April 3, 2025 • 42 mins
Have you ever fallen for an April Fools' Day gag? Across the world, millions of people pull (hopefully wholesome) pranks on each other every April 1st in a celebration of practical jokes and trickery. But where did this holiday actually come from? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and Max dive into this surprisingly murky history of April Fools' Day.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. We're running a little late on
this one. Edit's my fault, you know. Shout out to
our super producer, mister Max Williams the top.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
When have we ever hit a tent pole topic on time?
This is in classic Ridiculous History fashion that we're two
days late for said holiday.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I am proud of myself, so I'm going to toot
my own horn and talk about myself right now. Yet,
on February twenty ninth last year, we had an episode
about the leap year we did? Did I write a
Thanksgiving grab bag esque episode? But I think that's about it.
I think one time we might have gotten lucky. But
look we did our was it Labor Day? Like either
(01:17):
two months before or two months after Labor Day? And
I'm like, this is marvelous.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I love us. I don't know why we're letting on that.
It's not on purpose.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's very oh, folks. That is Noel Brown recently returned
from Philadelphia. So Noel aka Young Cheese Steak Brown.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, okak you sure you Young cheese steak is accurate.
I had a couple of those from what is Angelo's
and ish Caabibbeles, which are too you know, I think
Angelo's is kind of hot right now. But a lot
of people know about Ishkabibbles. And that's the funnest named
place to get a sandwich in the history of sandwiches,
if you ask me.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And we're accountabill of buddies, so I was. It is
a true story, Noel, I they called me, Ben what
I was bugging you the whole time you were in
Philly and I just kept texting you on multiple threads
to ask for cheese steak pictures.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's the only reason I had the second steak, Ben,
It's the only reason I went to Isshuabibbles.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
It was just for you.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I only had about three bites and then I had
to throw away the rest because man, those things are
not meant to be consumed in their entirety by one
human person. That's a heart attack waiting to happen.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I don't know if Philly does it, man, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I guess he's got to walk a lot, which I
did do. I had a great time. Thanks for mentioning it,
but yeah, no, cheese steaks are delightful, as are nonsensical
holidays that are designed to potentially hurt people's feelings or delights.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Results vary, so we're running late on our April Fool's
Day episode. That's what this is, and you and I
have talked about it in the past on and off air.
I feel like it can be a mean and spirited holiday.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It certainly can be.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have been the victim, not that big a deal,
but of some not so nice April Fools pranks. But
I guess it's all in how you play it. If
you play it a little too straight about something a
little too serious, you know, things could go wrong. But
if it's something sort of like lighthearted and a little
(03:30):
bit absurdist, I'm all about that, right.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Like, if, for instance, I gave I gave my dad
a mug that said World's Best Grandfather and then said
April Fools, that would be really extreme.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, but even that's on the lighter end of extreme.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
If you ask me, I was punked quite successfully by
my kid is sixteen. I was playing a piece of
music that I've been working on when I was in Philadelphia,
and to me and goes you know what, Dad, I
gotta tell you, this isn't very good.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
What I don't like it. It sounds like but I
believe is the term that they use. And then I
really my heart sunk. My heart sunk.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And then I very quickly saw the forlornness in my
eyes and very quickly responded with a quick April fool.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Which I was wow, So that kids are mean, dude,
kids are being dude. That's an in depth example of
April fools, or those are two light examples from us.
I think the worst one I got was ooh, it's
not even fit for the air. It was pretty extreme,
(04:47):
it was pretty mean. But if you want to learn
more about famous examples of April Fool's day, you can
check out our earlier episode on the epic spaghetti.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Trees prank, which I think is a perfect example of
a lighthearted, absurdist one. Because the BBC created this thing
to appear like a legitimate documentary about an absolutely Bezonker's topic,
and like they had like these old Italian nonas, like
harvesting spaghetti from the trees in the Italian countryside, and like,
(05:24):
let's say you do believe it, what's the worst outcome
there that you feel like a little bit of a
dumb dumb you know. Okay, not the end of the world,
but just different. No, it's certainly not. Another example that
really did ruffle some feathers and potentially cost some harm,
but would not have been considered an April fool's joke
is orson Wells War of the World's broadcast, where a
(05:46):
lot of people took that very very seriously.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And thought the aliens were coming, and they.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Fled for shelter, called the police, you know, a repeatedly,
you know, clogged up the lines and all of that
good stuff, only for it to turn out to a
bit of very well produced radio play.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Right and worth a listen. Still, both examples that you
just named there, Noel. As April first approached, we asked ourselves,
what is this holiday? Exactly? Where does it come from?
How did it spread across the globe? And I think
we were all startled to learn the answer is kind
(06:23):
of ridiculous. So before we get into this fool's errand.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yes, yes, which is the term.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
That I've used plenty in my life, and I never
really thought about the origins of it, but it certainly
does date back to the early days of being an
April fool.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So okay, okay, Noel, can you kick it for all
of us historians in the crowd ridiculous variety. If you
had to explain to an alien what April Fool's Day is,
how would you explain it?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
It is a day where it is acceptable to lie
to the people that you love for comedic effect. Holy smokes,
that is good, kind of dark though it starts, it's starting.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
No, we're keeping it. We're keeping it man, because that
is poetry. It's a celebration of pranks and practical jokes.
In most countries today, it happens on the first day
of the month we call April. You run into any
number of jokes or in person practical like pranks, and
(07:35):
usually when someone is lying to someone that they love,
as you said at the end of the bit, the
prankster will yell April Fools at their big reveal. And
what I think we both found astonishing about this is
that multiple countries have their own variation. You could be
(08:00):
in April Fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go to it. Ah, yes, yeah,
put the definitive on that. Yeah. The the idea I
love that you're bringing up the French. The idea here
is that what I've just we love the French, They're great,
(08:27):
I do, I do so. Uh, perhaps this is a
reference to a young fish that is easily caught. We're
pulling some of this straight up from our friends at Britannica. Uh,
we did not know, or I did not know that
it is common for French kids to pin paper fish
(08:52):
on the backs of folks they're pranking, kind of like
how we would put a kick me sign, just.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Like a kick me sign exactly, or you know, a
pin the tail in the donkey situation, to quote Larry David,
which is.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
A cruel and violent game. Why would you do it?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
A pinata that he was talking about, But pin the
tail and a donkey similarly violent and a little bit cruel.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Yeah, it doesn't it? Maybe not? Well, how does that
game work?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Doesn't you stick it on people and they spin around
or something and maybe before they hit that's true, But
I swear there's a variation of pin the tail.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
All right, I'm here, I'm here. The youthful guy on
the show will jump in. It's closer to my childhood
than it's yours. So pin the tail and a donkey
it's there's like a donkey like painting type of thing
on a wall. You put a blindfold on, somebody, hand
them the pin and they have a general idea where
it is, but they go to see how close you
can get it to getually get in the tail on
the right spot.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
You spin them around, don't you disorient them? Isn't the
idea of.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
The house rules? That's house rules?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Okay, fair enough, it's all kind of awful because the
only way you're doing this off of your memory trying
to figure out where it is. It gets fun around,
you're gonna go put it in somebody's arm.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
But to your point, nol, I mean think about it
like we have like basically intentionally removed a donkey's tail,
and now we are trying to attach another one to it.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
That is that's so twisted. I wonder twisted Max with
the facts I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, we'll do it. We'll do the sound cue, we'll
do the sound cue.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
That seeking in the phone and he's fallen knowledge. It's
just for you right now here.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
With the fact, I do wonder whether there has ever
been a like an earlier version where was an actual
tortured donkey, oh dear too Yeah, too dark, all right,
so let's go to Scotland. In Scotland, it's hunt the
(11:01):
glock or the golp goo w k. It's a symbol
of the fool. And then, you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Sure very similar to what we might have over here
in like boy scout campouts, which is the old snipe hunt,
snipe hunt, the idea of you know, taking a nube
and sort of convincing them that it's a right of
passage to hunt this mythical beast and sending them out
after a thing that does not exist, which is very
much the fool's errand of it all, you know, or
(11:31):
very much a wild goose chase situation.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Sure, a version of that occurs in modern in modern
production film and TV. Friends, you'll know this one of
the hazing rituals for like a new kid or a
pa in production a production assistant is to give them
(11:54):
a super obscure, official sounding name for a thing, a
piece of a and send them hunting for it. And
it's a closed spin.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, it's called like an M four thirty two or
some sort of like numerical kind of model number type thing.
