What would you do if Alec Baldwin showed up to your college class?
Well, let's be more specific. What would you do if Alec Baldwin showed up to your college class dressed as Abraham Lincoln? That's what happened to a group of students at L.A.'s Occidental College, and they reacted the same way you'd expect: With a whole lot of confused laughter.
Let us set the scene for you: It's 9:30 on a Tuesday morning, and sleepy college kids are trickling in to U.S. History. The professor starts the lecture in the usual way, with reminders about upcoming papers and final exams, and then announces that today's class will include a special guest to touch on the topic at hand (the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case).
Much to everybody's surprise, the special guest was Alec Baldwin (in said Lincoln costume). He gave a speech as the legendary former president before finally "revealing" himself. And then, since this is Alec Baldwin we're talking about, he proceeded to give his own lecture to the 20 or so students.
And just what was the topic at hand? Anything and everything. The 30 Rock actor discussed civil rights reforms, gave a lesson on the history of protest on college campuses and waxed poetic on his own personal cause célèbre, campaign finance reform. Like we said, it was very Baldwin-y.
Alec also put a few of the students on the spot, asking them about their own political interests, but they held their own pretty well.
Everything culminated, naturally, in a group selfie—until one student decided to start a Twitter beef with Baldwin. That's right, a Twitter beef. Perhaps someone should have warned him that Alec never backs down from a Twitter fight. It started innocently enough, with the young man (probably jokingly) asking Alec how much he got paid for the appearance. Things escalated a bit and resulted in Baldwin throwing a few choice words at the student.
But, it seems to have all ended in some sarcastic humor, with the student tweeting out a (probably sarcastic) apology.
The whole event was orchestrated as an April Fools' prank for Chevy's #BestDayEver campaign in partnership with WhoSay. Nikki Reed and Iam Somerhalder surprised students at Emory University in Atlanta, and Olivia Wilde did the same in NYC.