FOOLHARDY

I'm sure readers of this blog are far too worldly wise to be caught by any April Fool's Day pranks, but just in case, here's a few facts (or fancies) about the origins of this strange festivity...

The custom of setting aside a day for the playing of harmless pranks upon one's neighbor is universally recognised. Precursors of April Fools' Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria (celebrated on the venal equinox to honor Cybele), the Holi festival of India (also known as the Festival of Colours) and the Medieval Feast of Fools. 

 

In 1561, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote a comical poem about a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on 1 April supposedly to help prepare for a wedding feast. In the closing line of each stanza, the servant says (translated) "I am afraid... that you are trying to make me run a fool's errand."

The first British reference appears in 1686 in the writings of diarist, John Aubrey whose Remains of Gentilism and Judaism mentions, "Fooles holy day. We observe it on ye first of April. And so it is kept in Germany everywhere."

The April 2, 1698 edition of the British newspaper Dawks's News-Letter reported that "Yesterday being the first of April, several persons were sent to the Tower Ditch to see the Lions washed."

Sending gullible victims to the menagerie at Tower of London to see the non-existent ceremony of "washing of the lions" was a popular April 1st prank and examples of it being played went on into the 19th Century as can be seen from this 'ticket' for just such an event advertised as taking place in 1857...

A number of vintage cartoons show the popularity of April Fools Day pranks – often at the expense of the elderly or those susceptible to being sent up...

 

In Italy, France, Belgium, and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada, 1 April tradition is often known as "April fish" (poissons d'avril in French or pesce d'aprile in Italian). This involves attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. Such fish feature prominently on many late 19th and early 20th-century French April Fools' Day postcards...

And if you do happen to do anything foolish today or succumb to someone else's prank, always remember...

 

This blog post was first published on this date in 2015.

THESE FOOLISH THINGS

I'm sure readers of this blog are far too worldly wise to be caught by any April Fool's Day pranks, but just in case, here's a few facts (or fancies) about the origins of this strange festivity...

The custom of setting aside a day for the playing of harmless pranks upon one's neighbor is universally recognised. Precursors of April Fools' Day include the Roman festival of Hilaria (celebrated on the venal equinox to honor Cybele), the Holi festival of India (also known as the Festival of Colours) and the Medieval Feast of Fools. 

 

In 1561, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote a comical poem about a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on 1 April supposedly to help prepare for a wedding feast. In the closing line of each stanza, the servant says (translated) "I am afraid... that you are trying to make me run a fool's errand."

The first British reference appears in 1686 in the writings of diarist, John Aubrey whose Remains of Gentilism and Judaism mentions, "Fooles holy day. We observe it on ye first of April. And so it is kept in Germany everywhere."

The April 2, 1698 edition of the British newspaper Dawks's News-Letter reported that "Yesterday being the first of April, several persons were sent to the Tower Ditch to see the Lions washed."

Sending gullible victims to the menagerie at Tower of London to see the non-existent ceremony of "washing of the lions" was a popular April 1st prank and examples of it being played went on into the 19th Century as can be seen from this 'ticket' for just such an event advertised as taking place in 1857...

A number of vintage cartoons show the popularity of April Fools Day pranks – often at the expense of the elderly or those susceptible to being sent up...

 

In Italy, France, Belgium, and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada, 1 April tradition is often known as "April fish" (poissons d'avril in French or pesce d'aprile in Italian). This involves attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. Such fish feature prominently on many late 19th and early 20th-century French April Fools' Day postcards...

And if you do happen to do anything foolish today or succumb to someone else's prank, always remember...

MARCH 32nd...?

ON THE CARDS

There's more Euro-silliness in the offing today with revelations that forthcoming European Union legislation will require a bizarre change to an item of everyday life that has gone unchanged for several centuries - the common or garden pack of playing cards.

According to breaking news, the proposals announced by the European Union, which will come into place in April 2012 include the dropping of the 12 Royal cards (Kings, Queens and Jacks) from all packs of cards manufactured within the EU in order to reflect the fact that there are more republics than monarchies among members states.

The familiar suits of Clubs Diamonds, Hearts and Spades would be joined by a new suit, Stars (see specimen pack above) making up the new 'metric' pack of 50, as opposed to the traditional 52, cards.

I understand that The Magic Circle is, apparently, planning to mount a legal challenge to these proposals. A spokesperson said: "We are very concerned by these news rules... The standard pack of 52 cards embodies a long legacy of cultural and magical history. Frankly, many of our members are hoping to make these new rules disappear."