And now I'm totally forgetting what it was because they
referred to them as that actually on on sets and
in film situations. Another one that's interesting too is in
construction sites. Gosh, I saw this on a TV show recently.
But they were sent a young newbie construction worker like
(12:26):
house framer looking for a like a window stretcher or
something like that, like some kind of like device that
is meant to do something that really the only way
to do it is manually.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So to jump in here real quick, I'm just thinking
about as you guys know, I I managed restaurants in
the city of landas number.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
What did you guys do? What'd you do?
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
What was?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
This gets more?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
This gets more evil as story goes on because he
because one of the best things about it is it's
not me, but four different restaurant managers working with each
other on this on this posture. And so there's a
search of these restaurants and there's like four within like
five minutes walking to each other. So basically what we
would usually do when one of the places start. It
was a new employee who seemed a pretty cool day
and like wouldn't get offended if he did this to them.
(13:10):
They just understand some hazing is uh. One of us
would send a person with a bucket to go get
a bucket of steam in the steam you can put
steam in a bucket, like, oh, that's the name of
the product.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Just go over to this place.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So they go over that place, and the manager who
knows this is like, dude, oh, yes, you guys are
out of steam too. Yeah, the delivery must not come in,
but you gotta.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Go to the third guy.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
The third but like, we get all over his stuff
from us twos they get their stuff from Cisco, so
they should be good. And then like the third person's like, yeah, no,
we sorry, the owners cut it off. Well, you guys
have been borrowing way too much steam from us.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
You can't do it.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So the person's just walking around Grant Park neighborhood with
a ice bucket, a big giant ice bucket, over and
over again until one of the managers uh breaks their breaks,
like you know, the joke and break are laughing and
they're like, oh, I have been walking around for thirty
minutes in the hot sun of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Well aventually it would turn to steam.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, so there you go take a while to take
a while just goes to share that April fool can
be every day in certain situations. I found a couple
other examples of the job site stuff when would be
a to your point max or similar to your straight
A bucket of Olmes homes being a way of measuring
electrical resistance, which is not a thing that can be
held in a bucket, a wire stretcher, a flex bender,
(14:23):
a pack of end joints, or a box of toenails.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I do have a box of toenails. We're not going
to get into it.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Those around you just you just hang on to them
for posterity.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I believe in magic. So there's there's a Uh there's
another example. We used to do this thing where you
would have like a new recruit, uh, you would you
would have them dig a hole and then you would
yell at them for digging the hole wrong, and you
would ask them to move the hole, or you would
(14:57):
send them to a different guy who would get mad
that anyone like that you were there was very kill
the messenger. It was just a way to make people
do more push ups.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Sure, Penn.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Can you imagine if someone came up with a movable
hole that would be a million dollar idea. So you know,
this is all of these kinds of things. These had
a Galki Day, another thing they referred to it as
in Scotland hunt the galk, very similar to our snipe
hunt that we know. Tally Day is a following day
where people would pen oftentimes kick me signs on folks back,
(15:31):
similar to the fish situation over there in France. All
of these rituals are part of a relatively and surprisingly
ancient practice that spans cultures, continence, and of course time,
the custom of dedicating a single day to the embracing
of harmless pranks and merriments on one's friends, neighbors and
(15:54):
loved ones, with a sort of built in amnesty where
you can't really get mad about it.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
But some of these are worthy of.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Getting that about, you know, if you get really done dirty, right.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And we were looking into this and we found that
April Fool's Day is itself kind of a mixtape of
much earlier festivals, things like Hilaria of ancient name that right.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
But re fun festival.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yes, it was on March twenty fifth, so not too
far away. People would dress up in disguises, you could
mock fellow citizens and back in Roman times. People genuinely
believe this was inspired by it was like inspired by
(16:49):
earlier Egyptian mythology. And then you could go to another
Tomfoolery celebration that continues today in India, the Holly celebration
Hli well.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And also, I mean it reminds me even of like
the Carnival season like in Brazil, or the way that's
been embraced and sort of changed around to.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Suit the New Orleans culture.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I mean, and even in Germany and in Europe they've
got something called Fashing, which is very much around that
carnival season, but it contains a lot of that same
kind of stuff, little pranks, little jokes, merriment.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Hell, even Halloween has.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
A certain prank quality to it, right, the trick or
the treat right, I mean a lot of these things
are cross pollinad and there are bits of it in
various different holidays and seasons, even within a single culture.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. Absolutely, we see a larger trend here. And if
we look at the ancient past. Staying with that for
a moment, we also have to consider things like Saturnalia.
It was the winter festival, you know that everybody's celebrated
at the end of December, if you vibed the harrowing winter,
(18:02):
you danced, you drank, you made mary, you made, you
gave each other gifts. Slaves were allowed to pretend they
were in charge for that one day, and for that
one day.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, it's evil again, slavery is the most evil of all.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
But I mean that is just kind of that's even worse.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That's very like, get out and thank you for bp me.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Max.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There was the there was a fake king, the guy
called the In English, we'll call it Lord of Misrule. Eventually, yeah, yeah,
in the Eventually, around the fourth century CE, what we
(18:49):
call Saturnalia turned into celebration of the new year on
January first, and a lot of the Saturnalia traditions and
sort of ornaments or affectations are incorporated in the modern
observance of Christmas. Please check out our episodes on Christmas.
(19:13):
I just love this point that almost every culture across
the planet has some kind of festival in the first
months of the year to celebrate the fact that spring
is coming. And if you talk with our boffins, our
anthropologist friends, they'll tell you these are called renewal festivals.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
The idea of renewal by being a little silly Bailey,
you know, renewing yourself. It's also you know, I wish
that there were an official calendar day for opposite day.
You know, people always talk about its opposite day, but
it seems to only be used to kind of suit
whatever little gag they're playing at that particularly moment. It's
sort of like a momentary. Yeah, it's like a momentary
(20:00):
April fools. Yeah, And I mean, just to reiterate, like,
this is very much a day there. This is a
day where up is down and down is up, and
you know, the master becomes the servant and vice versa. Again,
sort of an opposite day situation.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
And the idea that for.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That one day, you know, like the idea of being
king for a day, but it doesn't really change anything,
which is I think the part that gives it that
sort of dark sort of twist.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Right, it's like an escape hatch. And I love I
mentioned Whitest Kids. You know, do you remember that sketch?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Course I die, I do very much.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And the guy went on to the one of the
members went on to make Barbarian, which is a film
that I quite loved, and rip Trevor Moore, who was
the kind of the leader of that sketch group and
passed away well before his time. In the last handful
of years.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
They have a fantastic opposite day sketch. I don't know
that one that address it, Please everyone look it up.
It addresses the idea of scheduling and opposite day, or
the sort of cognitive paradox, which is what these sorts
of holidays or celebrations or festivals, whatever you want to
(21:10):
call them, are ultimately celebrating. At its very best, the
modern April Fool's Day can be pretty fun. But here's
the thing, no one really knows where it came from.
