Hey, forever ago friends, host of history and lady of mystery, Joy Dolo here!
Happy April Fools Day!
So far today, I've dropped banana peels all over the floor, swapped whipped cream for shaving cream, and put Whoopee cushions on all the chairs and brains on Universe HQ!
I'm pranked out! So now, I can tell you absolutely, 100 % truthfully, no foolin', That 4EverAGO is coming back next week starting April 9th!
We've got tons of awesome new episodes from the history of fireworks to Girl Scouts to My Mortal Enemy… mail.
In the meantime, I wanted to share this episode we made last year all about the history of April Fool's Day.
Prank on! And that's the last time I trust Gumpy to make cheesecake.
I know, he's just a pile of gum that magically came to life Frosty the snowman style.
But that's no excuse.
That cheesecake he made was terrible.
I know Joy, I can't believe he just roasted an entire wheel of Parmesan cheese.
He Really Should Have Used mozzarella.
Anywho, we're here, Mikayla.
Welcome to the Forever Go studio.
Wow, it's so spiffy in here.
Fancy microphones, big cushy headphones, banana peels all over the floor.
Wait, why are there banana peels all over the floor?
Oh my goodness. Who would ever leave all these banana peels here?
I really hope I don't slip on one and...
Whoa! Whoa! Fall? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
That was so much fun.
I gotta try that again.
Joy, did you leave all these banana pills here?
Maybe. Definitely. I'm really into pranks right now, specifically pranking myself, which is kinda hard to do, but I'm trying to keep myself on my toes.
Ha, ha, ha, ha. Or off my toes.
Whoa! Ha, ha. Love this for you.
I'm just going to tip -toe around these.
Fair enough. Slipping on banana peels isn't everyone's cup of tea.
What a day. Time to take a loadoff.
Is your chair made from whoopee cushions?
Is Darren Hayes my favorite member of the hit 90s pop band Savage Garden?
Yes. I love him. Look, my whoopee cushion chairs even recline!
Ooh, nice! But wait, there's more!
It's also a massage whoopee cushion chair!
See? Oh, so relaxing.
OK, this is ridiculous.
And awesome. Everybody needs a little R &R.
Rest and relaxation?
Ridiculousness and relaxation.
Uh. You're listening to Forever Ago from APM Studios.
I'm your host, Joy Dolo, and I'm here today with my co -host, Michaela from Oak Park, Illinois.
Hi, Joy. And today, we're talking about pranks and specifically the prankiest day of the year, April Fool's Day.
Ah, Joy, it's October.
Yes. And? April Fool's Day is in April.
April 1st, to be exact.
Why be a prankster for one day when you could prank all year round?
Plus, if we talked about April Fool's Day on April Fool's Day, people might think it's a joke.
And I'm so serious right now.
You're literally sitting in a chair made of Whoopee cushions surrounded by maybe appeals yes and don't worry that was the chair Michaela excuse me Michaela what do you think of April Fool's Day um I like it my parents always are the ones that prank me though oh yeah what kind of pranks do they do do you have a favorite and the only one they ever do is wake me up and say It's snowing outside.
Oh, that's so mean!
Do you do you like pranks?
Uh, yes and I've never really done one before.
Do you have, like, one in mind that you might think about doing?
Like there's the classic whoopee cushion there's the good old banana peels like I've just done.
I have thought about doing a slime bucket.
Okay, so we have a slime bucket.
So would we were we thinking doing it on mom or on dad?
Probably my Dad. Oh, yeah.
He could handle a slime bucket.
Okay, this is what we gotta do Makayla We got to get a bucket and then we can just get some like water and like cornstarch and mix it up put some food coloring in there you can just tape the bucket like on top of the doorway and when he's walking through you get like one of those nerf guns and and when he walks through, shoot the Nerf gun at the bucket, boom, on his head, prank.
Next, what'd we do to mom?
I'm just kidding. Ah, ha, ha, ha.
That's a good plan, right?
Yes. Ah, ha, ha, ha.
