•9:23 AM
I tried really hard. It's true. Actually, it's kinda embarrassing.
Today is April Fool's Day, and I wanted to come up with some kind of clever prank to pull on you.
But my brain does not work in that way.
I can give you my opinion on someone else's prank, or I can describe someone else's funny idea; but I cannot generate my own funny and clever prank. I am not devious enough or clever enough, I guess.
I think that part of the problem is that I don't really find April Fool's jokes all that funny. Most of them are stupid. Or, they make you feel stupid. Either way ... not enjoyable for me. I am a girl afterall, and my feelings ride close to the surface.
I have saved you the trouble of trying to figure out the origins of April Fools Day, or All Fools Day as it is known in some areas of the world. Nobody seems to know when the tradition started, but it seems that April 1st has been a day of pranks and jokes for a very, very long time. There are some who have found references to the celebration that go back to the 1300s.
So, since I could not come up with a prank of my own, I thought it might be fun to tell you about some of the pranks other people have come up with ...
In 1957, a respected BBC news program reported that due to an unusually mild winter and the unexplained disapperance of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were experiencing a bountiful spaghetti crop. Footage of women pulling spaghetti off trees was shown during the broadcast. Click here to watch the actual report. Watch it, if for no other reason than to chuckle at the women picking spaghetti in mid-calf-length skirts (for some reason, I so love them!) and high heels.
In 1998, on April 1st, Burger King announced the introduction of its newest sandwich ... the Left-Handed Whopper, specially designed for all their left-handed customers. According to the advertisement, the new Whopper would include the same ingredients as the original Whopper but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. According to Burger King, customers requested the new sandwich all day, and similarily, some were ordering the right-handed original. Honestly? There are people that (and I hesitate to use the word, but I think it might called for in this case) stupid?
In 1976, a famed British astonomer announced on BBC radio that there would be a once-in-a-lifetime alignment of the planets occurring at exactly 9:47am. If you jumped in the air, at that exact time, he explained (in a very official-sounding voice), you would experience a strange sensation of floating. People called into the radio station to report having felt the sensation; one woman proclaimed that she and her friends actually floated around the room. I wonder if these are the same people who ordered the left-handed Whopper twenty-two years later?
Someone took the time to record the top 100 April Fool's Day jokes; click here if you want to read them all. There are Loch Ness pranks, political hoaxes, someone changed the value of Pi, someone claimed to have found a real fairy, and a warning to unplug all computer-related equipment on April 1st because the Internet was undergoing some Spring Cleaning. People, it seems, will fall for anything. And beware the British because it appears they get the biggest kick out of April Fool's Day jokes.
So, move through out your day with some caution. Especially if you live with a prankster ... check the salt shaker and be wary of anyone with extraordinary news ...
Yad sloof lirpa yppah!
But my brain does not work in that way.
I can give you my opinion on someone else's prank, or I can describe someone else's funny idea; but I cannot generate my own funny and clever prank. I am not devious enough or clever enough, I guess.
I think that part of the problem is that I don't really find April Fool's jokes all that funny. Most of them are stupid. Or, they make you feel stupid. Either way ... not enjoyable for me. I am a girl afterall, and my feelings ride close to the surface.
I have saved you the trouble of trying to figure out the origins of April Fools Day, or All Fools Day as it is known in some areas of the world. Nobody seems to know when the tradition started, but it seems that April 1st has been a day of pranks and jokes for a very, very long time. There are some who have found references to the celebration that go back to the 1300s.
So, since I could not come up with a prank of my own, I thought it might be fun to tell you about some of the pranks other people have come up with ...
In 1957, a respected BBC news program reported that due to an unusually mild winter and the unexplained disapperance of the spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were experiencing a bountiful spaghetti crop. Footage of women pulling spaghetti off trees was shown during the broadcast. Click here to watch the actual report. Watch it, if for no other reason than to chuckle at the women picking spaghetti in mid-calf-length skirts (for some reason, I so love them!) and high heels.
In 1998, on April 1st, Burger King announced the introduction of its newest sandwich ... the Left-Handed Whopper, specially designed for all their left-handed customers. According to the advertisement, the new Whopper would include the same ingredients as the original Whopper but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. According to Burger King, customers requested the new sandwich all day, and similarily, some were ordering the right-handed original. Honestly? There are people that (and I hesitate to use the word, but I think it might called for in this case) stupid?
In 1976, a famed British astonomer announced on BBC radio that there would be a once-in-a-lifetime alignment of the planets occurring at exactly 9:47am. If you jumped in the air, at that exact time, he explained (in a very official-sounding voice), you would experience a strange sensation of floating. People called into the radio station to report having felt the sensation; one woman proclaimed that she and her friends actually floated around the room. I wonder if these are the same people who ordered the left-handed Whopper twenty-two years later?
Someone took the time to record the top 100 April Fool's Day jokes; click here if you want to read them all. There are Loch Ness pranks, political hoaxes, someone changed the value of Pi, someone claimed to have found a real fairy, and a warning to unplug all computer-related equipment on April 1st because the Internet was undergoing some Spring Cleaning. People, it seems, will fall for anything. And beware the British because it appears they get the biggest kick out of April Fool's Day jokes.
So, move through out your day with some caution. Especially if you live with a prankster ... check the salt shaker and be wary of anyone with extraordinary news ...
Yad sloof lirpa yppah!
1 comments:
Did you see the one MSN reported this morning? It said that Canada had purchased half of the Hawaiian Islands to help resurrect their poor economy! The poor economy part should have been the first clue!!! Anyway, Happy April Fools Day to my dear family!