Company pulling



There’s been some work stuff in the past, like pranks at work years ago. I remember vaguely one time a boss of mine when I worked in the advertising industry, has sent out some email about us all getting raises or something, which is cruel. I blocked it out. It is nice when you work for someone who has that sense of humor, but it’s also a little bit cruel.

Have you ever played a good April Fool’s joke on someone?

I haven’t.

Even as a kid?

No, not that I could recall.

Your example is a good one because it’s a very uncomfortable April Fool’s joke. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they fall completely flat and might be offensive. Sometimes they’re awkward because they’re not good.

It’s a crapshoot.

It’s interesting too because you’ve seen over the years companies try to capitalize on April Fool’s Day and come out with crazy things. I know Netflix has done a few. Maybe Apple, some brands have done good jobs and some have done lame jobs, let’s say best April Fools’ pranks. Can’t you think of any from being a kid?

No, I was never a prankster. That was never the way that I got my kicks. I wasn’t that type of kid.

Were you ever somebody that would put an insect on to make somebody think that there’s a giant spider, but it’s a rubber spider? When I pulled up the best April Fools’ pranks, that’s the first thing that came up and that sounds dumb. They are trying to think that there are some insects. A lot of them were lame. What bothers me about April Fools’ pranks is when they do stupid and lame stuff. I’m like, “Get creative.”

Can we talk about something that I’m curious about with all of this? What is it in the human psyche that feels the need to prank people? It’s psychologically torturing for our enjoyment. I use the word torture because I can’t think of a better word. I know that’s an extreme word, but it is what it is. “I’m going to intentionally manipulate, shock, surprise you with something or scare you because it’s going to give me pleasure.” That’s a strange thing to identify us as humans. When you think about it on a psychological level, why do we feel the need to do that?

It is interesting. I didn’t think about that. What is it? There’s something that we enjoy about watching people get scared or hurt themselves. America’s Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, and a lot of these successful television shows and memes, online accounts have been successful with torturing people. You and I also loved that one of that guy falling down the escalator.

You brought it up multiple times, but the reason that I think it was funny is because he wasn’t hurt.

That’s the point of all of these. As long as you don’t harm somebody, it can be funny. What about whoopee cushions?

I did that to my mom once.

Is that for April Fool’s Day?

No, in general.

How did she react?

I was young. I can’t remember it. She wasn’t laughing with me. She wasn’t angry. It was one of those things.

I pulled up this list and on BoredPanda.com. There are some pretty good ones. You might appreciate this one, Jason. One of them is called the Chewbacca Roar Contest, but I don’t understand how this is a prank. There’s a sign that says, “Chewbacca Roar Contest, Reward $50. Call this number and leave a voicemail with your best impersonation.” Maybe the prank is that the number you call is somebody who doesn’t know that this is happening and they’re getting a ton of phone calls. Can you imagine? That’s a good one.

I like clever pranks like that. The other one that I’ve appreciated and it’s getting old, but I’ve seen it go around at TikTok. It’s when somebody takes two phones and puts the speakers next to each other and then calls two separate numbers. Neither party understands what’s happening and they’re like, “Why did you call me?” The other person is like, “I didn’t call you. You called me.” The other is like, “No, I didn’t.” He just listened to their conversation, but the funniest examples of that are when they’ll call two pizza restaurants and it will be like, “Pizza Hut, may I take your order?” They’re like, “What would you order?” It goes on and on. They start to get annoyed with each other. Those can be funny.

That’s what I mean. It’s fascinating from an anthropological perspective. I would love to know the history of this. Certainly, we have been engaging in comedy, humor, drama and theater in human civilization for a long time, but this idea of pranking people or fooling people, I wonder what the etymology and the history of this is.

We are going to find out from one of the best sources because I found an article on History.com, which is a very reputable source of the mystery of April Fool’s Day. It’s also called All Fools’ Day. I feel like you would appreciate this word because you like to call people fool. You call me fool. You call your dog fool.

I’m trying to channel my inner Mr. T when I do that. My inspiration for that, FYI, anybody who knows me where I’m like, “Come on, fool.” I do it almost as a playful term of endearment.

I didn’t know, that’s why you said that so much.

That was one of Mr. T’s catchphrase, “I pity the fool.”

I know that, but I didn’t realize that that’s where that came from.

The etymology of my use of fool goes back to Mr. T.

Some historians speculate that the April Fool’s Day goes back to 1582 when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the New Year had moved to January 1st and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1st became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These pranks included having a paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as April Fish. It is said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish and a gullible person.

Some April Fools'