Most teachers probably don’t expect a great deal of invention from their students when it comes to practical jokes. But this year some bright young things have got the internet buzzing with a gag that has been labelled Best Classroom April Fool’s Prank Ever - and with 14 million views on YouTube it could live up to its billing.

The prank is on a professor at a US college, who insists that if his students’ phones ring in class, they must answer them on speakerphone. So when one of his students at Aquinas College, a Catholic university in Michigan, answers a call from the “pregnancy resource centre”, the whole class can hear.

When the caller says they will support the student as the father is no longer in the picture, the professor suggests that she shuts the call down. But the student replies: “I already know what I’m going to call the baby: the first name will be April. And the middle name will be Fool’s.”

There is a pause before an outbreak of relieved laughter and general hilarity.

This prank is pretty good, it has to be said. So it’s off to the naughty step with anything that doesn’t reach the same standard. Henceforth, silly noises, notes from your Mum “giving you the day off” or mysterious smells in the name of humour must be banished. The only jokes that will pass muster from now on involve meticulous planning and the potential to go viral.