April Fool's Day as a custom is said to have originated with the Celts. As the fishing season began in April, some people began to brag about "exaggerating" their fishing skills. (and probably since then this custom among fishermen continues). There is of course the opinion that the custom of the April Fool's prank began due to the change of New Year's day in France was celebrated on April 1 until the years of the reign of Charles IX, who moved it to January 1. Those who did not accept the change, received pranks from others in the form of New Year gifts or even teasing lyrics.
April 1st was gradually established as the day for practical jokes and teasing aimed at laughter. Many of them are innocent trying to mislead the recipient of the joke. Monumental is Orson Welles's alien appearance prank, in which he spread panic, reading on the radio an excerpt from "War of the Worlds" by H.G.Welles. (although it was not April 1st, it is worth mentioning). The radio transmission had so much impact on the American audience that Wells had to apologise publicly.
Sometimes, pranks are intended to cause shame and perhaps irritation to the recipient, but everything is usually done in order to provoke laughter, without any bad intention. But some clearly have revenge as their goal and go beyond the concept of practical joke.
Pranks, however, often play a leading role in movies, so much so that there is comedy films that relies heavily on them. So a tribute to pranks, even if they are not reffering to 1st of April, that we have seen in various movies.
1 Grumpy old men (1993)
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon was a duet that usually was feuding in movies. This time, they are neighbors that trying to get to each other nevres by putting on practical jokes. Watch this clip as Jack Lemmon is trying to watch on Tv the lottery draw but his neighbor, with an appetite for fun, is in control of his TV. (We have seen a similar scene in Amelie, only there the neighbor was watching the football final, with Ameli disconnecting the antenna at critical moments.
2 Amelie (2001)
And speaking of Amelie, the film was full of practical jokes, as the protagonist tries to change the lives of others for the better. Amelie wants to convince her now widowed father to travel and organizes a prank with accomplice, a small dwarf clay garden.
3 National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
Pranks are also common in educational institutions. Especially in colleges, as we were introduced to by the very popular films in the 1980s with related themes (The Nerd Revenge, Porky's etc). In the National Lampoon Animal House, Bluto (John Belushi) and D-Day persuade young Flounder to put a horse (not just any horse, but their opponent's one) in the dean's office. But things did not go as planned ...
4 Police Academy
Pick any film of the series "Police academy" and you will find many pranks against the rude, arrogant academy superiors, first Harris and then Mauser, who often suffered from the pranks of Mahoney and his successors. Either putting glue in their shampoo, or colour in the showergel, or moving the toilet (which the unsuspected victim uses at the time) in the middle of a full crowded football team, police cadets had theikr way with their "opponents".
The Blue Oyster practical joke was a classic one that was kept repeated in almost every film of the series. (Remember, it is still the 1980s, so the humor in the films doesn't comply with political correctness. These films probably probably wouldn't be filmed nowadays).
Bonus scene from Amelie
And for end another classic scene of Amelie. This time, she is not driven by good intentions, but by a disposition for revenge against the wicked and rude greengrocer who treated her badly. Her revenge, which of course takes the form of small practical jokes, infinitesimal changes that can drive each other crazy. Even if the intention was not polite, we will forgive our Amelie who with so much mastery managed to detune the rude greengrocer.
I know, I know... I left out some of the most famous prank scenes, as the Coffee with laxative in Dumber and Dumber, or the pie incident in The Help. There are too many, and if I started to include all I would need a tome, no, make that three tomes to write them down.
Pranks are in our lives and provided that they are done with good intentions and not with the intention of punishing or bullying the other. Then, they are acceptable. We need humor in our lives (as long as it is good humor).
So, Happy April Fool's Day. Did anyone fool you today?
Thank you for reading!