Dear Friends,

I have never been a big fan of practical jokes.

I find that kind of slapstick comedy cringey and embarrassing. I think about the person the joke is being played on and I feel so badly for them that the humor is lost on me. My husband and kids, however, love this kind of comedy and one show in particular they enjoy is ‘Practical Jokers’. Yes, they are playing pranks on each other (mostly) but still. It seems so mean and degrading that I just can’t get past it enough to enjoy the show. I have also never watched any of the ”Jackass” movies for the same reason. Not my thing.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I don’t really care for April Fool’s Day either.

As a kid my older brother was the King of Pranks and would often “get me”. Saran wrap on the toilet seat, loose saltshaker tops, telling me that fish eggs were really Jell-O, and tricking me into eating glue (the non-toxic kid glue thankfully) are just a few of the classics.

When my kids were little, they loved playing pranks on April Fool’s Day. Being a supportive parent, and not wanting to stifle their creativity, I let it go since most of their jokes were harmless. A few Hall of Fame ones include the year they wrapped all of my office furniture in wrapping paper. Another year they taped yarn across the entryway from the kitchen to the living room like a spiderweb. Another year they took a hair tie and tied it to the sprayer at the kitchen sink; when I turned on the water I got drenched. That one was kind of funny and later that day we did it to Dad. It’s a slippery slope though … if you play a prank on someone, they may retaliate and there doesn’t seem to be a code that their prank needs to be at the same level yours was. I was always careful to rarely give a reason or excuse for someone to retaliate, knowing full well what I was subjecting myself to if I instigated.

Whose idea was it anyway that we have a world-wide day of jokes and pranks?

The origins of April Fool’s Day are a bit of a mystery, but it can be traced back to 1564 when France changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

The Julian calendar marked the beginning of the new year on April 1st, but the Gregorian calendar shifted the new year start to January 1st, which is what we follow today. Those who were not so quick to pick up the new calendar system, or reluctant to, and still celebrated the end of year at the end of March were called “April Fools”. They became the butt of jokes and pranks and were made fun of for not celebrating the end of the year at the right time.

One of the most common ways someone was made fun of for this slipup was to have a paper fish put on their backs and being referred to as “poisson d’avril” or April fish. The April fish reference meant that you were easy to catch and gullible. To be referred to as the ‘April fish’ was a big insult.

April Fool’s Day traditions grew through the 18th century. In Scotland this developed into a 2-day festival which included a tradition of “hunting the gowk”. A “gowk” is a word for cuckoo bird and a symbol for a fool. And instead of a paper fish on your back, you may find a sign that says “kick me”.

Throughout history there have been some pretty big April Fool’s Day pranks pulled.

One of the most famous pranks of all time happened on April 1, 1957, when a British newscaster shared that the village of Ticino had an extremely good harvest of spaghetti crop, that even included footage of spaghetti being pulled from trees and bushes. Spaghetti was not something well known at the time in Britain which started a frenzy of people trying to find out how to grow their own spaghetti crop, only to find out that it was a joke.

On April 1, 1986, Le Parisien published news that the Eiffel Tower was going to be moved to Marne-la-Vallée, the site of the future Disneyland Paris. The paper then shared that this move was happening to make room for a new stadium that would host the 1992 Olympic Games. Despite sharing that this was a prank, rumors spread for years to come about this, and residents of Paris were enraged that their “Iron Lady” might be moved.

Another famous prank happened on April 1, 2009, when a newscaster on a French station shared that due to the number of wind turbines being built in the world, that the earth’s rotation has slowed down enough to add an extra hour to each day, meaning a day would change from 24 to 25 hours. I have actually heard this one as a reason to not support wind turbines. It’s funny how a prank from 2009 still affects us today!

When you think about what it was like before social media, instant news, cable … how the public relied on their news outlets to give them a window into the world. These kinds of pranks caused serious PR issues for the news outlets. The public rarely saw the humor in these jokes and with the lack of available news in some remote areas, much of this became lore and rumor.

If you are someone who enjoys pulling a good prank or joke on April Fool’s Day, just remember that revenge is best served cold.

Be well,

~ Kerri

The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of any entity that this author represents.