ADVERTISEMENT

Well, not at first anyhow! Being the youngest of two siblings, my older brother (Craig) and I have a never-ending jousting for the #1 favorite son position. Whether it be updating Mom’s Facebook status to “The first child is always an accident”, or my brother simply convincing me that the Mailman was my real dad because we had the same name, it’s been a constant battle.

When I moved to Australia a few years ago, Craig was able to secure some bonus points, for just ‘being there’ and that’s simply not right. So when I was planning my trip home and saw a post online of a guy named Kevin Manion who swapped his family portraits to photos of Steve Buscemi, I thought it would be the perfect welcome home prank. It only took about 20 minutes to scan and photoshop my brothers pictures while my parents were out shopping. This was obviously helped along by the uncanny resemblance between Craig and Steve.

In total, It took my Mom two days to notice the first photo, followed throughout the day by the other photos. I thought for sure that Dad wouldn’t notice at all, but it took him three days. Finally my big bro was home visiting and walked by them constantly all day until late at night when he was staring right at his graduation photo from across the room. He was totally confused and had a look of utter disbelief on his face, like a kid who just witnessed his first magic trick, he wasn’t sure what was happening, and that was probably the best part.

It’s been about three weeks since I switched the photos and nobody has changed them back as of yet, so I guess they just be staying that way! Nevertheless, Balance has been restored to the Phillips household, and I can return to Australia with the #1 son position back where it belongs.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT