Traditionally, April Fools’ Day is celebrated on the first day of April by many countries. But according to Encyclopedia Britannica and history.com, no one really knows its origins. There are ideas, of course, but nothing conclusive.
When I was a kid, I loved pranks. My siblings and I could be merciless as we navigated and learned (sometimes the hard way) what makes a good practical joke. Some have become part of our family lore, and not just confined to April 1st. There’s one sister who is infamous for her jump-scares, catching unsuspecting victims off guard from behind a door. A prank of my own invention was to put liquid soap in my siblings’ toothbrush bristles, which would then activate when they brushed their teeth, making them wash their own mouth out with soap. (A belated sorry to my sudsy siblings!)
Then I became a journalist. I take my job seriously, but it’s fun to, well, have a little fun now and then.
Of course, the prank has to be funny to the person it’s pulled on, not just the prankster. A newspaper’s demographic can include a wide variety of readers, and people seldom completely agree on anything, be it fact or fiction.
In my time at newspapers, the tradition has largely been passed over. In November 2017, “fake news” was declared the Word of the Year by Collins Dictionary, as its usage rose since 2016 and, with it, public distrust of news media. That relationship between source and audience takes time to develop.
Surely, after the hard times we’ve all faced in one way or another these past few years, it’s high time for some lighthearted fun.
The media has played its share of April Fools’ Day tricks, from the BBC’s 1957 “spaghetti crop,” and a 1981 report in the Guardian that the Ministry of Defense developed a way to control the weather, to Bowen Island’s fable that Salt Spring Island stole their iconic mastodon in more recent history. Be sure to keep an eye out, as our local governments are no stranger to pulling jokes either.
As we prepared this week’s newspaper, which arrived in readers’ hands on April 1st, I giddily waited for the punchline to hit as in its pages is my first prank in print. Online, we had a couple more pranks to pull (bears and potholes being the victims of our joking journalists). The Sunshine Coast BC Canada Facebook page also pulled its own Skookumchuck stunt.
So here’s a word to the wise – and the fools – it never hurts to be critical of new information, no matter the source, and especially on April 1st.
