A teacher's irrational fear came true recently when his students saw the perfect opportunity for a hilarious prank.
Jeff Amato is a professor of geological sciences at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces and, during an icebreaker with students, revealed his irrational fear—hammerhead sharks.
In 2015, an Ipsos poll of 1,006 adults revealed that 51 percent of Americans are "absolutely terrified" of sharks, and 38 percent avoid swimming in the ocean because of this fear.
Of those who admitted they were terrified of sharks, 55 percent were women, compared to 46 percent of men.
"It's sort of a running joke with my family, about how I don't like hammerhead sharks," Amato told Newsweek. "My daughter bought me a book about sharks for Father's Day one year. So, when the icebreaker topic was 'what's your irrational fear?' that's the first thing I thought of."
A week after the first session, Amato was caught off guard when he walked into his classroom to be greeted by students all dressed as hammerhead sharks.
The class of seven graduate students had all arranged to arrive in full shark attire, arranged by one student named Amahi.
"First, I was confused, as I saw the costumes from the back of the classroom," said Amato. "Then I realized why they were doing this, and I started laughing."
Amato took some great pictures of his graduate students all dressed up and shared pictures on his Twitter account on November 3, where they have since received thousands of retweets and likes.
"What a wonderful class," read one reply to the viral tweet, while another wrote: "Legends... That is awesome."
"I just thought it was hilarious," said Amato. "I had no idea that eventually it would be seen by over 20 million people, as the original tweet was reposted to Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit.
"I didn't even know it went viral until one of the students emailed me later that evening. I was blown away by how many people saw the post and enjoyed it. Overall, it's one of the most memorable experiences of my 25 years of teaching."
Another Twitter user joked: "This seems suspicious; I bet some of them are actually sharks disguised as students disguised as sharks."
Meanwhile, others had a completely opposing reaction as one reply read: "I would cry with happiness at this! Hammerheads are my favorite."
"How nice of them to turn this into a rational fear," joked another.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years ... Read more
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