April Fools’ Day – it’s a strange idea isn’t it? A whole day (or half a day if you buy into the pre-midday only rule) devoted to making folk look like right pillocks. That late, great master of prankery Jeremy Beadle must have appreciated it; its basic concept formed the foundation for his hit TV show ‘Beadle’s About’. After all, who could deny the pleasure we humans take in watching other people’s misfortune and when it’s inflicted with malicious intent all the better, right?

The origin of April Fools’ day is a difficult one to pin down. It’s thought that the European tradition probably began in the 16th Century, with France’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Prior to this, celebration of the New Year would culminate on April 1st. Communication networks being what they were back then (most people hadn’t signed up to Myspace/Facebook yet), those ignorant of the change continued to celebrate on April 1st rather than the newly imposed January 1st. These poor souls were labelled fools and a custom rapidly developed of mocking their obsolete festivities, sending them on ‘fool’s errands’ and branding them poisson d’avril (April fish). The surreptitious pinning of a paper fish to an unsuspecting schoolmate’s back is still a commonplace April 1st tradition in France.

In the ensuing years prank clichés have been carefully honed: cling film has been invented for the sole purpose of forming an invisible barrier over a toilet seat, refracting a toilet-goers output in an unexpected direction to the annually-decreasing hilarity of the trickster. Or of course there’s the ancient ritual of ‘thine changing of the alarm clock’ (possibly pagan in origin), in which the victim’s alarm clock settings are altered so that they get up early, prepare themselves for work, then realise they’ve been conned and have to watch GMTV for half an hour.

One April back in 2005 Bristol Rovers decided it was time to get in on the foolery. The official website announced the introduction of a third away kit in a garish pink colour but the anticipated torrent of horrified response from the fans was instead supplanted by a petition demanding that the kit be adopted. The club duly obliged, donating the unexpected proceeds to a local breast cancer charity.

Many other April Fools’ have made it into infamy: BBC Panorama’s 1957 coverage of Switzerland’s “bumper spaghetti harvest”; Tesco’s advertising of a GM carrot that whistles when cooked; Alabama State Court’s supposed legal change of the mathematical constant Pi to the “biblical value” 3.0.

It’s difficult to know what to make of the April Fool tradition. On the one hand it’s an opportunity to inject a bit of silliness into an otherwise serious existence, on the other it’s simply taking pride in making someone else look and feel like an idiot. Still, if you were stung by an April Fool prank this year, take solace in this ancient Chinese proverb: “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice… and you’ll probably fall over on a dog turd.”

Ed Williams