People weren't even asking about the providence of April Fools
until maybe seventeen oh eight. There's a guy who rode
(21:34):
into a British magazine called Apollo and said, quince proceeds
the custom of making April fools. So like, no one knows,
but there are a ton of fascinating theories.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, a lot of scholars believe that the modern equivalent
of April Fools began back there in France with that
whole find the fish situation or pin the tail in
the fish or the young fish whatever it was. You
will often hear this the idea of April fools originating
because of some as often as the case been with
calendar flip floppery, right like certain whims of certain kings
(22:12):
and arguments over when actual facts.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Lauren vogelbam new year officially starts.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Oh man, yeah, this is the thing, all right, So
it's Les, let's rewind if we can max perfect and
thank you do Actually, yeah, I like the way you
did it.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Combine our forces for the re Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Back in the fifteen hundreds, there's this guy, he's the king.
His name is Charles nine I X if your fancy,
and he said, look, the New Year is not going
to begin on Easter anymore. For a lot of Christians
at the time the New Year began on Easter. He said, instead,
(22:58):
we're taking it to January first. And the idea, the
theory that you'll often hear is that French people who
didn't get the communication, they didn't get the memo.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
They also sort of have a way of doing things,
you know, they they like to do things a little.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Different there in France.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We say that you may well have gotten the memo
and put it in the trash you know, like.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
We're guys who are not Francophones, but we are frank
of Fhiles. You know.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh, if I'm talking a little fun at the French,
it's it's absolutely ingest.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I'm a huge The food is genuinely better.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
And some of my favorite music in the entire world
comes from France. But yeah, to your point, Ben, the
the idea that they kind of stayed the course and
kept things going as they were, so during the last
week of March through April first, that became a time
to kind of make fun of the French because they
had not changed their calendars to join the rest of
(23:55):
which the term you have in here, Ben, which I love, Christendom,
it just seems very Robin Hood.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I don't know why Christendom. It's very very official Sunding.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, like the folks who didn't get the decree of
the king and we're still celebrating the quote unquote wrong
beginning of the year. They were called the April fools.
That's a theory. That's the long story short, but that
doesn't always give us the answer. So the long story long,
(24:24):
the straight seahorse teeth, the hot cheese is is this
you gotta like you were saying, No, we got to
look at the history of calendar reform. So the Julian
calendar is named after Julius Caesar, right, and that that's
(24:45):
the calendar that made January first the first day of
the year. But as Christianity, you know, further expands, and
I would argue franchises throughout Europe, people wanted to move
New Year's Day to dates that were more important to Christianity,
(25:06):
like why can't it start at Christmas? Why can't the
year start it Easter? And so some countries kept using
January first, and they justified it. This is so crazy.
Fellow substitute teachers in the crowd, please recognize this may
not be appropriate for your class. Some countries used to
(25:31):
keep with January first, and they would justify it to
Christendom as I don't know how else to say it.
They would they would say that January first was the
date that Jesus Christ was circumcised.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
You know, I've never really given much thought to whether
or not Jesus was circumcised, but he was a Jew
and that is a custom, and I guess I didn't
realize that that was a thing. Wow, Okay, it's just.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Like it's a long walk as far as justifications go.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, right now I'm speculating as to the size
of Jesus's circumcised.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Uh you're thinking about Defoe?
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh god, no, when am I not Jesus massive?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So look what we're telling you, folks, is by the
fifteen hundred CE, the European calendar was a real messy
bullis spaghetti. The errors in the Julian calendar, like simple
mathematical errors, had caused what we call the solar year
(26:43):
to increasingly divide from the calendar year. And add to this,
different countries are beginning the year on different dates. Uh.
This is really confusing, especially because in France people are
using Easter as the beginning of the year, primarily for
(27:05):
bureaucratic purposes, but people on the ground are using January
first as the traditional start of the year. This is
when you celebrate, This is when you give each other gifts.
You know, visit your relatives, have a hug. Starting the
new year on Easter is stupid and convenient.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So in the early sixteenth century, in French books, you'll
find both forms of the dating system listed side by side.
For titles published in January February or March, and then
moving into the mid sixteenth century, you started to see
a system of calendaring where everything started on January first,
(27:46):
and that began to be widely adopted in France. So
they finally either got the memo or decided to pull
it out of the trash and you know, kind of
the join the party.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, it was our buddy Charlie King Charles ninth of
his name. He created this thing on December twenty second,
fifteen sixty four, or that's when French Parliament approved of
the move to make January first the official actual fact.
(28:18):
Shout out, Lauren, first day of the year. This was
in my mind, this is like the calindrical version of
legalizing cannabis. He looked at it, he said, everybody's already
doing it, so why are we going to make it illegal?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Wait, isn't that that's the name of an album. Everybody
else is doing it, so what shouldn't we It's.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Like the Cranberries, I want to say.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Ayway, eighteen years later, in fifteen eighty two, we've got
Pope Gregory issuing a papal powl, which sounds so intense,
which is basically just a decree from the Pope that
declared sweeping calendar reform across all of Christendom or Catholicism
in them. The Gregorian reform included moving the start of
the year to January first, and creating a Leapyer system
(29:02):
that Max very definitely stuck to with our publishing schedule
and whatever Leapier that was, which at the time eliminated
ten days from the month of October of eighteen fifty
two in order to correct that calendar drift, which is
something that I still have a hard time wracking my
head around. I think that was a big theme of
the Leapier episode, was me banging my head against the
wall about why what is this calendar drift?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
So the Pope has no real power to make the
governments of the time comply, right, but he does say, hey,
you know, guys, if you're a Christian nation, I'm the
pope and this is the time of really brutal monarchies.
France accepts this reform, they had already changed it. A
(29:49):
lot of people get this part wrong. Anyway, it becomes
clear like the more you look into it, the calendar
change hypothesis has a really convenient to it, right. It
sounds like a light switch going on and off. This
is not quite the truth, you know. You can say that. Look,
(30:14):
you can say that the calendar change hypothesis is plausible
if it's applied to Britain, maybe because they did New
Year's Day of March twenty fifth, because of the Feast
of Annunciation, again trying to align the solar calendar, the
passage of the actual planets with religious ideology. The earliest
(30:38):
version of the calendar change hypothesis that we can find
in print goes back to seventeen sixty six, and it's
a response to a discourse that only started in seventeen
Oh wait, people weren't really asking about April Fools until
centuries after it was happening. We want to go to
(31:07):
a quote from a correspondence to something called The Gentleman's Magazine.
It's a little bit of a long quote. I think
it's an opportunity to do a pretty cool voice. So Noel,
if you can do the first part, I'll come in
at the end.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Absolutely, this strange custom prevalent throughout this kingdom of people
making fuels of one another upon the first of April.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm just sorry, I'm doing it like Kenna very talestu
a ruse from the year, formally a beginning as to
some purpose and in some respects on the twenty fifth
of March, which was supposed to be the incarnation of
our Lord.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
It's been customary with the Romans as well as fit
us Hole Day festival. It ended by an octave that
the commencement of a new year, which festival lasted for
it is where after first of the last was the principal.
Therefore the first of April is the octave of the
twenty fifth of March, and consequently the clothes or ending
(32:20):
of the feast, which was both the festival of the
annunciation and the beginning of the new year.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Broo and Telly ho good sir, h Yeah, we're gonna
to unpack all that. I kind of got lost in
the sauce of the voices.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
There can I jump in real quick to talk about
the voices, because believe it, this is gonna go full circle.
