Amanda Cooper’s mother Melynda King takes family portraits very seriously.
“Let me put it this way, last year, she went to Home Depot and bought paint sample cards of the colors that we were all allowed to wear,” Cooper, 28, tells TODAY.com.
While King doesn’t joke around when it comes to her annual holiday card, Cooper sees an opportunity for humor. Ahead of a recent photo shoot, she messaged her siblings with an idea: What if they discreetly flipped the camera off?
Cooper’s brother-in-law suggested they use the code word hippopotamus.
“So right before the middle finger picture, I called out, ‘Everyone say, ‘I want a hippopotamus for Christmas!” Cooper recalls.
Before sharing the results of the prank on Instagram, Cooper gave her mom a heads up.
“I get this text from Amanda and it just said, ‘I’m going to apologize in advance for the reel I just posted,” King, 55, recalls.
At the time, King was confused. What on earth was her daughter talking about?
“Then I look at the video and I burst out laughing,” King say. “I thought it was absolutely hilarious.”
The internet had other other thoughts.
“What a sorry example for the grandchildren,” one person wrote in the comments.
Other reactions included:
- “Be grateful she cares, this is so disrespectful.”
- “I did this when I was 10 yrs old because I didn’t like the way my mom did my hair. It’s been 30 years and she still hasn’t caught it.”
- “Poor mamma! She must be so disappointed … actually a really small thing to ask.”
- “This is terrific. All in good fun.”
- “I hate this so much. How awful.”
- “I love a family with a sense of humor and they apparently have it!”
- “Talk about passive aggressive! Man! Not cool at all!”
- “It’s so sad. Wish I could go back and take family photos with my parents and here you are being complete A holes.”
- “Ungrateful brats.”
Cooper says she was shocked by the backlash. She notes that it was just a single photo, and that the group behaved in all the other shots.