April Fools of Yesteryears: Day of Trickery

As far as our international day of jokery, historians don’t have a lot to go on to determine why, when and where exactly it began…but they have a couple of pretty neat theories.

Though April Fools’ Day became “celebrated” as an official, widespread annual tradition in 1700, some historians Left: “Some ancient and honorable April Fool jokes” - published in The Morning Times (Washington, D.C.) on March 28, 1896. Pranks depicted include exploding cigars, a tack on a chair, a dumpling made of cotton and “doctored” candy. hypothesize that the day’s significance got its start in 1582 France. At that time, France was in the midst of trading the Julian calendar year in for the Gregorian calendar (today’s version). The new year was celebrated the last week of March through the first of April in accordance with the Julian calendar, which moved to January 1 when they made the switch. Those who were “late to the party” following the new calendar’s implementation and continued to celebrate the new year in March-April, became a target for jokesters. These folks were subject to pranks, like one where some

one taped a paper fish on an individual’s back to declare them an “easily hooked” fish—in other words, gullible.

In the 18th century, April Fools’ Day was celebrated by communities all over Britain, and the Scotts made the occasion a two-day spectacle: the first day, “hunting the gowk” (cuckoo bird), saw people sending friends and neighbors on phony errands; day two, “Tailie Day,” directed people to play pranks on others’ cabooses (like, the butt of a joke, get it?).

The annual April Fools’ celebration has grown in popularity and in the variety of jokes to be had. Some of the most creative stunts concocted by corporate businesses take things to the next level. Here are a few of the greats:

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest: “In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should ‘place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.’” –Jokes4us. com

Virgin Cola’s Blue Cans: “In 1996 Virgin Cola announced that in the interest of consumer safety it had integrated a new technology into its cans. When the cola passed its sell-by date, the liquid would react with the metal in the can, turning the can itself bright blue. Virgin warned that consumers should, therefore, avoid purchasing all blue cans. The joke was that Pepsi had recently unveiled its newly designed cans. They were bright blue.” –Jokes4us.com

Smell-o-vision: “In 1965, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) broadcast an interview with a professor who supposedly developed an amazing new technology, called “Smell-ovision”, that allowed the transmission of smells over the airwaves. Viewers would now be able to smell aromas produced in the television studio in their own homes because the machine broke scents down into their component molecules which were then transmitted through the screen. He then demonstrated the technology by placing some coffee beans and onions into the Smello-vision machine. He asked viewers to report whether they had smelled anything. As would be expected, several viewers called in from across the country to confirm that they had distinctly experienced these scents. Some even claimed that the onions made their eyes water.” -Forbes

Welcome To Chicago:

“[In 1992] Los Angeles airport executives created a 85-foot-long yellow banner on the ground that spelled out, in 20-foothigh red letters, “Welcome to Chicago.” It was raised above the Hollywood Park race track, which lay directly along the flight path for arriving planes, about three miles from the airport. Anyone arriving into the airport would have probably felt a feeling of panic as they looked out the window and thought they were in the wrong city.”

Wolf-Pigeon Hybrids: “[In 2009] Qualcomm announced a bold new method of broadcasting wireless signals - Flying wolf-pigeon hybrids that would bring Wi-Fi around the world. According to Qualcomm, the wolf enhancements were made to pigeons because, ‘We simply cannot allow our network transmitters to be killed off by feral cats or cold weather.’ To guard against a wolf-pigeon rebellion, the company also pitched a sharkfalcon crossover. And to control the Shark Falcons, in turn, Qualcomm engineers had drafted plans to create a Crocodeagle (crocodileeagle hybrid).” -Forbes

Censored National Geographic: On April 1, 2016, the magazine National Geographic had a headline reading “National Geographic to Stop Publishing Nude Animal Pictures” and its subhed: “The media group says that it will no longer degrade animals by showing photos of them without clothes.” –Time