But you guys, you both used your Canterbury Tales voices.
I used remember from that episode. I used an accent
that came up off the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
At least I thought, so, oh yeah, we forced you
to play I.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Figured out later on I was editing it. The accent
I was doing was the one of my friend named Jeff.
He talks like this all the time, like this. The
reason to bring this up is Jeff, who is a character.
I love him to death, but he's a character. His
birthday is April fools Day, and he's the type of
guy who lie in day's birthday today.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
So Jeff, Jeff, text him, text him now. So all
right there there there's another part here. We had writers
back then, we would have historical precedent. There's a whole thing,
a whole discourse with chaucer scholars arguing about whether or
(33:28):
not he actually references April Fools and when March happens
versus May, versus April. We know that Chaucer wrote some
pretty saucy stuff. He's a pretty smart guy. We're actually
big fans of his work. Can't wait for him to
(33:49):
conclude the Canterbury Tales. When do you think it's coming out?
When do you think he'll finish in I.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Think it's been in turnaround at Tony for a while.
Hopefully it's a production. Lebo, Oh my god, I love
you for that one.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Also, if the holiday was always around. Why doesn't Shakespeare
mention it? Look, the United Kingdom only changed their calendar
year to start on January first. They only did that
in seventeen fifty two, just like a few decades before
the United States became a country. By that time, April
(34:25):
Fools is already well established, So confusion about a changing
calendar could not have been logically responsible for the origin
of the celebration in Britain. Oh, also, we should mention
it is possible, like our earlier guy noted that the
(34:47):
festival held on April first in that correspondence with the
with the Gentleman's magazine, it's posstering it for the art.
I love it. Oh, I forgot to tell you, guys.
One of my favorite you know, I'm into weird food.
One of my favorite weird things that I found recently.
(35:10):
It's an actual thing. Have you ever heard of gentleman's relish?
Speaker 4 (35:14):
No, it doesn't sound good. It sounds really gross.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
It's British. It's obviously British.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Oh jeez, I just immediately got it.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I mean, it's probably my own fault for having a
mine in the gutter, but gentleman's relish does not sound good.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
To me, it does sound like a euphemism. It is
not a euphemism. I'm I've got to buy some. We
gotta try it out.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
My mom used to make a thing called gentleman's salad
that was like a gelatin salad, usually green of color,
and with like shit in it that didn't belong, like
horse radish and stuff and like lime jello bass and
gentleman salad is what she always called it.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Never like it, No, I wouldn't even need it.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
It was like she'd put it at everyone's place for
like a holiday meals, and I was a hell.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
No, Oh, it was a holiday thing, So everybody gets
a pass. Gentleman's relish is a real thing. It's also
called patum paperium. It has nothing to do with April
Fool's Day. But if you have tried it, please let
us know. On ridiculous his story.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Well, surely it could.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
There's a place for it in our History of condiments
ongoing series.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Oh yes, okay, another theory. Oh man, if I get it,
are you guys gonna try it with me? No? You
don't even read about it.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I don't care. I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I don't like the way it sounds I want nothing
to do with it. I resent its very existence.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
I'm just say someone right here, and it's the only
time in my entire life I've been able to say
this for a good thing. Sorry, Ben, I can't try it.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Condition okay, alright, alright, Max. We respect the condition. So
other people will tell you. Maybe the timing of April
Fool's Day is related to what we call the vernal
equinox March twenty first, because the weather would shift, and
(37:05):
for previous civilizations that was a real plot twist. But
the thing is, none of the theories about the origin
of April Fool's Day have been proven to be correct.
It was almost certainly a continuation of this ancient prankish tendency.
It spread throughout other countries. People genuinely did not ask
(37:31):
about its providence until well after it was already established.
The actual answer is that no one knows why it's
a thing. It's ridiculous. It's not like a bank holiday.
It's just this need to prank.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
People, which I mean, to be fair, you know, you
don't need a particular day to do that. A good
natured prank is welcome or not unwelcome on any day
of the calendar year. There are even TV shows devoted
to this stuff. Remember punked Ashton Kutcher's seminal early two thousands,
Reality where and he would yeah gentleman's relish indeed wherein
(38:13):
he would punk folks celebs usually And now I think
there's a show on TV called Practical Jokers. It's very
very popular and the kids I love Nathan for You.
Nathan for You is Yeah, I guess you could call
it a prank. I mean, it's like an earnest prank
show where he's like pranking people by trying to help
them in the most ridiculous ways possible.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
But I think you're you're spot on.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Them, which is what we're doing, right, Noel, I would
like to think. So we're probably one thing, folks. We
are foolish all year round. As Noel said, it doesn't
have to be a day in April. You can be
silly any any old time. We have a notable examples.
That's the best way to end this in this episode
(38:57):
that we are running late on, Noel, what are some
notable examples of your favorite April fools Day's April Fool's
Day breaks.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Well, it's also something that like you know, corporations get
in on and get in on the phone, you know,
especially in the age of social media. One that I
saw that made me think of you, Ben was this
article that seemed very you know, very well photoshopped. I
guess that waffle House was removing waffles from its media. Yeah,
and I think that I hop did a thing in
(39:29):
April fools Day's Past where they said they were changing
their name to the International House of Burgers.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Oh, that's right, I remember that one. That was a
not too long ago, right, I hob.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
You got another one that you found, Ben about another
what is it a Young Brands products Taco Bell.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yes, in nineteen ninety six, Taco Bell said, hey, we've
purchased the Liberty Bell. We've renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell.
Where doing this to help with the crushing debt of
the United States.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Good on you, Taco Bell. Thanks for that.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah this, Yeah, it upset a lot of people in
PR reported it and then they had to have a
press conference to just clear the air and let everybody
know that the city of Philadelphia still owns the Liberty Bell.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Thank god for that. Another one that you found, Ben
was nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
And pr It did a fun little prank declaring that
Richard Nixon, of course, the shamed or disgraced presidents who
resigned in nineteen seventy four after the Watergate scander where
he was doing all kinds of naughty, underhanded things, was
entering that year's presidential race. And then he had a
fun new slogan it he was rocking, you know not
(40:54):
I mean no the voice. Well, of course I am
not a crook, remember was some of that right? I
had never heard of anything wrong? Then I won't do
it again.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Love it. Thank you for doing that. We've got the
uh so, we've got the skinny on this. There's an
active mystery regarding the origins of April Fool's Day. We
can't thank you enough for tuning in, fellow ridiculous historians,
but we will endeavor to do so. This way, Max
if I could get some fanfare thanks for tuning in. Uzzah,
(41:38):
thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams. Thanks to
oh gosh, let's see aj Bahamas Jacobs, who else?
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Who are yeah? Abja?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Jonathan Strickland, the quizz and also you know, pretty stand
up guy when he's not in character. Uh and Chris
Frosciota is an even Jeff Coates here in spirit.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah, the rude dudes a ridiculous crime. Rachel Big Spinach Lance.
I'd like to do a thing in the credits where
we thank random people were people who have passed recently,
So thanks to Val Kilmer Man.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Yeah, thanks to Val Kilmer indeed.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
And I think I posted this before he passed, or
maybe it was a portentous in some way, but I
saw a post of a old tweet from Val Kilmer
wherein he said I once tickled Lou Reid and at
the time I really regretted it because he never spoke
to me again.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
But now I'm glad I did it because I think
he needed it. Well.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Thanks to you Lou for your service, and thanks Ip
Lou as well, Rip Lou as well. Thanks to you
Neil and you as well.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Then we'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts
from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:27):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. We're running a little late on
this one. Edit's my fault, you know. Shout out to
our super producer, mister Max Williams the top.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
When have we ever hit a tent pole topic on time?
