Here, every day is April Fools’ Day

Here, every day is April Fools’ Day

FPJ BureauUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 02:21 PM IST
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I write this on the first of April, traditionally marked as April Fools’ Day. This is the day you are supposed to lie outrageously to friends and family – lead them on to believe in utter nonsense, plant strange, rubbishy thoughts in their minds.

As a result, this is the day when even the most gullible human believes no one, trusts no one, and laughs off desperate SOS calls with loud, brutal and self-satisfied mirth. No sir, you smirk, I am too smart to fall for your foolish trick.

This habit comes in handy especially in times like this, when the election fever is on. And every politician seems to be out to make a fool of you.

The day of lies and nonsense. April Fools’ Day has existed in Europe since the 16th century. There are several stories of how it began but these are so far-fetched that they give the impression of being made up on various April Fools’ Days. But for centuries it has persisted, this tradition of making a fool of others and laughing at them.

This trend has been so pervasive, and universally acknowledged as forgivable, that mainstream media has for years used it to create a sensation, boost its readership or viewership if even for a day, and get a laugh.

Take the startling ‘news’ of infamous gangster Al Capone running for mayor of Chicago that shocked newspaper readers in the United States on April 1, 1931. The dreaded criminal and biggest bootlegger during prohibition was apparently standing for elections for mayor of the city that he had terrified and held in his cruel clutches through gang wars and other public shows of illegal strength. And apparently the bootlegger was to fight as a ‘dry’ candidate. Al Capone’s slogan for the mayoral fight, they said, was: “Dry up Chicago!”

This shook up the poor Americans of the day. We in India of course would easily take such news in our stride. After all, today’s Indian politics – however much we may wish to talk of religion and morals – is powered more by violence, criminal muscle and illegal money than old fashioned ideology.  At one count last year, 162 of 543 MPs and 1,258 of 4,032 MLAs had criminal cases against them. Many of them were accused of grave crimes like murder and rape.

 Never mind all that. Hear this. On 1st April 1992, there was the famous hoax by NPR (earlier, National Public Radio) also in the United States. Its popular show ‘Talk of the Nation’ reported that former President Richard Nixon would be running for President on a Republican nomination. The radio show sounded pretty authentic, with audio clips of the former President’s make-believe speech. The most famous line from this speech was: “I never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.”

Only later in the programme – after NPR had been hit by a flood of outrage – did host John Hockenberry disclose that this was an April Fools’ joke and what seemed to be the voice of Richard Nixon was actually the voice of comedian Rich Little.

 “I never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again.” Nice election declaration. Sounds very familiar doesn’t it? Where have we heard it recently? Not in so many bewildered and bewildering words perhaps, but we have heard it, yes sir. The Congress? Maybe. The BJP? Well it would certainly fit Narendra Modi faultlessly. Especially given his insistence on not apologising for the Gujarat riots. He did not do anything wrong, he and his followers insist. Yet he implies that it would not happen again.

 But let’s not get too serious about April Fools’ pranks. The fun of these stories lies in their unbelievable ability to stretch credibility. On 1st April 1957, for example, the BBC announced on its news programme,‘Panorama’ that Switzerland was experiencing an abundant spaghetti harvest that year thanks to great weather and the eradication of the terrible ‘spaghetti weevil.’ Staged footage showed a Swiss family plucking strands of spaghetti from tall pasta trees and filling up their baskets. The show said: “For those who love this dish, there’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.” As a result of this three-minute segment, hundreds of spaghetti lovers called BBC to ask how they could grow their own. BBC advised: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”

And in 1962, Sweden’s lone television channel, which was in black and white, announced that their technical expert would tell people how to view colour images on their sets. Researchers, the ‘expert’ announced, had recently discovered that covering your television screen with a pair of stockings would make the light bend in such a way that the image would seem to be in colour. All viewers had to do, he said, was to cut open a pair of stockings and tape them over the screen of their television set. Thousands of viewers fell for the hoax. And thousands of stockings were ripped apart, sliced, shredded and crumpled in distress as enthusiasts tried to view colour images on their black and white sets. In another ‘scientific’ hoax, on 1st April 1976, astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at exactly 9.47 am, the planet Pluto would pass directly behind Jupiter, in relation to the Earth. And the combined gravitational force of the two planets would exert a strong tidal pull that would counteract the Earth’s own gravity and make people weigh less. Moore called this the Jovian-Plutonian Gravitational Effect. If listeners jumped in the air right then, they would experience a strange floating sensation. “Jump now!” urged Moore at 9.47 am. Soon after, the BBC was flooded by calls to declare that listeners had jumped, and had indeed felt weightlessness.

April Fools’ day is a fine tradition. It’s a simple, harmless way of feeling superior by fooling others for a short while. Oh the joy of making others feel sheepish! It would be perfect if only we in India did not make every day into an April Fools’ Day. Especially during election time.

Antara Dev Sen

Antara Dev Sen is editor, *The Little Magazine*. Email: sen@littlemg.com

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