Ezra Baeli-Wang, a senior fencer studying PWAD and Chinese, was just trying to think of a satirical caption for his sorority girl-esque pic collage when he birthed a brilliant prank.

He claimed in his caption that he was signing “a 4 year, $350 million contract with the Montenegro Musketeers” – even though there’s no such thing as professional fencing. And people bought it.

“People who know me well know that I’m not an exceptionally talented fencer and no one goes pro in fencing, so I wanted to make an overdramatic Instagram caption about how fencing changed my life,” Ezra said, “then it just got a ridiculous amount of attention.” His post got almost 250 likes on Facebook and almost 400 on Instagram.

Ezra said he had convinced a few people he was really going pro. But it really wasn’t until Theophilus Onigbinde, a senior fencer studying Business Administration, joined in that the prank went from good to great.

“I thought Ezra’s prank was really funny and I wanted to add fuel to the fire,” Theo said, “I decided to make my caption even crazier.” Theo claimed in his Instagram post that he signed “a 6 year, $500 mil contract commencing in 2020.”

Ezra said that ironically, even more people believed them after Theo posted. The guys started to get congratulations posts on Facebook and “great job, man!”s on Instagram.

Ezra’s friend Rayna Yvars suggested that they ask UNC’s athletic director, Bubba Cunningham, to be part of the prank because he and Ezra are basically besties.

“I’m lucky to have a great working relationship with Bubba through my involvement in Student Athletic Advisory board and other activities,” Ezra said, “he has a great sense of humor. Its a joke that I take a selfie with him every time I see him.”

Bubba thought the prank was hilarious and helped organize a fake signing for the guys. They decided to post photos of the signing with even more ridiculous captions to finally get people to understand that this was all an elaborate joke they pulled just because they’re extra.

When I asked if anyone was straight disgusted with the joke, Ezra laughed for about 30 seconds before he could reply. “People who are good friends of mine know I get a kick out of being attention grabbing on social media,” he said, “They’re probably sick of it.”

The guys and I talked about how little coverage fencing gets at UNC and how that really is what allowed their prank to be possible. Even though it aided their antics this time, they do wish more people understood the sport.

“We don’t necessarily want a campus presence, but we do wish that people understood that we take on a D1 workload,” Theo said, “People don’t take the sport seriously because it’s fencing. But people on the team work really hard to be successful athletes. It’s serious.”

Successful athletes and successful (albeit accidental) jokesters. Go heels.