Luis is saying this joke is so good that it is something that you would only expect normally from a master prankster.
A master here means an expert, someone who knows a lot about something.
A prankster is a person who plays practical jokes on other people.
A prankster is a person who is always creating these pranks to make other people look foolish.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What are you doing?
I'm setting up a practical joke for Bobby.
I can't wait to see the look on his face when he walks outside and finds his bike in pieces.
It'll be the best prank ever.
You're not really going to take apart his bike, are you?
I'll let you in on the joke.
He'll just be looking at spare parts.
I've hidden his.
He's really going to freak out when he thinks that you've run over his bike with a car, though.
I think this is more cruel than mischievous.
Lighten up.
When he realizes he's the butt of the joke, he'll think it's hilarious.
Trust me.
Couldn't you just play some other kind of practical joke, maybe with a whoopee cushion?
A whoopee cushion?
That's child's play.
This practical joke is worthy of a master prankster.
I can't wait to see the next wonderful script by our wonderful script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
Thank you.
