Say you're sitting in a very large Biology 171 lecture and suddenly a musical wedding prank unfolds in front of you.
It's possible, at the University of Michigan.
In October, a group of 54 students staged an elaborate fake wedding, a musical prank they decided to act out in the middle of a biology lecture led by U-M lecturer Barry O'Connor.
The prank included eight cameras, 2,000 rose petals and a lot of fake mustaches, according to Nathan Hartmann, a U-M engineering major and the video's director. So what inspires such a gag?
"We do it primarily just for the heck of it," Hartmann said in an interview. The idea for the video came from "a running joke" about two of Hartmann's friends getting married, even though the pair aren't romantically interested in one another, says Hartmann.
"It just kind of spiraled from there," says Hartmann. "And it was like 'How do we keep making it more and more over the top?' "
The prank lasted just over three minutes but took the entire class, including the instructor, by surprise.
University of Michigan students conducted a fake wedding during a biology lecture.
"When there is a disruption in class the first thing the instructor needs to do is determine if there looks like there is any danger going on," O'Connor told AnnArbor.com.
O'Connor tried to admonish the pranksters when they first began, yelling "We're in class," and trying to speak over the noise. His efforts were for naught.
"Given the large number of people who were invading the classroom, none of them were brandishing weapons or anything. ... I just let it play out and tried to not make any scene about it."
The wedding lark isn't the first time the pranksters have hit campus. Earlier this year, the group staged another elaborate class interruption during a large organic chemistry lecture. The prank, a fight between a purse thief and Zorro, featured an enthusiastic mariachi band.
The Zorro video went viral and, according to YouTube, has nearly 2.9 million views.
The wedding prank has just more than 12,100 hits.
Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.