Many years ago, my brother, who was an airline captain, came home for a few days leave. I love him dearly, but he is the type of guy that knows everything and does not waste any time in letting you know it. He had been home for about fifteen minutes, pontificating on heaven-know-what when the devil in me took over.
"Wasn't that awful news about Iberian Airlines?" I asked in all seriousness.
"What about them?" he replied - and you could see he did not have a clue what I was talking about.
"Haven't you heard?" I said with a face so straight you could use it to draw lines "They've been grounded!"
"What!" he ejaculated (in the verbal sense) "When did this happen?"
(Now, one thing I did know was that pilots keep up-to-date on information and gossip in the airline industry. I had many friends among their ranks and the thought of me knowing something about flying that he did not know really galled him.)
"It just came over the news today." I continued "The whole fleet! Evidently all the aircraft are riddled with rust."
He was speechless - you could see from his expression that he was searching his vast knowledge and experience of flying for an answer to this. And what were the possible ramifications? How many other companies would be affected? Were jobs at risk?
I continued "Yes, it turns out it's because the rain in Spain falls mainly on the planes."
He nearly killed me, but it was worth it! The dumbest, baddest joke ever and I had pulled it off!