I thought teaching my parrot to mimic the smoke alarm would be a funny prank.
By @umaee · Relationships
At first it was hilarious. Now, my girlfriend is threatening to leave me over it, and honestly, after what happened last night, I’m starting to see her point.
The full story
Okay, so I have a parrot who's a genius at mimicking sounds. A few months ago, I got the brilliant idea to teach him how to replicate the high-pitched BEEP BEEP BEEP of our smoke detector. For the first week, it was comedy gold. He’d do it, we’d laugh, good times. Then he started doing it at 3 AM. Less funny. Then, he started getting creative. He began mixing the smoke alarm beep with the microwave finishing chime, forming a truly cursed little song. My girlfriend was officially Not Amused. But the grand finale, the moment that has me in the doghouse, was last night. We had her parents over for dinner for the first time. It was going great. They were charmed. And then, right as her dad is telling a heartfelt story, the parrot lets out the most ear-splitting, realistic BEEP BEEP BEEP I have ever heard. Her mom literally screamed and dropped her wine glass. Her dad jumped up looking for a fire extinguisher. It was five minutes of pure, unadulterated chaos trying to explain that no, the building was not on fire, our bird is just an idiot I trained to be this way. My girlfriend hasn't spoken to me since. I think it's funny but maybe I crossed a line?
How people voted
- Bad Move — 30% (38 votes)
- Needs Context — 37% (47 votes)
- Reasonable — 34% (43 votes)
Readers are split: “Needs Context” leads with 37% — 128 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@violetlately — You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.
@brynnlately — Sounds like the parrot deserved to see the chaos it created.
@benhm — This is a textbook example of weaponized incompetence and she's right to be fed up.
@sashawelp — This reminds me of when my dog learned how to turn on the TV to the home shopping channel in the middle of the night. Woke up to a guy screaming about knives.
@codywelp — Oh dear. You are in deep trouble, but I think this is salvageable! A very big apology and maybe some flowers are in order. You'll laugh about this in 10 years, I promise.
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