This is in classic Ridiculous History fashion that we're two
days late for said holiday.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I am proud of myself, so I'm going to toot
my own horn and talk about myself right now. Yet,
on February twenty ninth last year, we had an episode
about the leap year we did? Did I write a
Thanksgiving grab bag esque episode? But I think that's about it.
I think one time we might have gotten lucky. But
look we did our was it Labor Day? Like either
(01:17):
two months before or two months after Labor Day? And
I'm like, this is marvelous.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I love us. I don't know why we're letting on that.
It's not on purpose.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's very oh, folks. That is Noel Brown recently returned
from Philadelphia. So Noel aka Young Cheese Steak Brown.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Yeah, okak you sure you Young cheese steak is accurate.
I had a couple of those from what is Angelo's
and ish Caabibbeles, which are too you know, I think
Angelo's is kind of hot right now. But a lot
of people know about Ishkabibbles. And that's the funnest named
place to get a sandwich in the history of sandwiches,
if you ask me.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And we're accountabill of buddies, so I was. It is
a true story, Noel, I they called me, Ben what
I was bugging you the whole time you were in
Philly and I just kept texting you on multiple threads
to ask for cheese steak pictures.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
It's the only reason I had the second steak, Ben,
It's the only reason I went to Isshuabibbles.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
It was just for you.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I only had about three bites and then I had
to throw away the rest because man, those things are
not meant to be consumed in their entirety by one
human person. That's a heart attack waiting to happen.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I don't know if Philly does it, man, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
I guess he's got to walk a lot, which I
did do. I had a great time. Thanks for mentioning it,
but yeah, no, cheese steaks are delightful, as are nonsensical
holidays that are designed to potentially hurt people's feelings or delights.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Results vary, so we're running late on our April Fool's
Day episode. That's what this is, and you and I
have talked about it in the past on and off air.
I feel like it can be a mean and spirited holiday.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
It certainly can be.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I have been the victim, not that big a deal,
but of some not so nice April Fools pranks. But
I guess it's all in how you play it. If
you play it a little too straight about something a
little too serious, you know, things could go wrong. But
if it's something sort of like lighthearted and a little
(03:30):
bit absurdist, I'm all about that, right.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Like, if, for instance, I gave I gave my dad
a mug that said World's Best Grandfather and then said
April Fools, that would be really extreme.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, but even that's on the lighter end of extreme.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
If you ask me, I was punked quite successfully by
my kid is sixteen. I was playing a piece of
music that I've been working on when I was in Philadelphia,
and to me and goes you know what, Dad, I
gotta tell you, this isn't very good.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
What I don't like it. It sounds like but I
believe is the term that they use. And then I
really my heart sunk. My heart sunk.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And then I very quickly saw the forlornness in my
eyes and very quickly responded with a quick April fool.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Which I was wow, So that kids are mean, dude,
kids are being dude. That's an in depth example of
April fools, or those are two light examples from us.
I think the worst one I got was ooh, it's
not even fit for the air. It was pretty extreme,
(04:47):
it was pretty mean. But if you want to learn
more about famous examples of April Fool's day, you can
check out our earlier episode on the epic spaghetti.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Trees prank, which I think is a perfect example of
a lighthearted, absurdist one. Because the BBC created this thing
to appear like a legitimate documentary about an absolutely Bezonker's topic,
and like they had like these old Italian nonas, like
harvesting spaghetti from the trees in the Italian countryside, and like,
(05:24):
let's say you do believe it, what's the worst outcome
there that you feel like a little bit of a
dumb dumb you know. Okay, not the end of the world,
but just different. No, it's certainly not. Another example that
really did ruffle some feathers and potentially cost some harm,
but would not have been considered an April fool's joke
is orson Wells War of the World's broadcast, where a
(05:46):
lot of people took that very very seriously.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And thought the aliens were coming, and they.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Fled for shelter, called the police, you know, a repeatedly,
you know, clogged up the lines and all of that
good stuff, only for it to turn out to a
bit of very well produced radio play.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Right and worth a listen. Still, both examples that you
just named there, Noel. As April first approached, we asked ourselves,
what is this holiday? Exactly? Where does it come from?
How did it spread across the globe? And I think
we were all startled to learn the answer is kind
(06:23):
of ridiculous. So before we get into this fool's errand.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
Yes, yes, which is the term.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
That I've used plenty in my life, and I never
really thought about the origins of it, but it certainly
does date back to the early days of being an
April fool.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So okay, okay, Noel, can you kick it for all
of us historians in the crowd ridiculous variety. If you
had to explain to an alien what April Fool's Day is,
how would you explain it?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
It is a day where it is acceptable to lie
to the people that you love for comedic effect. Holy smokes,
that is good, kind of dark though it starts, it's starting.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
No, we're keeping it. We're keeping it man, because that
is poetry. It's a celebration of pranks and practical jokes.
In most countries today, it happens on the first day
of the month we call April. You run into any
number of jokes or in person practical like pranks, and
(07:35):
usually when someone is lying to someone that they love,
as you said at the end of the bit, the
prankster will yell April Fools at their big reveal. And
what I think we both found astonishing about this is
that multiple countries have their own variation. You could be
(08:00):
in April Fish. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go to it. Ah, yes, yeah,
put the definitive on that. Yeah. The the idea I
love that you're bringing up the French. The idea here
is that what I've just we love the French, They're great,
(08:27):
I do, I do so. Uh, perhaps this is a
reference to a young fish that is easily caught. We're
pulling some of this straight up from our friends at Britannica. Uh,
we did not know, or I did not know that
it is common for French kids to pin paper fish
(08:52):
on the backs of folks they're pranking, kind of like
how we would put a kick me sign, just.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Like a kick me sign exactly, or you know, a
pin the tail in the donkey situation, to quote Larry David,
which is.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
A cruel and violent game. Why would you do it?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
A pinata that he was talking about, But pin the
tail and a donkey similarly violent and a little bit cruel.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Yeah, it doesn't it? Maybe not? Well, how does that
game work?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Doesn't you stick it on people and they spin around
or something and maybe before they hit that's true, But
I swear there's a variation of pin the tail.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
All right, I'm here, I'm here. The youthful guy on
the show will jump in. It's closer to my childhood
than it's yours. So pin the tail and a donkey
it's there's like a donkey like painting type of thing
on a wall. You put a blindfold on, somebody, hand
them the pin and they have a general idea where
it is, but they go to see how close you
can get it to getually get in the tail on
the right spot.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
You spin them around, don't you disorient them? Isn't the
idea of.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
The house rules? That's house rules?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Okay, fair enough, it's all kind of awful because the
only way you're doing this off of your memory trying
to figure out where it is. It gets fun around,
you're gonna go put it in somebody's arm.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
But to your point, nol, I mean think about it
like we have like basically intentionally removed a donkey's tail,
and now we are trying to attach another one to it.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
That is that's so twisted. I wonder twisted Max with
the facts I've ever heard.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Okay, we'll do it. We'll do the sound cue, we'll
do the sound cue.
Speaker 5 (10:29):
That seeking in the phone and he's fallen knowledge. It's
just for you right now here.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
With the fact, I do wonder whether there has ever
been a like an earlier version where was an actual
tortured donkey, oh dear too Yeah, too dark, all right,
so let's go to Scotland. In Scotland, it's hunt the
(11:01):
glock or the golp goo w k. It's a symbol
of the fool. And then, you know, it's.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Sure very similar to what we might have over here
in like boy scout campouts, which is the old snipe hunt,
snipe hunt, the idea of you know, taking a nube
and sort of convincing them that it's a right of
passage to hunt this mythical beast and sending them out
after a thing that does not exist, which is very
much the fool's errand of it all, you know, or
(11:31):
very much a wild goose chase situation.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Sure, a version of that occurs in modern in modern
production film and TV. Friends, you'll know this one of
the hazing rituals for like a new kid or a
pa in production a production assistant is to give them
(11:54):
a super obscure, official sounding name for a thing, a
piece of a and send them hunting for it. And
it's a closed spin.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, it's called like an M four thirty two or
some sort of like numerical kind of model number type thing.
