Foolishness and tradition

For some among us, today is a high holy day of sorts. It’s not so much a holiday, as it is an international, year-round tradition that happens to be recognized on one particular day.

There is no widespread consensus on the exact origin of April Fool’s day, but the most generally accepted view is that the origination of the custom coincided with the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII replaced the Julian Calendar (as in Julius Caesar) with a calendar that better represented the Earth’s revolution around the sun. In addition to making allowances for a “leap year,” the calendar moved New Year’s day from April 1 to January 1.

Universal adoption of the new calendar was painfully slow. In some cases, it was simply a lack of information as news did not travel fast in the 16th century. In other cases, it was simply rejected just as many today aren’t fond of Daylight Saving Time. The government of Greece held out the longest, where the Gregorian Calendar was not officially recognized until 1923.

Somewhere in the interim people who, for lack of information or resistance to change, continued to hold New Year’s celebrations in April were deemed to be fools (think Flat Earth Society). In 17th century France, it was customary to secretly attach a drawing of a fish to the back of anyone who did not accept the new calendar. The individuals who unwittingly wore their fish on their backs were known as “April Fish,” and the forebearer of the “kick me” sign was born.

There are additional theories about the origins of April Fool’s Day. One is the Roman tradition of “Hilaria” which was celebrated on March 25 and there is also an earlier Greek “Descensus.” These were celebrations tied to harvests, the vernal equinox and other pagan spring rituals, but included a modicum of fun and foolishness. The Christian observance of Easter lent itself to metaphors about the death of winter and the rebirth of spring, but acknowledgment of the deceptive volatility of spring weather, and silliness in general, were less suited to the Easter story. Aside from the unlikely specter of rabbits laying eggs, Easter is serious business and a separate, secular observation was needed to fill the comedic void.

Whatever the origins of the holiday happen to be, the pranks played are limited only by the imagination of the prankster. Common tricks include bogus telephone messages, items left on desks and cars, and tinkering with food items. We never want to hurt anyone or make them ill, but a few strategically placed drops of Tabasco on what is expected to be a sweet treat creates a moment of confusion, surprise and mild discomfort. I’m told that a caramel apple kit and a bag of onions can lead to great fun as well.

A wife of 30 years telling her husband that she is pregnant is usually good for a laugh and is less messy than clear cellophane stretched over a toilet bowl (unscrewing a light bulb helps). A bit of water added to a neighbor’s rain gauge is a perennial Nebraska favorite as is the advertisement of fictitious yard sales (Too many bargains to detail. Arrive early. Be sure to ring the doorbell).

Shoelaces, post-it notes, duct tape and string are all tools in the kit of the aspiring prankster. The simple act of rearranging drawers can cause much confusion and importantly, no irreparable harm. It’s also good to remember that the letters on a desktop keyboard are removable and interchangeable. Simply switching the “M” and “N” keys without any fanfare or acknowledgment is a subtle, nuanced way to drive someone to distraction.

It seems that no one is too big to get in on the fun. On April 1 of 1957, the British Broadcasting television service ran a well-produced story about a bountiful spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. It features young ladies in peasant garb pulling strings of pasta from trees with a voice-over from an authoritative newscaster. The piece runs for about three minutes and is available on Youtube in its original black and white format. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look.

The BBC struck again on April 1 of 1980 when it announced that the clock face on Big Ben would be replaced with a digital timepiece. Imagine the horror. Needless to say, the announcement impacted the news cycle in all media and was met with great consternation before the BBC admitted its cheekiness.

In the United States, there was a trend in the 1990s where corporations were buying up sponsorships and naming rights to coliseums and stadiums. The mood of the consuming public was one of awkwardness. We weren’t entirely sure how far the practice would go and on April Fools Day of 1996, Taco Bell brilliantly tapped into that angst. Taco Bell’s marketing team took out full-page ads in several newspapers announcing that they had purchased the Liberty Bell exhibit in Philadelphia (in an effort to “reduce the country’s debt”), and that our symbol of American liberty would be known henceforth as the “Taco Liberty Bell.” When the claim was disavowed by the United States Park Service, a second news cycle was dominated and finally, when Taco Bell admitted the hoax, it dominated yet a third cycle of news (and we now find ourselves discussing it again here many years later).