Definitely. If you ever need help with pranks I can definitely help you.
Slime is a good way to go and pranking parents is really fun.
Yes. Well to prank somebody means to do a trick on them.
Usually, the prank is lighthearted and fun.
Like putting a whoopie cushion on someone's chair or putting a slime bucket in the doorway of your dad.
Or replacing all of your family photos with pictures of Darren Hayes from the hit 90s pop duo Savage Garden.
Or like this. Hey Joy, I just sent you the cutest TikTok of a corgi making croissants.
A croissant corgi?!
I gotta see this. Wait, this is never gonna give you up by Rick Astley.
Makayla, did you just Rick Roll me?
Pranked. Ha ha ha. Prank more like thanks because I love being pranked.
The word prank might have come from an old Dutch word meaning to strut or to show off.
That makes sense. Pranks are like little performances.
But what about April Fool's Day?
Where did that come from?
We don't know exactly where the prankiest day of the year came from, but we have a few ideas.
One theory is that April Fool's is connected to Ancient Rome, back in the times of horse -drawn carriages, chariots, and togas.
The ancient Romans celebrated the holiday Hilaria, which is Latin for joyful it was basically a big festival at the end of March to celebrate the coming of spring and warmer weather.
People would play games, dress up, and even do imitations.
Okay, okay, okay, Here's this one.
I came, I saw, and I totally conquered.
Ha, ha, ha. That's a great Caesar impression.
Do Cleopatra next. So that's one possible inspiration for April Fool's.
Another idea is that April Fool's Day is connected to Sizdah Badar.
That's a special celebration which marks the last day of the Iranian New Year around the end of March and beginning of April.
People have been celebrating for thousands of years by having picnics outside and pulling small pranks on each other.
Picnics and pranks?
Sign me up! Right?!
Another theory is that April Fool's Day is linked to something that happened a long time ago in France.
It was the 1500s. This is the era of William Shakespeare and big, frilly callers.
Back then, France celebrated the New Year at the end of March… …which would have lined up with the end of winter and the beginning of spring.
New flowers new year.
Makes sense, but soon a new calendar came along and in that calendar the new year began on January 1st so France decided to start using this new calendar which meant they started celebrating New Year's in January too but news of the calendar switcheroo was slow to travel so there were still some people who celebrated the New Year in the spring in April and And as the story goes, these folks were called fools.
April fools! Happy new year!
Woo! Oh Francois, you're such a fool!
Haven't you heard? New Year's is on January 1st now!
Zoot! A whole new calendar?
What's next? Are frilly collars going out of style?
So those are just a few ideas of where April Fool's Day might have come from.
From Ancient Rome or Iran, or France.
Like a lot of history, it's murky, but not dark, scary murky, fun, exciting murky.
Yeah, so many different cultures throughout history have had spring celebrations that are about laughter or pranks.
It's just like they say, spring into your step and whoopee in your cushion.
Who exactly says that?
Me! Now, just wait until you hear about some of the most epic April Fools pranks ever.
But first, it's time to play First Things First. So this is the game where we take three things from history and try to put them in order of which came first, second and most recent in time.
Today's three things are practical joke toys.
We've got my favorite whoopee cushions, those air cushions that make farting Hand buzzers, that's a little device that gives someone else a little buzz when they shake your hand.
And snakes in a can, which were cans that looked like nuts or chips, but when you opened them, a fake snake popped out.
Which do you think came first?
Which came second? And which came most recently in history?
I think snakes in a can came first. Okay.
Whoopee cushions came second.
And hand buzzers came last. That's interesting.
So walk me through your thought process.
So we have snake in a can first as the oldest. Why do you think that one's the oldest?
I don't know, it just it doesn't sound like it has a lot of technology involved.
Yeah, all you need is a can and some snakes.
Fake snakes. If it was real snakes, that would be a mean joke.
Okay, so we have the snake in the can first and then Whoopee Kush in second, is there a reason why you planted that one right in the middle?
