Fred Rogers hosted the Mister Rogers Neighborhood show, and he always went through a familiar ritual at the start of each episode. As the opening theme song played in the background, he would enter his cozy living room, while singing along.
Rogers would then switch from his street shoes to house shoes, and his audience witnessed this countless times. One evening, his crew decided to spice things up with a playful prank, hoping to see him rattled, however, Rogers’ response surprised everyone on set.
What was the prank on Mister Rogers?
Rogers arrived on set and began to sing, as usual, and nothing seemed outside of the ordinary. As always, he approached his bench, ready to take off his shoes, but when he tried to slip them on, they did not fit.
He kept singing at first, while struggling to jam his foot into the tight shoes but to no avail. Minutes later, it finally dawned on Rogers what the problem was as he glanced around the room. He noticed Jeff, one of the crew members, who just happened to be wearing his actual shoes. His song trailed off as he doubled over in laughter with the entire set joining him.
Redditor react to Mister Rogers’ reaction to the prank
When the prank video went viral on Reddit, fans were captivated by Mister Rogers’ reaction. One referred to him as an awesome human being and such a sweet person, while another admitted that seeing him react with gratitude to a prank helped them to trust better in life.
Someone else admitted to how emotional the clip left them, noting that seeing Mister Rogers’s laughter also brought them to tears. “My childhood was a scary place, but when I turned on ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,’ everything disappeared for a little while,” someone said, highlighting how Roger’s program made growing up a little more manageable.