And now I'm totally forgetting what it was because they
referred to them as that actually on on sets and
in film situations. Another one that's interesting too is in
construction sites. Gosh, I saw this on a TV show recently.
But they were sent a young newbie construction worker like
(12:26):
house framer looking for a like a window stretcher or
something like that, like some kind of like device that
is meant to do something that really the only way
to do it is manually.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
So to jump in here real quick, I'm just thinking
about as you guys know, I I managed restaurants in
the city of landas number.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
What did you guys do? What'd you do?
Speaker 5 (12:44):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
What was?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
This gets more?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
This gets more evil as story goes on because he
because one of the best things about it is it's
not me, but four different restaurant managers working with each
other on this on this posture. And so there's a
search of these restaurants and there's like four within like
five minutes walking to each other. So basically what we
would usually do when one of the places start. It
was a new employee who seemed a pretty cool day
and like wouldn't get offended if he did this to them.
(13:10):
They just understand some hazing is uh. One of us
would send a person with a bucket to go get
a bucket of steam in the steam you can put
steam in a bucket, like, oh, that's the name of
the product.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Just go over to this place.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
So they go over that place, and the manager who
knows this is like, dude, oh, yes, you guys are
out of steam too. Yeah, the delivery must not come in,
but you gotta.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Go to the third guy.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
The third but like, we get all over his stuff
from us twos they get their stuff from Cisco, so
they should be good. And then like the third person's like, yeah, no,
we sorry, the owners cut it off. Well, you guys
have been borrowing way too much steam from us.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
You can't do it.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
So the person's just walking around Grant Park neighborhood with
a ice bucket, a big giant ice bucket, over and
over again until one of the managers uh breaks their breaks,
like you know, the joke and break are laughing and
they're like, oh, I have been walking around for thirty
minutes in the hot sun of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Well aventually it would turn to steam.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, so there you go take a while to take
a while just goes to share that April fool can
be every day in certain situations. I found a couple
other examples of the job site stuff when would be
a to your point max or similar to your straight
A bucket of Olmes homes being a way of measuring
electrical resistance, which is not a thing that can be
held in a bucket, a wire stretcher, a flex bender,
(14:23):
a pack of end joints, or a box of toenails.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I do have a box of toenails. We're not going
to get into it.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Those around you just you just hang on to them
for posterity.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
I believe in magic. So there's there's a Uh there's
another example. We used to do this thing where you
would have like a new recruit, uh, you would you
would have them dig a hole and then you would
yell at them for digging the hole wrong, and you
would ask them to move the hole, or you would
(14:57):
send them to a different guy who would get mad
that anyone like that you were there was very kill
the messenger. It was just a way to make people
do more push ups.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
Sure, Penn.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Can you imagine if someone came up with a movable
hole that would be a million dollar idea. So you know,
this is all of these kinds of things. These had
a Galki Day, another thing they referred to it as
in Scotland hunt the galk, very similar to our snipe
hunt that we know. Tally Day is a following day
where people would pen oftentimes kick me signs on folks back,
(15:31):
similar to the fish situation over there in France. All
of these rituals are part of a relatively and surprisingly
ancient practice that spans cultures, continence, and of course time,
the custom of dedicating a single day to the embracing
of harmless pranks and merriments on one's friends, neighbors and
(15:54):
loved ones, with a sort of built in amnesty where
you can't really get mad about it.
Speaker 4 (15:59):
But some of these are worthy of.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Getting that about, you know, if you get really done dirty, right.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And we were looking into this and we found that
April Fool's Day is itself kind of a mixtape of
much earlier festivals, things like Hilaria of ancient name that right.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
But re fun festival.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yes, it was on March twenty fifth, so not too
far away. People would dress up in disguises, you could
mock fellow citizens and back in Roman times. People genuinely
believe this was inspired by it was like inspired by
(16:49):
earlier Egyptian mythology. And then you could go to another
Tomfoolery celebration that continues today in India, the Holly celebration
Hli well.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
And also, I mean it reminds me even of like
the Carnival season like in Brazil, or the way that's
been embraced and sort of changed around to.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
Suit the New Orleans culture.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
I mean, and even in Germany and in Europe they've
got something called Fashing, which is very much around that
carnival season, but it contains a lot of that same
kind of stuff, little pranks, little jokes, merriment.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Hell, even Halloween has.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
A certain prank quality to it, right, the trick or
the treat right, I mean a lot of these things
are cross pollinad and there are bits of it in
various different holidays and seasons, even within a single culture.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. Absolutely, we see a larger trend here. And if
we look at the ancient past. Staying with that for
a moment, we also have to consider things like Saturnalia.
It was the winter festival, you know that everybody's celebrated
at the end of December, if you vibed the harrowing winter,
(18:02):
you danced, you drank, you made mary, you made, you
gave each other gifts. Slaves were allowed to pretend they
were in charge for that one day, and for that
one day.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Yeah, it's evil again, slavery is the most evil of all.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
But I mean that is just kind of that's even worse.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That's very like, get out and thank you for bp me.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
Max.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
There was the there was a fake king, the guy
called the In English, we'll call it Lord of Misrule. Eventually, yeah, yeah,
in the Eventually, around the fourth century CE, what we
(18:49):
call Saturnalia turned into celebration of the new year on
January first, and a lot of the Saturnalia traditions and
sort of ornaments or affectations are incorporated in the modern
observance of Christmas. Please check out our episodes on Christmas.
(19:13):
I just love this point that almost every culture across
the planet has some kind of festival in the first
months of the year to celebrate the fact that spring
is coming. And if you talk with our boffins, our
anthropologist friends, they'll tell you these are called renewal festivals.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
The idea of renewal by being a little silly Bailey,
you know, renewing yourself. It's also you know, I wish
that there were an official calendar day for opposite day.
You know, people always talk about its opposite day, but
it seems to only be used to kind of suit
whatever little gag they're playing at that particularly moment. It's
sort of like a momentary. Yeah, it's like a momentary
(20:00):
April fools. Yeah, And I mean, just to reiterate, like,
this is very much a day there. This is a
day where up is down and down is up, and
you know, the master becomes the servant and vice versa. Again,
sort of an opposite day situation.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
And the idea that for.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That one day, you know, like the idea of being
king for a day, but it doesn't really change anything,
which is I think the part that gives it that
sort of dark sort of twist.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Right, it's like an escape hatch. And I love I
mentioned Whitest Kids. You know, do you remember that sketch?
Speaker 4 (20:32):
Course I die, I do very much.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And the guy went on to the one of the
members went on to make Barbarian, which is a film
that I quite loved, and rip Trevor Moore, who was
the kind of the leader of that sketch group and
passed away well before his time. In the last handful
of years.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
They have a fantastic opposite day sketch. I don't know
that one that address it, Please everyone look it up.
It addresses the idea of scheduling and opposite day, or
the sort of cognitive paradox, which is what these sorts
of holidays or celebrations or festivals, whatever you want to
(21:10):
call them, are ultimately celebrating. At its very best, the
modern April Fool's Day can be pretty fun. But here's
the thing, no one really knows where it came from.