It's kind of easy to make, I don't know how it's easy to make it just sounds like one of the easy ones.
Yeah that makes sense.
Like actually, it reminds me of like a balloon, you know?
Have you ever done that with a balloon where you hold the tip of it and it makes that kind of fart noise?
Yeah. Yeah. So, somebody must have just thought of making that into whoopie cushion.
And then hand buzzers to you seem like they're probably the most recent huh?
I don't really know why.
It just kind of is like the most - has the most kind of like energy like technical stuff Mhm, yeah, it might even need like a battery or something, so that would be something more technologically advanced, I guess.
Well, those are some great guesses and we'll hear the answers at the end of the episode right after the credits.
So stick around. We're working on an episode all about jobs that used to exist in the past, but don't exist anymore today.
But we want to know, what jobs do you think will exist in the future that don't exist today?
Mikayla, what do you think?
Any ideas about jobs of the future?
Um, I think like a pet designer home person, like a person that designs homes for pets, like comfortable homes.
Comfortable homes for pets.
I love this idea because I have three pets.
That's such a great idea.
Listeners, record yourself describing what job you think will exist in the future and send it to us at foreverago .org slash contact.
And while you're there, you can send us episode ideas, questions, and drawings.
Like maybe you want to draw a picture of a whoopee cushion with my face on it.
Exciting. Or maybe you want to draw a picture of a pet designer house, like what would your pet design house look like?
Send it to us at forevergo .org slash contact.
Brainzone Universe is a family of podcasts for kids and their adults.
Since you're a fan of Forever Ago, we know you'll love the other shows in our universe.
Come on. Let's explore.
Here we are in Brains On Universe.
On to my favorite podcasts.
Brains On. Smash Boom Fest. Forever ago, I found one!
Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, Brains On.
Brains On, a science podcast for kids and family.
Let's start with our pal, the sun. Did somebody call their favorite star?
It's me, the sun. The sun is made up of a very, very hot elec - What a great show.
Need more Brains On now.
Listen to Brains On, wherever you get your podcasts.
You're listening to Forever Ago.
I'm Joy and I'm Micaela and today we're talking about pranks and the prankiest of days, April Fool's Day.
There are lots of ideas from around the world about how April Fool's Day started.
It might be linked to spring celebrations in ancient Rome or the Iranian new year.
Others think it comes from the French switching their calendars about 500 years ago.
No matter how it got started April Fool's Day has brought mischief for centuries on this day people often pull pranks on each other like putting a rubber snake in someone's bad oh or stuffing cotton balls into the toes of somebody shoes so they think their feet grew or swapping the frosting and a cookie with mayonnaise oh that's not a prank that's an act of culinary violence oops sorry Joy I forgot about your never ending and totally one -sided feud with mayo.
You are forgiven. Sometimes news organizations even publish made up stories on April fools.
In 1878, a newspaper published a fake story reporting that Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb made a new machine that could turn dirt into food.
And in the age of the internet some people post fake pictures articles, or advertisements online on April 1st. In 2024, Krispy Kreme donuts advertised that they'd glaze anything you brought in.
Pizza, watermelon, a cheeseburger, you name it.
And 7 -Eleven said it was releasing hotdog flavored sparkling water.
Sparkling hotdog water?
That's a good prank.
Did someone say prank?
Oh, it's my pal and Brains on host Molly Bloom.
Come on in. Oh! Wait, watch out for the— The thirty -seven banana peels on the floor?
Or those whoopee cushion chairs?
Way ahead of you. I'm always on the lookout for potential pranks.
Good eye. Molly, what's in your hands?
Is that a crate? It's actually my soap box.
Molly is an avid soap collector.
Bergamot Lavender is my favorite.
I couldn't help but overhear you talking about April Fool's day and, let me just say, I come here with a warning.
April Fool's has gotten out of hand.
And I just wanted to get up on my literal and metaphorical soapbox to say so.
So that's why you brought the soapbox.
All the better to pontificate from, especially about April Fools.
What? But you love pranks!
Remember how last week you put my stapler in Jell -O?
