It’s been almost six years since the passing of our beloved founder, Scott Roche, and we do our best to honor his memory every day.
One of our favorite parts of that legacy is his legendary prowess as a prankster. One of his standbys was a tiny device called The Annoyatron. It would emit a beep, buzz like a mosquito, or speak phrases at random intervals. He’d inflict it on new Coupe staffers as a rite of passage. On this April Fool’s Day, we got this note from longtime friend and Coupe collaborator Brooke Woodruff of BarkleyOKRP:
“I wanted to send you both a note today because I wanted to tell you that Scott would be SO proud of the April Fool’s pranks I’ve passed on from him to my kids. One of my absolute favorite memories is leaving Coupe, driving all the way to Denver, taking a moment in my car in the dark to check email before I went into yoga, and suddenly I hear a voice from the backseat of my car saying “Can you hear me?”
Scott put a tiny little thing called an annoyatron in my bag that went off periodically, and I have never been quite so scared in my life -and it’s still one of my fav things to use to prank people to this day!
My kids are now obsessed, and got us good last night!
Thought this would give you guys a little laugh today….”
The true genius of Scott’s use of The Annoyatron was the contrast between how different people reacted to it. It was sort of a litmus test for your personality:
Aaron, as you would expect, handled it logically and efficiently – systematically removing one piece of electronic equipment from the control room at a time.
Eric, as you would expect, started randomly flipping over furniture, and eventually had to be stopped once he began removing outlet covers from the wall.
And Ed… Every time The Annoyatron would go off, Steady Eddie would just keep on working, and – without looking away from his monitor – he would just slightly shake his head and say “There’s that sound again…”
