Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?\u201d This was the question asked of the wonderfully-entitled publication \u2018British Apollo or Curious Amusements for the Ingenious\u2019 in 1708.<\/p>\n
In British folklore, April Fool\u2019s Day is associated with Gotham in Nottinghamshire and an event from the 13th century. According to legend, King John decided to \u2018acquire\u2019 some of the land of Gotham for a hunting lodge. Naturally this was not popular with the townsfolk and so they decided on a cunning plan to dissuade the king. They decided to \u2018play the fool\u2019 so when the king\u2019s men arrived in the town, they found the townspeople doing all sorts of crazy things such as trying to drown fish. This was enough for the king\u2019s men to counsel the king to choose somewhere else for his lodge, as Gotham was obviously full of madmen. Ever since then, according to legend, April Fool\u2019s Day has commemorated their trickery.<\/p>\n
The idea of April Fools\u2019 Day spread rapidly throughout Britain during the 18th century. It was particularly popular in Scotland where it became a two-day event, starting with \u2018hunting the gowk\u2019, gowk meaning \u2018cuckoo\u2019 or \u2018fool\u2019. It entailed sending folk on phony errands, often carrying messages reading, \u201cDinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile.\u201d The recipient would send the messenger on to another person with the same message, and so on. This was followed by Tailie Day, which rather bizarrely involved playing pranks on people\u2019s bottoms, such as attaching pretend tails or \u2018kick me\u2019 notes to them.<\/p>\n
Nowadays when someone has an April Fool trick played on them, the prankster will generally shout \u201cApril Fool!\u201d. Pranks can be quite simple, such as sending people on wild goose chases or quite complicated, as some of the following examples illustrate.<\/p>\n
Some people may remember a famous April Fool prank from 1957, when the BBC program \u2018Horizon\u2019 apparently showed Swiss farmers picking spaghetti from spaghetti trees. The BBC received so many enquiries from viewers asking where they could buy a spaghetti plant that they had to own up to the hoax the following day!<\/p>\n
The BBC do enjoy a good prank and in 1965 they were at it again, with another famous hoax: smell-o-vision. A trial was announced whereby smells were to be broadcast along with the regular TV shows. Apparently many viewers declared the trial a great success!<\/p>\n
Then in 2008 the pranksters at the BBC reported that during filming for their natural history series \u2018Miracles of Evolution\u2019 they had captured footage of flying penguins. Presenter Terry Jones of Monty Python fame was shown walking with the penguins in Antarctica, and then following their flight to the Amazon rainforest where the penguins would \u201cspend the winter basking in the tropical sun.\u201d The video went viral on the internet.<\/p>\n
The Guardian newspaper got in on the act on 1st April 1977 with a seven-page supplement on the entirely fictitious island nation of San Serriffe.<\/p>\n
And in this new digital world, let\u2019s not forget the internet giant Google with its annual April Fool\u2019s Day jokes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?\u201d This was the question asked of the wonderfully-entitled publication \u2018British Apollo or Curious Amusements for the Ingenious\u2019 in 1708. In British folklore, April Fool\u2019s Day is associated with Gotham in Nottinghamshire and … Continue reading