It was awesome! It's true!
I love pranks, but April Fools' Day?
Not so much. In my humble opinion, it's become an irresponsible holiday.
Well, since you're up on your soup box, the floor is yours.
Thank you. You see, there have been lots and lots of different April Fools pranks throughout history.
The French stick paper fishes on each other's backs, and in Scotland, they pin tails on one another.
You might send somebody across town to deliver a letter, except there's nothing written on the letter.
That's called a fool's errand.
Paper, fishes, tails, fake errands.
Joy, are you taking notes?
Yeah, these are great ideas for future ways to prank myself.
But it's not just everyday pranksters pulling pranks.
You see, as April Fools grew in popularity, our ability to spread pranks grew too.
We had newspapers, then radio, and eventually TV came along.
And this is where the problems really started.
One of the first April Fools pranks that appeared on television was from the United Kingdom back in 1957.
Back in the 1950s, televisions were still pretty new technology but more and more people had them in their homes.
They were mostly in black and white.
This is when the British Broadcast Company, also known as the BBC, aired a TV report from a small town in Switzerland.
Here's an actual recording of it.
It isn't only in Britain that spring this year has taken everyone by surprise.
Here, in the Ticino, on the borders of Switzerland and Italy, the slopes overlooking Lake Legarno have already burst into flower, at least a fortnight earlier than usual.
See, it seems like a regular TV news story, just some footage of a cute, small Swiss village and lots of flowering trees.
Pretty normal stuff.
But then, it gets...
pranky. But what, you may ask, has the early and welcome arrival of bees and blossom to do with food?
Well, it's simply that the past winter, one of the mildest in living memory, has had its effect in other ways as well.
Most important of all, it's resulted in an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop.
Spaghetti crop? Like spaghetti noodles just growing on trees?
Yep. The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer.
There's always the chance of a late frost, which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets.
But now these dangers are over, and the spaghetti harvest goes forward. In the Fake TV News story, there's these trees and bushes that just have long strands of spaghetti noodles hanging off of them.
And people are picking the noodles and putting them in baskets.
Now, to some people, this might seem a bit far -fetched.
Clearly, a joke. Spaghetti on trees?
Get out of here. Spaghetti is made by grinding wheat, making flour, and forming it into long strands.
But it's important to remember, at the time, many people outside of Italy didn't know much about spaghetti, and they weren't familiar with Italian food in general.
So did people think this was real?
Some did. The BBC aired this segment as part of its regular programming with its regular announcer, just like any other news programming would!
So some viewers in the UK thought it was real.
Look, look! They're growing spaghetti on trees!
Spaghetti on trees?
I want a Swiss spaghetti plant of my own!
I gotta call up the BBC and see how I can grow my very own spaghetti crop!
Other people were not as amused.
This is a disgrace.
The British broadcast company is a serious news program.
They have a responsibility to be factual, not foolish.
Okay, that's a bummer some people missed out on a joke.
But it was all in good fun, right?
There's so many funny examples like when a public radio news show ran a fake story that untapped maple syrup trees in the US were exploding from too much sap.
An untapped tree is a time bomb ready to go off.
Untapped maple trees can explode like gushers.
Or when Burger King joked they would start making left -handed burgers for all the lefties of the world.
I agree those stories can be fun but especially with the internet things get tricky.
Just because we post something on April 1st doesn't mean that's when people find it.
They might see it the next day, a week later maybe months later.
So when people see it later they might not be on the lookout for pranks and they might just think it's real.
Right people turn to news organizations for facts and accurate information so if they're posting fake information even as a light -hearted prank people might start to trust them less.
Yeah that's not a good look.
Tricking people into believing a fake story can feel mean.
Or like you're the butt of the joke if you don't get it.
Exactly. Pranks are fun, but fake stories online, we don't need them.
I say let's take April Fools off our screens and back into real life where pranks belong.
Yeah! There's plenty of pranks we can do IRL.
Speaking of, Molly, I think you have something on your back.
