April Fools Day

I’m not a big fan of practical jokes. Like ribald humor, practical jokes tend to be base and coarse. Okay, maybe some are cute, but for the most part, I’m not enamored of people making fun of each other or making others look foolish. I like and favor optimization, in which the outcome of a situation increases the fortune of everyone. Practical jokes remind me too much of putting someone down to make the originator look good. I immediately discount the originator and sympathize with the victim. April Fools Day and its jokes make me roll my eyes and yawn. Why do we celebrate such a day?

Internet research cites the origins of April Fools Day in two events. The first occurring in 1582 when the Gregorian calendar was adopted changing the new year from April first to January first. It also took into account the solar cycle making the year 365 days and adding leap year every four years to account for those fractional days in the cycle, but that’s an aside. There were those who chose not to change with the times and adopt the Gregorian calendar. They still celebrated the new year on April first, and as a result, people made fun of them. But this theory is discounted because a day much in the spirit of April Fools Day seems to have been celebrated before this date.

The Hindus and the Romans celebrated a day of general merrymaking around the same time centuries earlier. During Constantine’s reign, court jesters were allowed to rule the empire for one day to prove if they could run the empire better. Jesters were the comedians of their day. But comedians, like today, tend to be very smart people who understand fundamental truths about our society and find ways to make people laugh while pointing out underlying flaws or controversies. The term “jest” not only includes joke making, but also includes editorial comment in its definition. So, although letting the jesters run the empire was a joke, there was a more serious side to this merrymaking.

Common April Fools jokes today, include:

·      Taking the bottom out of cereal boxes, then pouring the cereal back into the box while it sits on the shelf so the next one who grabs the box suffers the unfortunate gravitational effects

·      Putting push pin holes in water bottle so that when the drinker puts pressure on the bottle by picking it up, they get showered

·      Placing cups of water or confetti on top of a doorway for dumping on the next person to open the door 

·      Putting a dry piece of spaghetti in a tube of toothpaste a few days before April Fools Day to allow it to expand. The person using the tube will get some toothpaste with an inner core of spaghetti in their mouth after the spaghetti absorbs liquid from the toothpaste and expands.

The media has contributed to April Fools Day. In 1957, the BBC put out a news story about Sweden’s bumper spaghetti harvest and included pictures of spaghetti hanging from trees. Some people called the station to ask how they could grow their own. In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it was buying the Liberty Bell and would rename it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” That same year, rumor on the Internet asked everyone to shut down their computers and get off the Internet for International Internet Cleaning Day. In 1998, the left-handed Whopper was invented by Burger King so that dripping would fall to the right for those in the left-handed minority.

Do you like April Fools Day? Have you ever played an April Fools Day joke on someone? Have you ever been the recipient of an April Fools joke?

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/holidays/p/april_fools_day.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/aprilfools1.html