The History of April Fool’s Day

We Are History

Angela Barnes and John O'Farrell

History

4.9 • 802 Ratings

🗓️ 1 April 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Angela tricks John into learning about the history of April Fool’s Day. Where did it originate? Why do we do practical jokes on people we are supposed to love? Fom the Swiss spaghetti harvest to the Black Cliffs of Dover, we look at some of the best April Fool’s Day pranks across the centuries. And this episode is brought to you in smellovision, so don’t forget to scratch your screen to get the accompanying aromas. Gotcha! Reading List: Practically Joking by Moira Marsh https://hoaxes.org/af_database Support We Are History on Patreon and get exclusive benefits including bonus episodes, mugs and more! We Are History is written and presented by Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell. Production by Simon Williams. Group Editor is Andrew Harrison. We Are History is a Podmasters Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to We Are History. I'm John O'Farrell.
0:08.0	And I'm Angela Barnes. And just so listeners at home know, we are not in the same place, are we John today?
0:16.0	You are in the lovely studio and I am in my house because I've got the lurgy again and I didn't want to give it to John because I'm nice like that.
0:24.0	We're not in the same place in so many ways Angela.
0:26.2	In so many ways, yeah. Thank you for considering my health. Yes, Angela is 70 miles away or whatever it is in Brighton.
0:34.7	I am indeed. And she's chosen today's topic and and it's another timely one, because we are looking at the
0:41.4	history of April Fool's Day.
0:44.1	Actually, John, we're not.
0:45.5	Oh, well, you're going to do something else now.
0:47.0	You've not warned me about.
0:48.0	Yeah, I've relented.
0:48.9	I've decided I'm finally going to let you do the episode you've always wanted to do on
0:53.4	the Corn Laws.
0:55.0	Right. Really? Of course not. April Falls.
0:59.4	Oh, that's excellent. Brilliant. Oh, God. What a laugh we have. That'll get in the papers.
1:03.5	Do you think people fell for that? Do you think they did? That's genius. Comedy genius, that one.
1:07.9	Yeah, it's not even the first when this goes out or when we're recording it.
1:12.5	But, yeah, so, go on.
1:14.0	Here's the thing. I thought of this as a topic, not just because, well, April the first is
1:20.0	looming as we record this, but I've just been watching a show on Amazon called The Jury.
1:26.0	Have you seen it?
1:27.2	Yeah, I saw the first one, actually, and I just so felt for the bloke involved that I didn't actually watch anymore.
	...

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