April Fish

A bit of history about April Fool's Day.

When was the last time you laughed hard? I’m talking the uncontrollable I can’t stop laughing, might have peed my pants, my stomach hurts type of laughter. This is the rarest and best kind of laughter.

I think I laugh at something daily (pro tip: marry someone who makes you laugh). There’s also so much humor to be found in everyday life.

When I was noodling over what to write about on April 1st, it occurred to me that most April Fool’s jokes are kind of lame and not that funny. They might elicit a chuckle at best. This led me down a rabbit hole of wondering where April Fool’s even came from?

Apparently, it’s a bit of a mystery. The most common explanation dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. This was a major shift because in the Julian calendar, the new year began around the spring equinox (late March/April 1). Under the Gregorian calendar, the new year began on January 1. Because news traveled slowly in the 16th century, people who didn’t get the memo and still continued to celebrate New Year in April became the butt of jokes, or April fools. A fun fact is in France, these people were called Poisson d’Avril, which means “April fish,” because young, easily caught fish are common in French streams in early April (symbolizing a person who is easily “hooked” by a prank). Today, French children (and occasionally mischievous adults) will cut out colorful paper fish and tape them on the backs of unsuspecting friends, family members, or teachers, with the goal of seeing how long the victim will walk around without noticing the fish on their back.

"If you can laugh at yourself, you will never cease to be amused."

Anonymous

Freshman dorm friends.

My freshman year at Stanford (when I was young and more naive) the student newspaper ran a very convincing article that listed students who were admitted by mistake. Regrettably, the University would need to rescind their admissions and those students would need to leave at the end of the week. It was widely known that my class was larger than typical. More of us had accepted Stanford’s admission offer than they anticipated and we were causing a housing shortage. When I scanned the list of names in the paper, I was shocked to see a friend from my dorm. I spent at least 30 minutes thinking he’d actually get booted from our class before realizing that it was an April Fool’s joke.

At least I wasn’t one of the students listed: my year, there were three Asian women from North Carolina all named Christina, so we were already joking that someone had made a mistake. What were the chances?! There were barely any Asians in North Carolina in the 1990s.

So, back to my original question: when was the last time you laughed hard? If it’s been a while, I hope that kind of laughter finds you soon. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite bits of humor, set in a French restaurant.

In the spirit of the Poisson d’Avril, drop a comment with the last thing that made you laugh—or the last time you fell for an April Fool’s joke. 🐟

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