The origin of April Fool’s Day is not really known. In 18th century Britain, there was a two-day event that encouraged many of the jokes and pranks we still use for our April Fool’s Day. The first day was “Hunting the Gowk,” in which people were sent all over on phony errands. Gowk was another name for a cuckoo bird, which was considered a silly bird, a fool.
When I was working in Boulder, we had a young man working as a gofer in our parts department. Things were a little slow, so we sent him to the local auto parts store to bring back a “muffler bearing.” Muffler bearings were the dealership equivalent to a Boy Scout Snipe hunt. It is an initiation rite.
After about two hours, somebody commented, “where’s the kid?” We expected him to return with a sheepish look long before. So, we called up the auto parts store where we had sent the kid and asked if he had indeed arrived. We learned that the counterman there had played along with the joke. He told the kid he was out of muffler bearings but thought the NAPA store might have some new stock and gave him directions to NAPA. The counterman then called ahead to NAPA’s counterman and let him in on the joke. NAPA then proceeded to tell the kid they, too, were all out of muffler bearings.
The kid got passed around all over town and wasted about three hours chasing all over Boulder before coming back empty-handed. Many years later the joke was on all of us when Mitsubishi designed an exhaust diverter valve behind the muffler, creating a real muffler bearing.
In Scotland, the saying goes “Dinna laugh, an dinna smile, but hunt the Gowk another mile.” In Britain, the next day was Tailee Day, an opportunity for pranks such as pinning a fake tail on someone else or placing a “KICK ME” sign on someone’s backside. Some jokes never get old. Some new pranks have been added, such as stretching clear plastic over a toilet bowl, or swapping sugar and salt labels.
Contrary to popular opinion, Germans do have a sense of humor. On April 1, 1909, the Berliner Tageblatt reported that thieves had tunneled under the U.S. Federal Treasury and stolen all the gold and silver. Other papers quickly copied without verifying the news. Last year, in this paper, we covered the 1957 April Fool’s stunt that the BBC played on its TV audience. Remember the harvest in Switzerland of the spaghetti trees? On April 1, 1996, Taco Bell announced the pending purchase of the Liberty Bell, soon to be renamed the Taco Liberty Bell. They suffered some backlash, but it sure got a lot of exposure for their brand. On April 1st, 1998, Burger King followed suit by introducing the new “Left-Handed Whopper.” Left-handed people all over America dropped everything to sample the new fast food designed just for them.
If you doubt any of this, just check out Alex Boese’ website, The Museum of Hoaxes, founded in 1997. The Museum is open 24/7. But of course, the building itself is…a hoax! To sum it up, don’t believe everything you see or read, especially this time of year.
Sources: nationalgeographic.com and history.com
By ED PECK – Special to the Herald times
