Just a joke

The April Fools’ joke has a long and, from what I can read, pretty boring history. The point is that it’s still flourishing. So let’s get right to the action, instead of talking about the ancient past.

What was my favourite April Fools’ joke? How about the famous 1957 spaghetti crop hoax, where a British television program— in the early days of the medium when black and white was the colour palette, and before the world was quite as cosmopolitan as it is today—showed scenes, with a solemn narration, of Swiss workers harvesting the crop from spaghetti trees. Today, of course, the hoax would never succeed, because as every schoolchild knows, spaghetti trees only grow in Italy, not in the Swiss Alps.

The hoax was so well done that even the director-general of the television network was fooled, having failed to notice a warning sent to him in advance. “When I saw that item, I said to my wife, ‘I don’t think spaghetti grows on trees,’ so we looked it up in the encyclopedia. Do you know, the encyclopedia doesn’t even mention spaghetti,” he is quoted as saying.

The rise of a wired, mixed media world, with exotic news items reaching us from every corner of the globe, has of course accelerated the number of ‘so stupid it may just be true’ stories, regardless of whether they occur on April 1.

For example, just about a week ago, it was widely reported (including, ironically, by the very broadcaster that gave us the spaghetti classic) that men in North Korea were now required to get the same style of haircut as their “Dear Leader,” Kim Jong-un. Now, anyone who has seen the train wreck of the man’s hairstyle and his choice of visiting companions can understand that, in the way that misery loves company, he would like to inflict his style on others.

However, not that many months ago, the North Korean government issued photographs of 18 female and 10 male approved hairstyles that were both said to be (and who will likely argue) comfortable and capable of warding off the corrupting effects of capitalism. For males, young men were to trim their hair to less than five centimetres and have a haircut once every 15 days Older men were allowed to be more hirsute, growing hair as long as seven centimetres.

None of the male styles—nor, for that matter, any of the female styles—included a hairstyle like Mr. Kim’s, so reporters became a little suspicious of the latest news, which amounted to a reversal of government policy. Said one leading North Korea expert, somewhat bluntly, “this sounds like BS to me.” Indeed, the story was quickly disowned, but not before it left egg on many faces.

The prevalence of April Fools’ type events is also compounded by the rise of marketing stunts. Some—like the Australian disc jockeys who impersonated the Queen and obtained privileged information from a nurse at Princess Kate’s hospital—are completely unfunny and end in disaster. But some are both self-deprecating and memorable, like the issuance of limited edition Pizza Hut perfume. The joke, and the marketing focus, lay in the fact that the product had been made in the first place: the company was cool because it could laugh at itself. “I hope some poor guy doesn’t give it to his girlfriend,” commented one person involved.

However, while the April Fools’ type joke has become more common, I am not sure that public gullibility has shrunk in any corresponding way. And April 1 still brings a crop of suspect stories. For example, I was scanning the English newspaper the Daily Mail yesterday. It was reported that ‘distracted texting’ has become such a public safety menace that pedestrians—never mind drivers—are going to need to be protected from themselves. Indeed, ‘people bumping into things while texting’ videos seem to be almost as prevalent as cat videos.

A study has now shown that one in ten Britons has been involved in some sort of walk-and-text accident, whether with a lamppost, garbage bin, person, car, pothole or other device, suffering injuries as mild as bruises and as serious as fractured skulls. The chief executive of an organization named Living Streets stated ‘’Britain’s streets are becoming increasingly like obstacle courses. We were surprised by the scale of accidents, but know from our members that cluttered streets continue to cause daily danger.”

The Brick Lane district in East London will therefore be the first high-accident zone to be outfitted with padded lampposts. The project could, if successful, expand to other English streets and cities.

The story also noted a contributing factor to the risk was the area’s “large number of curry houses and bars.” Yeah, right: how about the advent of April Fools’ day as a contributing factor as well. It’s just a joke, isn’t it? Say it’s just a joke.

dsimmonds@wellingtontimes.ca