What is April Fools' Day?

Get ready to laugh and be totally confused! Have you ever wondered why we try to trick our friends every April 1st? Join Mira and Finn as they travel back in time to uncover the hilarious history of April Fools' Day! It all started in France way back in 1582 when the calendar changed and people got mixed up. Imagine being called an "April Fish" just for celebrating the New Year on the wrong day! We will dive into the world’s most legendary pranks, like the time the BBC convinced an entire nation that spaghetti actually grows on trees! Plus, find out how Taco Bell claimed they bought the Liberty Bell and why Google loves to invent fake products that sound almost real. From giant paper fish stuck on people's backs to historical hoaxes that fooled millions, this episode is packed with tricks, treats, and totally true stories about the world's silliest tradition. Don't get fooled—hit play and discover how the day of the prankster began!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Mira, why are you wearing a giant paper fish on your back?

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Because today we're talking about the history of April Fool's Day. Did you know that in 1957 the BBC fooled eight million people into thinking spaghetti grew on trees? Eight million?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

No way! I love spaghetti, but I'm pretty sure it comes from a box, not a branch.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Exactly! But thousands of people actually called the TV station to ask how they could grow their own spaghetti bushes at home. Wait, did they actually tell them how? The BBC told them to place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best. It's one of the greatest hoaxes in history.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

That's hilarious! But where did all this trickery start?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Was there a first prank ever recorded? Well, historians aren't 100% sure, but most think it started about 442 years ago in France.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

442 years? That's 1582! What happened back then that made everyone want to pull pranks?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

It all comes down to a giant calendar confusion. Before 1582, France used the Julian calendar, where the New Year actually started on April 1st. Wait, New Year's was in the spring, not January 1st? Nope. People would celebrate for eight days, starting on March 25th and ending with a huge party on April 1st. But then, Pope Gregory XIII decided everyone needed to switch to the Gregorian calendar, which moved New Year's Day to January 1st.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Did everyone just say okay and change their calendars immediately?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Not even close. News travelled super slowly back then. No TikTok or even newspapers. Some people didn't get the memo for years.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

So some people were still partying in April, while everyone else had already celebrated in January.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Exactly! And the people who did know about the change started playing tricks on the April fools who were still celebrating the old way. Like what? Did they give them fake presents or something? They would send them on sleeveless errands, which meant asking them to find things that didn't exist. Or they'd pin things on their backs.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Is that why you have that paper fish on your back? It's a bit weird, Mira.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

It's a French tradition called Prisson d'Avril, or April Fish. Since young fish are easy to catch, people called the pranked kids April Fish.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Ew, I hope they didn't use real slimy fish. That would smell so bad.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Don't worry, they mostly used paper fish. But the idea spread. By the 1700s, April Fool's Day was a huge deal in Great Britain and Scotland. Scotland? Did they do anything different?

SPEAKER_01 3:02

They always have cool traditions.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Oh, they made it a two-day event. The first day was Hunt the Gouk. A Gouk is a cuckoo bird, which was a symbol for a fool. And what was the second day? It was called Taily Day. People would play pranks involving, well, people's backsides. Like pinning kick me signs on them. So the kick me sign is hundreds of years old. That's legendary! Totally! But as technology got better, the pranks got way bigger. Remember that spaghetti tree hoax I mentioned earlier?

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah, tell me more about that. How did they pull it off on TV without everyone knowing it was a joke?

SPEAKER_00 3:43

It was April 1st, 1957. A show called Panorama aired a three-minute film showing a family in Ticino, Switzerland, harvesting spaghetti from trees. But spaghetti is just flour and water. How did they make it look real? They actually hung 20 pounds of wet spaghetti from the branches of laurel trees. It looked surprisingly convincing on old black and white TVs. Twenty pounds?