The amount of free advertising that Taco Bell received for their little prank did not go unnoticed. On April 1 of 1998, Burger King announced the introduction of the new “Left-Handed Whopper” as a long-overdue service to left-handed people. The ad detailed the engineering of the sandwich saying, “The Left-handed whopper has all condiments rotated 180 degrees, thereby redistributing the weight of the sandwich so that the bulk of the condiments will skew to the left, thereby reducing the amount of lettuce and other toppings from spilling out the right side of the burger.” Enough said.

While nothing pleases me more than to see pranks played year-round, using the excuse of the holiday provides cover from those who would assign lesser motives to an otherwise brilliant gag. Surprisingly, a simple wink and a nod can excuse what might otherwise be dubbed as fraud.

Back in the days when the scientific community still viewed evolution as a linear process, scientists were searching for evidence of an intermediate stage between modern man and the more primitive primate fossils discovered until that time. In 1912, British Amateur Archaeologist Charles Dawson presented what he claimed to be the “missing link” to the Geological Society of London. Piltdown Man, as it was called, was actually a skillful paring of a human skull with the mandible of an ape, but he did not release his finding on April Fools Day. There was no wink. There was no nudge. Instead, his work was characterized as fraud, but not until more than 35 years after his death. I like to think he died with a satisfied grin on his face.

Likewise, comedian Soupy Sales had a nationally syndicated children’s television show and on New Year’s day of 1965, he gave his young viewers step-by-step instructions on how to take a dollar from either dad’s wallet and mom’s purse, then send it to Soupy care of the local television affiliate. Soupy did not operate under the cover of April Fool's day, and since money and unsuspecting children were involved, his actions were viewed as fraud rather than a harmless prank. Soupy was no Bernie Madoff, but his show was suspended for two weeks.

Mass media have always, wittingly or unwittingly played a role in Pranks. Orwell’s radio presentation of “War of the Worlds” certainly caused a stir, but television has more often played to our sense of schadenfreude, or delight in seeing others fall prey to pranks.

Folks my age may remember a television show called “Candid Camera” that aired in the early to mid-sixties, and in reruns well into the 1970s. Every week, unsuspecting participants were lured into one compromising situation or another while under the eye of a hidden camera. It was a creative use of technology at a time when cameras were very bulky and anything but wireless. The camera not only caught the initial situation but also captured the reaction of the “mark” when the prank was revealed. It was two laughs for the price of one gag.

I was always curious about what the legal side of Candid Camera looked like. There must have been unwilling participants who, for one reason or another, didn’t care to be a part of the show. I’m sure that not all releases were signed, and that somewhere in a vault, there is a great reel of outtakes that we will never see. More recently, the concept was resurrected in a version featuring celebrities who probably sign on in advance for a prank as publicity, but don’t know when or where to expect it. Or maybe they do. We don’t know, but the series titled “Punked” found success in an old formula and ran for several seasons.

My favorite hoax is not centered around the holiday and has been baffling people since the 1970s. Like the Nazca Lines (another great prank?), it can only be appreciated from an aircraft. Retired photographer and hoaxter-savant Mark Gubin, who lives under a busy flight path, painted “Welcome to Cleveland” in six-foot letters on the roof of his apartment building. What makes it fun is that his building lies on the flight path to the Milwaukee airport, and his greeting has been known to elevate the heart rate of many concerned travelers. That guy is my hero.

As always, a disclaimer is in order. I sincerely hope that you celebrate April Fool’s day in all its glory, but please be careful not to hurt anyone, destroy property or create more of a mess than you would care to clean up yourself. This year, in particular, a note should also go out to the recipients of fun-spirited, lighthearted pranks: Don’t be a Will Smith. It’s all in good fun.