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April Fool's Day Content
April Fool's Day Content
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April Fool: Recurring Pranks
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April Fool's Day Archive, Contents:
| Before 1900: | Origin of April Fool's Day | 1700-1799 | 1800-1899 |
| Early 1900s: | 1900 | 1901 | 1915 | 1919 | 1920 | 1923 | 1925 |
| 1930s & 40s: | 1933 | 1934 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1940 | 1949 |
| 1950s & 60s: | 1950 | 1957 | 1959 | 1960 | 1962 | 1965 | 1969 |
| 1970s: | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 |
| 1980s: | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| 1990s: | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 |
| 2000s: | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| 2010s: | 2010 | 2011 |
category
Street Pranks
Street Pranks
Pranksters’ Delight (1957)
| Categories: 1957, Street Pranks. |
Penny Prank (1954)
A boy comes to the aid of a girl, who was trying to pick up a coin that couldn't be picked up. A curious crowd looks on.
| Categories: 1954, Street Pranks. |
April Fool Experiment (1940)
Radio comedian Don McNeill staged experiments in the lobby of Chicago's Merchandise Mart to test whether people would still fall for some of the oldest April fool gags. He discovered that 20 of the first 25 people who saw a bill fold lying on the floor stooped to pick it up, only to have it yanked away. In addition, McNeill set up an aquarium with a sign "Invisible Peruvian fish." He asked spectators to estimate the length of the fish. Fifty-six of the spectators turned in written estimates. (For more about the "invisible fish" prank, see Brazilian Invisible Fish.) [The Galveston Daily News, Apr 2, 1940.]
| Categories: Radio, United States, 1940, Street Pranks. |
Naked in L.A. (1940)
Fifty-three-year-old Ed Draper walked completely naked out of a downtown hotel in Los Angeles and strolled for four blocks before he was picked up by cops in their radio patrol car. He was taken to the General Hospital psychopathic ward for observation. [Oakland Tribune, Apr 2, 1940.]
| Categories: Freelance Pranksters, United States, 1940, Street Pranks. |
Tire in the Street Gag (1940)
Ivan Pavic, a student a Frank Wiggins Trade School, lay a tire in the middle of the intersection of 17th and Hill Sts. in Los Angeles. He had anchored the tire to a manhole cover. The Los Angeles Times reported that, "It drew its usual number of motorists who stopped to try to pick up the tire." [Los Angeles Times, Apr 2, 1940.]
| Categories: Traffic and Transportation, Freelance Pranksters, United States, 1940, Street Pranks. |
Old Lady Takes Revenge (1923)
| Categories: 1923, Street Pranks. |
Fire alarm pulled (1923)
But soon after the fire engine returned to the station, the telephone rang. The caller said, "April fool," and then hung up. [Portsmouth Herald — Apr 2, 1923]
| Categories: Poorly Received, 1923, Street Pranks, Wild Goose Chase. |
| Categories: Cartoons, Cars, United States, 1920, Street Pranks. |
The Venetian Horse Mystery (1919)
The citizens of Venice woke on the morning of April Fool's Day to find piles of horse manure deposited throughout the Piazza San Marco, as if a procession of horses had gone through there. This was extremely unusual, since the Piazza is surrounded by canals and not easily accessible to horses. The manure turned out to be the work of the infamous British prankster Horace de Vere Cole, who was honeymooning in Venice. He had transported a load of manure over from the mainland the night before with the help of a gondolier and had then placed it throughout the Piazza. Perhaps he should have been paying more attention to his wife while on honeymoon because, evidently tired by his constant hijinks, she divorced him within a few years.
| Categories: Animals, Freelance Pranksters, Italy, 1919, Street Pranks. |
Joke Turned on Youngster (1919)
The Indianapolis News reported on the victim of a street prank who exacted revenge. A "little Italian boy" working at a fruit stand in the market house had tied a purse bulging with paper to one end of a string and fastened the other end behind his counter. He then threw the pocketbook into the aisle:In a few minutes along came a busy woman, and seeing the tempting purse pounced on it. As it jerked from her hand, a whoop went up from the little Italian. So it was a prank, was it? She would teach him how to get cute with an old lady! Then fruit began to fly. Orange after orange hurled at the dodging boy who was being constantly advised to duck and jump by a horde of delighted youngsters. The ammunition was more than oranges, for some bananas and grapefruit were spinning toward their owner. Not until all the fruit on top of the stand had been exhausted did the angry marketer stop her barrage and start on.
| Categories: Freelance Pranksters, United States, 1919, Street Pranks. |
Do Not Kick! (1915)
A prankster placed a hat on Philadelphia's Girard Avenue. On the front of the hat he pinned a note that read, "Do not kick. Brick inside." Raymond Perrott, a University of Pennsylvania student, saw the hat while walking along with a friend. Reportedly, he said to his companion, "Huh, that's a joke within a joke; watch me wallop that hat." He gave the hat a strong kick, then fell to the ground, crying out in pain. The hat flew away, revealing a brick. Perrott was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital with a broken right toe. [Trenton Evening Times, Apr 2, 1915.]
| Categories: Freelance Pranksters, United States, 1915, Street Pranks. |
A San Francisco woman was charged with "masquerading in male attire" and giving a false name because she had walked around the city dressed in a man's suit of tweeds, introducing herself as "Tony Maloney." She told the judge that her real name was Mrs. Babe Webster, and that she had dressed up as a man as an April fool joke. The judge released her on the condition that she return to the courthouse the next day dressed in feminine attire. [Oakland Tribune, Apr 2, 1915.]
| Categories: Crime, Freelance Pranksters, United States, 1915, Street Pranks. |
1. Mr. Smarty of Hayseed Cents thinks up a great April Fool joke.
2. Which is the rather ancient one of nailing ten-cent pieces to the board walk.
3. A pair of wayfarers play the game.
4. But soon find a way to get ahead of it.
5. How Mr. Smarty enjoyed the joke.
6. And how the others liked it.
[The Sunday World — Apr 4, 1897]
2. Which is the rather ancient one of nailing ten-cent pieces to the board walk.
3. A pair of wayfarers play the game.
4. But soon find a way to get ahead of it.
5. How Mr. Smarty enjoyed the joke.
6. And how the others liked it.
[The Sunday World — Apr 4, 1897]
| Categories: Cartoons, 1800-1899, Street Pranks. |
"It is strange that there has been little or no improvement in the jokes of April first. Reliable authorities assert that the old gentlemen of colonial days were made victims of hat hidden bricks just as old gentlemen are today and that the small boy has been invariably the culprit in all the ages." [Lemars Globe — Apr 1, 1896]
| Categories: 1800-1899, Street Pranks. |