SPEAKER_01 4:11

That's enough to feed my whole class. Did anyone notice it wasn't growing?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Hardly anyone. The narrator was Richard Dimbleby, a super famous and serious newsman. People trusted him so much they didn't question it. What happened the next day? Were people mad? Some were, but most were just embarrassed. The BBC received hundreds of calls. Back then, spaghetti wasn't a common food in the UK. It was an exotic delicacy. Exotic? It's literally just noodles. History is so weird. Right? But that wasn't the last time the media fooled a whole country. Fast forward to 1996, when a fast food giant pulled a prank on the United States. Which one?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Was it burgers? Please tell me it involved 1,000 free burgers.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Nope, it was Taco Bell. On April 1st, 1996, they took out full-page ads in six major newspapers, including the New York Times and USA Today. What did the ad say? It announced that Taco Bell had purchased the Liberty Bell, one of America's most famous historical treasures, to help reduce the national debt.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

People went bananas. The National Park Service in Philadelphia received over 650 phone calls from angry citizens in just a few hours. 650 calls. Did the government have to get involved?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yes. Even the White House press secretary, Mike McCurry, joined in. He told reporters that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold to Ford and would be renamed the Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

That's actually a pretty good joke for a government guy. But how much did Taco Bell spend on that prank?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

They spent about$300,000 on the ads, but they got over$25 million worth of free publicity because everyone was talking about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Whoa!$25 million? That's like$55 million tacos! That is a very successful prank.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

It really was. And speaking of tech and big companies, we can't talk about April Fool's without mentioning Google. They are the kings of fake products.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Oh, I've heard of these. Didn't they say they were going to have a base on Mars or something?

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yes. In 2000, their first prank was Mentalplex. They told users to stare at a swirling surface and think about what they wanted to search for. Did it work? No. It would just give error messages like brainwave interference or multiple transmitters detected.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Haha, that's clever. What else did they do?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

In 2005, they announced Google Gulp, a drink that would make you smarter by optimising your DNA. People actually tried to find it in stores.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Optimised DNA drink? That sounds like it would taste like old socks and science projects.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Probably. But here's the craziest Google fact. On April 1st, 2004, they launched Gmail. Because it was April Fool's Day, everyone thought it was a prank.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Wait, so a real thing was mistaken for a joke because of the date? That's the ultimate reverse prank.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Exactly! They offered one gigabyte of storage, which was 500 times more than what Hotmail offered at the time. It sounded way too good to be true. Five hundred times more?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

I would have thought it was a joke too. So April Fool's Day basically makes us question everything we see.

SPEAKER_00 7:55

It does! And it's not just big companies. In 1906, a newspaper in Kansas reported that the Great Wall of China was being torn down so American engineers could build roads.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

The Great Wall? That thing is over 13,000 miles long. How could they even think about tearing that down?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

They couldn't! It was a total hoax. But it was so believable that even newspapers in China eventually picked up the story thinking it was real news.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Haha, wow! It seems like for hundreds of years, humans have just loved being a little bit mischievous.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

We really do. Whether it's paperfish in 1582 or fake Mars bases in 2000, April Fool's Day is all about having a laugh together.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

So what's the lesson here? Don't trust anything on April 1st?

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Pretty much. Always check your sources. And check your back for paper fish. Alright, Finn, it's that time! Are you ready for the April Fool's history quiz?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

I'm ready. I've been taking notes in my head.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

First question. In what year did France switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, starting the April Fool's tradition? Next one. What did the BBC claim was growing on trees in Switzerland during their famous 1957 hoax? Question 3. What famous American historical treasure did Tacobell claim to have purchased in 1996? Here's number four. What do French people call a person who gets pranked on April 1st? Last question. Which real Google service was launched on April 1st, 2004, causing many people to think it was a prank. Great job everyone! Let's see how many you got right. The first answer is France switched calendars in 1582. For question two, the BBC claimed spaghetti was growing on trees. Number three, the answer is Taco Bell claimed they bought the Liberty Bell. Question four, they call them a Poisson d'Avril or an April fish. And the final answer is, it was Gmail! Haha!

SPEAKER_01 10:26

I got four out of five! I forgot the French word for fish. But man, I'll never look at a spaghetti tree the same way again.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

It's amazing how a simple calendar change 442 years ago turned into a global day of fun and pranks.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Haha, yeah, and it's even cooler that people are still falling for it hundreds of years later.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

If you enjoyed learning about these epic hoaxes, please give us a five-star review. It really helps more kids find the show.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, just scroll down on your podcast app and tap those five stars. It's easier than trying to grow spaghetti in a tin of sauce.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Haha, and don't forget to visit our site at kidopoly.com. We've got tons of awesome history games and fun activities for you to explore.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

And if you have a cool history fact or want a shout out, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. We love hearing from you.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Thanks for listening to History is not boring. See you next time. Bye everyone.