The origin of April Fools’ Day remains up to debate. Did it originate in England in 1700? Is it as ancient as the Roman Empire? Maybe it’s a French thing. But one thing is for certain: Humanity has had hundreds of years to practice, and perfect, the art of pranking. So why did April 1 feel like such an ordinary day?
At least at The Leader office, the only hint at any form of practical joking was a failed attempt to fill the Editor in Chief’s cubicle with balloons. As fate would have it, water balloons were accidentally purchased — which happen to be impossible to blow up the old fashioned way.
“In modern times,” stated an article on History.com, “people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April Fool’s Day hoaxes. Newspapers, radio and TV stations and [websites] have participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims that have fooled their audiences.
“In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees; numerous viewers were fooled.
“In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour.
“In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell.
“In 1998, after Burger King advertised a ‘Left-Handed Whopper,’ scores of clueless customers requested the fake sandwich,” the website listed.
Since The Leader is distributed on Wednesdays and April Fools’ Day was a Friday, we didn’t participate in any hoaxing. The rest of campus seemed to follow suit. There was no huge Academic Affairs email prank, there was no fake decree from President Virginia Horvath. There were absolutely no FREDFest resurrection jokes from Student Affairs (O.K., that one we understand).
Some people have offered up that there were an absence of pranks because college kids are so stressed out at this time of year. Others offer there just isn’t enough time to plastic wrap any toilet or furniture. But, there is one place that people completely celebrated the day on: social media.
From fake birth announcements to “Snoopavision,” social media gives pranksters the opportunity to prank the masses at once — not just one unlucky friend or family member. Even if the days of sticking sticky notes to every inch of someone’s bedroom are gone, rest assured April Fools’ Day isn’t dying at all.
“If there is one time when big companies can get away with playing a trick on their customers it is probably April Fool’s Day, and thanks to social media it has never been easier,” reported BBC. “In the social media world anything goes, so much of what we see online can be and often is believed.”