Inspire
April Fool’s Day
King Charles IX of France
Birthname: Charles-Maximillien
Birthplace: Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
Born: June 27, 1550
Died: May 30, 1574
Reign: December 5, 1560 – May 30, 1574
The maple syrup’s full of ants.
A mouse is creeping on a shelf.
Is that a spider on your back?
I ate the whole pie by myself.
The kitchen sink just overflowed.
A flash flood washed away the school.
I threw your blanket in the trash.
I never lie…April Fool!
~Myra Cohn Livingston
A Royal Pain in the ArseShelli Carlisle
“Kick Me Hard.”
Over time, the harassment evolved in to the tradition of prank playing. It eventually spread throughout Europe and America. Today different nationalities sport their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.
Around the World
The “kick me” sign can be traced back to Scotland, where April Fool’s Day is celebrated for two days. Taily day is the second day of the celebration and is actually devoted to pranks involving other people’s derrières. They call an April Fool an April “gwok” – Scottish for Cuckoo. In France, the victim of a joke is called “Possion d’Avril!” Which refers to a fish being easily caught. England’s fool is called a “gob.”
Pranks range from mild (there’s a bug on you), to more complicated gags such as the many on air hoaxes the media has pulled on the public. One of the most famous is a video from 1957 called Spaghetti Harvest.
The Spaghetti Harvest
The British Broadcasting Co. news reported that the very mild winter and the elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil had led to a bumper crop of spaghetti for Swiss farmers. The BBC went on to show footage of Swiss peasants pulling spaghetti off of trees. Large numbers of viewers called the BBC wanting to know how they could get a tree and grow their own spaghetti.
Over the years other media pranks have included Taco Bell’s announcement that they were buying the Liberty Bell and changing its name to The Taco Liberty Bell.
A radio DJ announced on the air in New Zealand that a swarm of wasps a mile wide was headed toward Auckland. Burger King published a full page add in USA Today announcing the introduction of a Left-Handed Whopper specially designed for the 32-million left handed Americans.
And, in 1997, an email message spread throughout the world announcing that the internet would be shut down from March 31 to April 2 due to spring cleaning.
Even though April Fool’s Day is not an official holiday, people have been celebrating the art of prankstering all over the world for the past four centuries, thanks to a French King who had an itch to change a date.