Let me just ... Not so fast, Joy.
You're totally going to stick that paper fish on my back.
I saw you cutting it out earlier.
Wow, you're a pro, Bloom!
I told you, I'm always looking out for pranks.
Now if you could excuse me, me and my soapbox have an appointment with Mark and Sandin.
I have very strong opinions on dill pickles that need to be heard. Thanks for joining us, Molly!
Thank you, and don't forget to watch your back.
Especially you, Joy.
Watch my back, hmmm...
My back! Molly, did you pin this tail on my back?
I love it. I love nothing more but to be pranked.
Thank you, Molly. Molly B.
out. The word prank means to trick or show off.
Nobody knows exactly how April Fools started, but it could be connected to many traditions around the beginning of spring.
April Fools has been celebrated around the world for centuries, from sticking paper fishes on people's backs to posting fake advertisements.
Sometimes even news organizations join in, like when the BBC aired a made -up TV news story about spaghetti growing on trees.
Pranks can be fun, but spreading misinformation online can give people trust issues.
It can also trick people long after April 1st, when they aren't watching out for pranks.
So stay mindful! This episode was written by...
Ruby Guthrie. Production help and fact -checking by Nico Gonzales -Whistler.
Our editors are Shayla Farzan and Sandin Toten.
Audio engineering help from Robert Marshall and Josh Savagel.
Sound design by Rachel Breeze.
Original theme music by Mark Sanchez.
We had additional production help from the rest of the Brains on Universe team.
Molly Bloom, Rosie Dupont, Anna Goldfield, Lauren Humpert, Joshua Wright, Mark Sanchez, and Beth Perlman is our Executive Producer, and the executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kavati and Jo -Ann Griffith.
Special thanks to Sean Baughman, Claire Barlient, Chad Clupfer, and Shruti Acharya.
And if you want access to ad free episodes and special bonus content, subscribe to our SmartyPass.
Okay, Mikayla, it's time.
Are you ready to hear the answers for First Things First?
Yes. Yes. Okay, as a reminder, we're putting these three items in order of when they were invented.
Whoopie cushions, hand buzzers, and snakes in a can.
And you said that first it was snake in a can, and then whoopie cushions, and then hand buzzers, yeah?
Yes. Great, drum roll please.
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.
You did really great, Michaela.
Guess what number one was?
A snake in a can? Snakes in a can!
You got it. No longer are they in a plane.
Now they're in a can of nuts.
Yeah! You did it. So the snake nut can was invented in 1915 by Soren Sorenson -Adams, who owned the SS Adams Company, a company famous for making prank devices.
There weren't even any nuts on site.
What is that about?
So what looked like an unsuspecting can of nuts actually held a coiled spring that looked like a snake and would shoot out at whoever opened the can.
Adams was inspired when he observed his wife struggling to open a jam jar.
Can you get a visual now of what that looks like, Mikayla?
Yes. Can you imagine somebody trying to open a can of, like, pickles or something, and then like, bwah!
Yeah. So, second is actually the hand buzzer, which is also called the Joy Buzzer.
And the buzzer was invented in 1928.
And it was another S .S.
Adams product. The buzzer was a little metal bell that vibrated contrary to popular belief the device didn't shock people, it just might have felt like a shock when the little bell jingled really fast. Last but certainly not least is the Whoopie Cushion and that was invented in the early 1930s.
So the official Whoopie Cushion was invented by the GEM company in Canada.
The company was experimenting with scrap pieces of rubber and invented a hilarious tooting machine.
At first they were called poo poo cushions and a boop boop a dupes and the original cushions were green not pink that sounds disgusting those names and the color could you imagine having a poo poo cushion that was green No it is it's gross it's so gross okay so out of these three What was the most surprising and which one would you like to do on someone?
Ummm the most surprising was probably um Snakes in a Can.
I didn't really think I would get that right.
Yeah. And then I would probably pull Snakes in a Can on my dad.
Join us next week for a new episode all about gladiators.
Thanks for listening!