People weren't even asking about the providence of April Fools
until maybe seventeen oh eight. There's a guy who rode
(21:34):
into a British magazine called Apollo and said, quince proceeds
the custom of making April fools. So like, no one knows,
but there are a ton of fascinating theories.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Yeah, a lot of scholars believe that the modern equivalent
of April Fools began back there in France with that
whole find the fish situation or pin the tail in
the fish or the young fish whatever it was. You
will often hear this the idea of April fools originating
because of some as often as the case been with
calendar flip floppery, right like certain whims of certain kings
(22:12):
and arguments over when actual facts.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Lauren vogelbam new year officially starts.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Oh man, yeah, this is the thing, all right, So
it's Les, let's rewind if we can max perfect and
thank you do Actually, yeah, I like the way you
did it.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Combine our forces for the re Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Back in the fifteen hundreds, there's this guy, he's the king.
His name is Charles nine I X if your fancy,
and he said, look, the New Year is not going
to begin on Easter anymore. For a lot of Christians
at the time the New Year began on Easter. He said, instead,
(22:58):
we're taking it to January first. And the idea, the
theory that you'll often hear is that French people who
didn't get the communication, they didn't get the memo.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
They also sort of have a way of doing things,
you know, they they like to do things a little.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Different there in France.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We say that you may well have gotten the memo
and put it in the trash you know, like.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
We're guys who are not Francophones, but we are frank
of Fhiles. You know.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Oh, if I'm talking a little fun at the French,
it's it's absolutely ingest.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
I'm a huge The food is genuinely better.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
And some of my favorite music in the entire world
comes from France. But yeah, to your point, Ben, the
the idea that they kind of stayed the course and
kept things going as they were, so during the last
week of March through April first, that became a time
to kind of make fun of the French because they
had not changed their calendars to join the rest of
(23:55):
which the term you have in here, Ben, which I love, Christendom,
it just seems very Robin Hood.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
I don't know why Christendom. It's very very official Sunding.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, like the folks who didn't get the decree of
the king and we're still celebrating the quote unquote wrong
beginning of the year. They were called the April fools.
That's a theory. That's the long story short, but that
doesn't always give us the answer. So the long story long,
(24:24):
the straight seahorse teeth, the hot cheese is is this
you gotta like you were saying, No, we got to
look at the history of calendar reform. So the Julian
calendar is named after Julius Caesar, right, and that that's
(24:45):
the calendar that made January first the first day of
the year. But as Christianity, you know, further expands, and
I would argue franchises throughout Europe, people wanted to move
New Year's Day to dates that were more important to Christianity,
(25:06):
like why can't it start at Christmas? Why can't the
year start it Easter? And so some countries kept using
January first, and they justified it. This is so crazy.
Fellow substitute teachers in the crowd, please recognize this may
not be appropriate for your class. Some countries used to
(25:31):
keep with January first, and they would justify it to
Christendom as I don't know how else to say it.
They would they would say that January first was the
date that Jesus Christ was circumcised.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
You know, I've never really given much thought to whether
or not Jesus was circumcised, but he was a Jew
and that is a custom, and I guess I didn't
realize that that was a thing. Wow, Okay, it's just.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Like it's a long walk as far as justifications go.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, right now I'm speculating as to the size
of Jesus's circumcised.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Uh you're thinking about Defoe?
Speaker 5 (26:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Oh god, no, when am I not Jesus massive?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
So look what we're telling you, folks, is by the
fifteen hundred CE, the European calendar was a real messy
bullis spaghetti. The errors in the Julian calendar, like simple
mathematical errors, had caused what we call the solar year
(26:43):
to increasingly divide from the calendar year. And add to this,
different countries are beginning the year on different dates. Uh.
This is really confusing, especially because in France people are
using Easter as the beginning of the year, primarily for
(27:05):
bureaucratic purposes, but people on the ground are using January
first as the traditional start of the year. This is
when you celebrate, This is when you give each other gifts.
You know, visit your relatives, have a hug. Starting the
new year on Easter is stupid and convenient.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
So in the early sixteenth century, in French books, you'll
find both forms of the dating system listed side by side.
For titles published in January February or March, and then
moving into the mid sixteenth century, you started to see
a system of calendaring where everything started on January first,
(27:46):
and that began to be widely adopted in France. So
they finally either got the memo or decided to pull
it out of the trash and you know, kind of
the join the party.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, it was our buddy Charlie King Charles ninth of
his name. He created this thing on December twenty second,
fifteen sixty four, or that's when French Parliament approved of
the move to make January first the official actual fact.
(28:18):
Shout out, Lauren, first day of the year. This was
in my mind, this is like the calindrical version of
legalizing cannabis. He looked at it, he said, everybody's already
doing it, so why are we going to make it illegal?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Wait, isn't that that's the name of an album. Everybody
else is doing it, so what shouldn't we It's.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Like the Cranberries, I want to say.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Ayway, eighteen years later, in fifteen eighty two, we've got
Pope Gregory issuing a papal powl, which sounds so intense,
which is basically just a decree from the Pope that
declared sweeping calendar reform across all of Christendom or Catholicism
in them. The Gregorian reform included moving the start of
the year to January first, and creating a Leapyer system
(29:02):
that Max very definitely stuck to with our publishing schedule
and whatever Leapier that was, which at the time eliminated
ten days from the month of October of eighteen fifty
two in order to correct that calendar drift, which is
something that I still have a hard time wracking my
head around. I think that was a big theme of
the Leapier episode, was me banging my head against the
wall about why what is this calendar drift?
Speaker 1 (29:24):
So the Pope has no real power to make the
governments of the time comply, right, but he does say, hey,
you know, guys, if you're a Christian nation, I'm the
pope and this is the time of really brutal monarchies.
France accepts this reform, they had already changed it. A
(29:49):
lot of people get this part wrong. Anyway, it becomes
clear like the more you look into it, the calendar
change hypothesis has a really convenient to it, right. It
sounds like a light switch going on and off. This
is not quite the truth, you know. You can say that. Look,
(30:14):
you can say that the calendar change hypothesis is plausible
if it's applied to Britain, maybe because they did New
Year's Day of March twenty fifth, because of the Feast
of Annunciation, again trying to align the solar calendar, the
passage of the actual planets with religious ideology. The earliest
(30:38):
version of the calendar change hypothesis that we can find
in print goes back to seventeen sixty six, and it's
a response to a discourse that only started in seventeen
Oh wait, people weren't really asking about April Fools until
centuries after it was happening. We want to go to
(31:07):
a quote from a correspondence to something called The Gentleman's Magazine.
It's a little bit of a long quote. I think
it's an opportunity to do a pretty cool voice. So Noel,
if you can do the first part, I'll come in
at the end.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
Absolutely, this strange custom prevalent throughout this kingdom of people
making fuels of one another upon the first of April.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I'm just sorry, I'm doing it like Kenna very talestu
a ruse from the year, formally a beginning as to
some purpose and in some respects on the twenty fifth
of March, which was supposed to be the incarnation of
our Lord.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
It's been customary with the Romans as well as fit
us Hole Day festival. It ended by an octave that
the commencement of a new year, which festival lasted for
it is where after first of the last was the principal.
Therefore the first of April is the octave of the
twenty fifth of March, and consequently the clothes or ending
(32:20):
of the feast, which was both the festival of the
annunciation and the beginning of the new year.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Broo and Telly ho good sir, h Yeah, we're gonna
to unpack all that. I kind of got lost in
the sauce of the voices.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
There can I jump in real quick to talk about
the voices, because believe it, this is gonna go full circle.
But you guys, you both used your Canterbury Tales voices.
