April Fool's Day Archive, Contents:

Saudi Arabia's chief cleric, the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh, issued a fatwa decreeing that April Fool's Day was a form of organized lying practiced by unbelievers, and that Muslims therefore should not participate in the tradition. He made his comments in response to a query from the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh. Al-Sheik acknowledged that many younger Muslims were beginning to adopt the custom, but said, "It is prohibited because lying is prohibited at all times and under all conditions." He noted only three exceptions to this rule: when lying brings reconciliation between people, when it occurs during times of war, or when a husband or wife must protect the honor of the spouse.

Fred Orsinger, chairman of the Association for the Prevention of April Fool Jokes (A.F.P.O.A.F.J.), issued some guidelines to help people avoid becoming the victims of April Fool jokes. "There's no fool like an April fool. Beware," he said. "The telephone joker is the most common. I figure out he'll consume more than 8,000,000 man hours of work throughout the Nation today. There is one standard gag, though, that the association believes in looking into—the pocket book lying on the sidewalk. It's worth the look, and even if there is no money inside, you may get a good pocket book." Orsinger's regular job was Director of the National Aquarium in Washington DC. [Oakland Tribune, Apr 1, 1940.]

The Yuma Sun noted that only a single New York newspaper perpetrated an April fool joke — "an Italian-language journal announcing the arrival of d'Annunzio in this country incognito." From this, it concluded that April foolishness was on the decline in America:

"Americans have an old reputation as practical jokers, but they appear to have outgrown this particular form of hoax. Have they put it aside with other childish things of an undeveloped civilization?...
At any rate, for Americans at least, April-fool jokes seem to have passed out of popular favor. They have gone the way of other frivolities of the P.T. Barnum state of Yankee civilization." [The Yuma Sun — Apr 14, 1923]

(April Fool's Day and Easter fell on the same day in 1923, which may offer another explanation of the lack of April fools in New York papers that year.)

The Horrid April Fool
And now the cheerful idiot marches promptly to the front,
To blight his race and curse the age, as ever is his wont,
In harmless little "practicals," which mark the dismal way,
And though he spoil one's life he claims "'twas only done in play."

The first, though not the greatest fool, is he who seeks to air
And advertise his lunacy by jerking back one's chair,
Just as one's "brakes" are taken off, from ankle up to neck,
When, in the place of sitting down, one strikes the floor — a wreck.

In order next is he who lays the redhot horseshoe down
Along the way where busy men are hurrying thro' the town:
Whence, hid behind the shutters closed, with ghoulish glee he stands,
To hear the oath and smell the smoke from blistered, burning hands.

His brother in the flesh is he who low across the walk
A wire stretches where one passes as 'tis growing dark,
To mash one's nose, to skin one's knees, to break one's head or neck,
To please the dev'lish fancy of a blasted lunatic.

A screaming joke the idiot sees in lying to a friend
About a man (who don't exist) to whom he quick must send
A load of hay, or ton of coal, ne'er counting up the cost
Of this, his little "April fook," of time and labor lost.

The "Cheerful" is resourceful and can find a hundred ways
To bring despair to all around, throughout his wretched days,
Through working cheerfully such tricks, while mocking at their fears
Nor does he e'er grow old or die, nor does the smile he wears.
— J.M. Waddill [El Paso Daily Herald, Apr 4, 1900]

"This is 'all fools' day,' and judging by the number of people who are passing along the sidewalk with strings and rags dangling from their coat tails, the custom of making people appear ridiculous is not obsolete. What delight the youngsters take in covering a few bricks with an old hat, and leaving it temptingly upon the sidewalk, while they withdraw into some nook to watch the bait and halloo at the person who is thoughtless enough to kick it.

Though the custom has age to sanction it, I am decidedly opposed to making people — either on the first of April or upon any other day — appear ridiculous in their own eyes as well as in the eyes of every person with whom they come in contact. People will make fools of themselves often enough, without the assistance of others. I wonder why men are not more upon their guard upon this day."
[Palmer Cox, Frontier Humor — 1895]