Kids Are Pranking Their Dads by Pretending to Fill Their Cars with Olive Oil

Remember when the young folks were trolling their mothers (or, in José Andrés’ case, their fathers) by texting them on Thanksgiving for instructions on how to microwave a turkey? It was good fun. Parents wondered where they had gone wrong, and if their child would soon die of stupidity and foodborne illness. No one wanted the fathers to get left out of that, so now Buzzfeed reports that there’s a dad version, too: texting a photo of a can of olive oil and asking why the car didn’t work when you refilled the oil.

The prank originated from the Twitter account of dad gear store The Dad Shop, which instructed followers to “Text your dad this pic and ‘I put oil in my car and now it’s making weird sounds?'” along with a photo of an olive oil can and the oil tank of a car, and asked people to post their replies — all of which were incredible.

“Does it sound like olives in a can,” snapped back one smart dad, while others tried to be reasonable, “If it is good for your heart it should be good for your car.”

Others simply wished their hapless children good luck or sent them to the nearest repair shop. The best answers went straight to the dad jokes, “Does it sound like Italian?”, “Cars are not vegetarian,” “Did you try unplugging it and plugging it back in?” and, my favorite, “That’s because you need extra virgin.”

Like the microwave turkey, the prank gives a good gauge of the parent’s confidence in how well they did at raising a child with any common sense. With the concerned dads, you can almost smell the feelings of failure through the computer as they begged their child to tell them they’re kidding, sent them to the shop, and fled important business calls to attempt to help.