The graphic on KABC-TV Los Angeles said “Prank backfires,” but, in fact, the April Fool’s stunt on SBS’ KXOL-FM “Lation 96.3” went exactly as planned. Listeners to “The Morning Invasion” heard a tattoo artist being brought into the studio to demonstrate that getting a tattoo is easy enough for even a two-year-old. After squalls from the child as the procedure was supposedly taking place, the show ended with an angry GM firing the entire morning crew.
Meanwhile, some listeners had phoned 911 and the station was ready as police and TV cameras arrived. The intent of the gag was to make listeners aware of their responsibility to look out for the welfare of children, even other people’s children, which was the theme of the next day’s show. “We’re glad we got the response that we got,” Joey Medina told KABC-TV. “It made us feel good for society,” he said, because people cared about the well being of the two-year-old. In fact, the child’s crying had been recorded the day before, induced just by having the mother walk away for a few minutes.