I used remember from that episode. I used an accent
that came up off the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (32:46):
At least I thought, so, oh yeah, we forced you
to play I.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
Figured out later on I was editing it. The accent
I was doing was the one of my friend named Jeff.
He talks like this all the time, like this. The
reason to bring this up is Jeff, who is a character.
I love him to death, but he's a character. His
birthday is April fools Day, and he's the type of
guy who lie in day's birthday today.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
So Jeff, Jeff, text him, text him now. So all
right there there there's another part here. We had writers
back then, we would have historical precedent. There's a whole thing,
a whole discourse with chaucer scholars arguing about whether or
(33:28):
not he actually references April Fools and when March happens
versus May, versus April. We know that Chaucer wrote some
pretty saucy stuff. He's a pretty smart guy. We're actually
big fans of his work. Can't wait for him to
(33:49):
conclude the Canterbury Tales. When do you think it's coming out?
When do you think he'll finish in I.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Think it's been in turnaround at Tony for a while.
Hopefully it's a production. Lebo, Oh my god, I love
you for that one.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Also, if the holiday was always around. Why doesn't Shakespeare
mention it? Look, the United Kingdom only changed their calendar
year to start on January first. They only did that
in seventeen fifty two, just like a few decades before
the United States became a country. By that time, April
(34:25):
Fools is already well established, So confusion about a changing
calendar could not have been logically responsible for the origin
of the celebration in Britain. Oh, also, we should mention
it is possible, like our earlier guy noted that the
(34:47):
festival held on April first in that correspondence with the
with the Gentleman's magazine, it's posstering it for the art.
I love it. Oh, I forgot to tell you, guys.
One of my favorite you know, I'm into weird food.
One of my favorite weird things that I found recently.
(35:10):
It's an actual thing. Have you ever heard of gentleman's relish?
Speaker 4 (35:14):
No, it doesn't sound good. It sounds really gross.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
It's British. It's obviously British.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Oh jeez, I just immediately got it.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I mean, it's probably my own fault for having a
mine in the gutter, but gentleman's relish does not sound good.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
To me, it does sound like a euphemism. It is
not a euphemism. I'm I've got to buy some. We
gotta try it out.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
My mom used to make a thing called gentleman's salad
that was like a gelatin salad, usually green of color,
and with like shit in it that didn't belong, like
horse radish and stuff and like lime jello bass and
gentleman salad is what she always called it.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Never like it, No, I wouldn't even need it.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
It was like she'd put it at everyone's place for
like a holiday meals, and I was a hell.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
No, Oh, it was a holiday thing, So everybody gets
a pass. Gentleman's relish is a real thing. It's also
called patum paperium. It has nothing to do with April
Fool's Day. But if you have tried it, please let
us know. On ridiculous his story.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Well, surely it could.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
There's a place for it in our History of condiments
ongoing series.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
Oh yes, okay, another theory. Oh man, if I get it,
are you guys gonna try it with me? No? You
don't even read about it.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
I don't care. I don't like it.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
I don't like the way it sounds I want nothing
to do with it. I resent its very existence.
Speaker 3 (36:37):
I'm just say someone right here, and it's the only
time in my entire life I've been able to say
this for a good thing. Sorry, Ben, I can't try it.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Condition okay, alright, alright, Max. We respect the condition. So
other people will tell you. Maybe the timing of April
Fool's Day is related to what we call the vernal
equinox March twenty first, because the weather would shift, and
(37:05):
for previous civilizations that was a real plot twist. But
the thing is, none of the theories about the origin
of April Fool's Day have been proven to be correct.
It was almost certainly a continuation of this ancient prankish tendency.
It spread throughout other countries. People genuinely did not ask
(37:31):
about its providence until well after it was already established.
The actual answer is that no one knows why it's
a thing. It's ridiculous. It's not like a bank holiday.
It's just this need to prank.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
People, which I mean, to be fair, you know, you
don't need a particular day to do that. A good
natured prank is welcome or not unwelcome on any day
of the calendar year. There are even TV shows devoted
to this stuff. Remember punked Ashton Kutcher's seminal early two thousands,
Reality where and he would yeah gentleman's relish indeed wherein
(38:13):
he would punk folks celebs usually And now I think
there's a show on TV called Practical Jokers. It's very
very popular and the kids I love Nathan for You.
Nathan for You is Yeah, I guess you could call
it a prank. I mean, it's like an earnest prank
show where he's like pranking people by trying to help
them in the most ridiculous ways possible.
Speaker 4 (38:31):
But I think you're you're spot on.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Them, which is what we're doing, right, Noel, I would
like to think. So we're probably one thing, folks. We
are foolish all year round. As Noel said, it doesn't
have to be a day in April. You can be
silly any any old time. We have a notable examples.
That's the best way to end this in this episode
(38:57):
that we are running late on, Noel, what are some
notable examples of your favorite April fools Day's April Fool's
Day breaks.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Well, it's also something that like you know, corporations get
in on and get in on the phone, you know,
especially in the age of social media. One that I
saw that made me think of you, Ben was this
article that seemed very you know, very well photoshopped. I
guess that waffle House was removing waffles from its media. Yeah,
and I think that I hop did a thing in
(39:29):
April fools Day's Past where they said they were changing
their name to the International House of Burgers.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Oh, that's right, I remember that one. That was a
not too long ago, right, I hob.
Speaker 4 (39:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
You got another one that you found, Ben about another
what is it a Young Brands products Taco Bell.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
Yes, in nineteen ninety six, Taco Bell said, hey, we've
purchased the Liberty Bell. We've renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell.
Where doing this to help with the crushing debt of
the United States.
Speaker 4 (40:05):
Good on you, Taco Bell. Thanks for that.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah this, Yeah, it upset a lot of people in
PR reported it and then they had to have a
press conference to just clear the air and let everybody
know that the city of Philadelphia still owns the Liberty Bell.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
Thank god for that. Another one that you found, Ben
was nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
And pr It did a fun little prank declaring that
Richard Nixon, of course, the shamed or disgraced presidents who
resigned in nineteen seventy four after the Watergate scander where
he was doing all kinds of naughty, underhanded things, was
entering that year's presidential race. And then he had a
fun new slogan it he was rocking, you know not
(40:54):
I mean no the voice. Well, of course I am
not a crook, remember was some of that right? I
had never heard of anything wrong? Then I won't do
it again.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Love it. Thank you for doing that. We've got the
uh so, we've got the skinny on this. There's an
active mystery regarding the origins of April Fool's Day. We
can't thank you enough for tuning in, fellow ridiculous historians,
but we will endeavor to do so. This way, Max
if I could get some fanfare thanks for tuning in. Uzzah,
(41:38):
thanks to our super producer, mister Max Williams. Thanks to
oh gosh, let's see aj Bahamas Jacobs, who else?
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Who are yeah? Abja?
Speaker 2 (41:48):
Jonathan Strickland, the quizz and also you know, pretty stand
up guy when he's not in character. Uh and Chris
Frosciota is an even Jeff Coates here in spirit.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah, the rude dudes a ridiculous crime. Rachel Big Spinach Lance.
I'd like to do a thing in the credits where
we thank random people were people who have passed recently,
So thanks to Val Kilmer Man.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Yeah, thanks to Val Kilmer indeed.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
And I think I posted this before he passed, or
maybe it was a portentous in some way, but I
saw a post of a old tweet from Val Kilmer
wherein he said I once tickled Lou Reid and at
the time I really regretted it because he never spoke
to me again.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
But now I'm glad I did it because I think
he needed it. Well.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Thanks to you Lou for your service, and thanks Ip
Lou as well, Rip Lou as well. Thanks to you
Neil and you as well.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
Then we'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts
from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!