April Fools’ Day, which falls on April 1 each year, has been known as a day for pranks and jokes for centuries. Our counterpart is December 28.
According to
this article, the first known reference to tricks and April 1 is in the “Canterbury Tales.” Jokes have continued ever since in the form of fake events, false announcements and misleading newspaper stories. With the advent of new technology in the 20th century, the jokes have expanded into new media.
Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied, or I accidentally stepped on your glasses!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"
Practical jokes are a common practice on April Fool's Day. Sometimes, elaborate practical jokes are played on friends or relatives that last the entire day. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film once shown on April Fool's Day was a fairly detailed documentary about "spaghetti farmers" and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees.
The
spaghetti tree hoax is a famous 3-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current affairs programme Panorama. It told a tale of a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the fictitious spaghetti tree, broadcast at a time when this Italian dish was not widely eaten in the UK and some Britons were unaware spaghetti is a pasta made from wheat flour and water. Hundreds of viewers phoned into the BBC, either to say the story was not true, or wondering about it, with some even asking how to grow their own spaghetti trees. Decades later CNN called this broadcast "
the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled."
Another great April Fools’ joke by a leading media house was the Stockholm Stockings story. In 1962, there was only one television station in Sweden and the televisions in that day were all black and white. Kjell Stensson, a technical expert with the television channel, appeared on the 1st of April to make a special announcement. He told viewers that they could make their black and white TV sets display color instantly by using a stocking to cover them. To make the story more believable he proceeded to demonstrate how to cover the TV set with a nylon stocking. Thousands of viewers believed and tried it. Of course it didn’t work but they finally got colour broadcasts eight years later.
In 1972 the Veterinary Record printed a story about the diseases of a certain parasite Brunus edwardii. This species was described as being common in homes in Europe and North America. The article claimed that a survey done showed that the species inhabited 63.3% of the households in Britain. Further claims were made that the number of children in a single household was directly proportional to the number of Brunus edwardii species in the household. The article stressed that not much is known about their diseases, especially those that could be zoonotic and the effects of its close contact with man. Several subsequent articles followed this article with detailed description of the species and its diseases. The article was so popular that the Whittington Press made requests to print it but had a hard time classifying the species as the Brunus edwardii is actually what is commonly referred to as the teddy bear!
The left handed whopper was another great April Fools’ joke by Burger King. On the first of April in 1998, USA Today printed a full page advertisement by Burger King announcing the release of its latest burger, the Left Handed Whopper. This burger was supposed to cater for the 32 million Americans who were left handed. The advertisement stated that the condiments in the Left Handed Whopper were still the same as in the other original burgers. There was a slight difference however, that was meant to accommodate left handed customers. The condiments had been rotated 180 degrees to make it easier for left handed people to eat. Thousands of Burger King Customers had already made orders for the left handed whoppers by the time Burger King made its follow up announcement the next day to say that it was an April Fools’ joke. It was even reported that some people had ordered a right handed version of the left handed whopper.
April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!