For more on this story and the response of the world's premiere magic club, visit the website of The Magic Circle.

DID YOU FOOL FOR IT?

Trust you didn't get taken in by the extraordinary story in today's Guardian - by that well known correspondent, Olaf Priol - about the new poster strategy to be adopted by labour in the forthcoming General Election...

You can read the full account of this revisionist style of campaigning here in Labour's election strategy: bring on no-nonsense hard man Gordon Brown and these are a few of the other proposed poster designs...

If only the next few weeks leading up to May 6th were likely to be as much fun!!

Images uploaded via my flickr Photostream.

FOOLING OVER

Yes, it's gone midday, and (to quote Master Nigel Molesworth) "as any fule kno" April Fool's Day fooling is now officially OVER!

And - in case you wondered from my earlier post - here's how things ended up at St Trinian's later that day...

Midday: "She who laughs last, Dobson,
would appear to laugh louder than anyone else!"

Cartoon © by Ronald Searle, 1948, from The Female Approach, with masculine sidelights uploaded via my flickr Photostream.

SKULE FOR FULES

Being still very much in Ronald-Searle-appreciation-mode on account of the fact that I'm currently preparing my talk for The Cartoon Museum on Searle as an illustrator (Wednesday 28 April at 6:30, see side-bar, right for details, come if you can), I decided to turn to Mr S for an appropriate posting for today which is, of course---

April 1st

ALL FOOLS DAY!

Here's how they marked this day in that noble establishment for the education of the fairer sex, St Trinian's...

"Bless my soul! Prunella!"



"I'll give her practical science."



"Yah! April Fo-ol!"

"Come in, Miss Tonks, I'm reading."

Cartoons © by Ronald Searle, 1948, from The Female Approach, with masculine sidelights uploaded via my flickr Photostream.

WHO NOSE? THE TRUTH...

Now we are safely past the mid-day meridian in the UK (and almost mid-morning on the US West Coast) may I just point out that when I asked, in my earlier - Pinocchio nose - posting, "What I want to know today is whether it's really appropriate for Disney to be involved in marketing Viagra?" the emphasis was on TODAY...

April 1st
ALL FOOL'S DAY!

Congratulations to Jen who (as her comment revealed) spotted what was going on, though I suspect one or two others may have had a sneaking suspicion. As for the advertisement: it is, in fact, a genuine item of spam (if there can be such a thing) and is currently in circulation - though evidently not amongst the kind of people who read this blog!

Here's a couple of great April Fool's Day hoaxes...

Read the shock announcement in The Guardian that the paper is about to switch from ink and paper to Twitter. Brilliant!

The introduction of revolutionary new software from Opera...

And an unbelievable new piece of technology from Palm - the PomeGranate phone...

NO FOOLING

Pointless trying to pull the wool over your eyes! Yes, yesterday was April 1st and - as you obviously all guessed - my story about seeing that 'falling boy' was nothing more than an All Fools Day hoax...

The photograph was, in fact, an odd angled snap of part of the sculpture known as 'Boy with a Dolphin' by the artist David Wynne, which - as Gill said - can be seen, just north of Albert Bridge, on Chelsea Embankment.

Here's what it looks like from a couple of different viewpoints...



Hopefully, you weren't taken in by any April Foolery yesterday, but if you were, then take comfort from - and enjoy some of - the wittiest and cheekiest pranks to be perpetrated on the 1st of April as selected by one of my favourite web-sites...

Here you will find no fewer than 100 All Fool's Day pranks and hoaxes, including such gems as whistling carrots that let you know when they are cooked, the Sydney Harbour Iceberg, Instant Colour Television, the Islands of San Serriffe, and plans for the M25 to become a one-way street, Big Ben to have a digital read-out and the relocation of the Eiffel Tower in what was then called EuroDisneyland.

But the Number 1, top-ranking April Fool Hoax was, apparently, BBC TV's celebrated Panorama programme report on The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest of 1957...



Read the full story of this brilliant, legendary spoof in this Museum of Hoaxes' article.

And view the other 99 fooleries on the Museum's collection of The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time.

There's more here about The Museum and its curator Alex Boese.

And here are some of Alex's best-selling books on Hoaxes, Scams and Cons...

Mark Twain on All Fool's Day...

"This is the day upon which we are reminded of what
we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four."

- Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar