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While its origins aren’t exactly clear, people have been pranking folks on April 1st since at least the middle ages. For example, here is an account of people going into the tower of London to “see the lions being washed” in 1698 that was the direct result of a prank. But in this day and age, people are so overprepared that they might not even realize that not everything is an attempt to fool them.
Someone asked “What real and serious story/event did you believe was a prank (because it's April 1st)?” and people shared their examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and add your own experiences to the comments section below.
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#1
My mom has been sober for 9 years, but she announced her sobriety on April 1st. No one believed her. Happy Sober-versary, mom!
RELATED:
#2
My long term girlfriend broke up with me on April first.
Not only did I initially think it was a joke, but then all my friends thought it was a joke and I went a full week+ of nobody being supportive because they all thought I committed hard to the bit.
#3
Boston. 1997. "We're getting 2 feet of snow Tuesday. You probably won't have class."
"Hah. Hah. Hah. April Fools."
We got two feet of snow.
#4
When I was in third grade, my dad woke my sister and me up saying our dog finally had her puppies. We woke up all excited only to find out we'd been tricked. Cut to eight hours later, as I'm getting off the bus, my dad comes running out of the house saying the dog had her puppies. "Dad, you already tried that this morning," I said. Turns out he was serious the second time; the dog really did have her puppies. Best April Fool's Day ever.
#5
When I was 22, I had dropped a mayo jar and jumped hoping to avoid the glass shards, but I landed right on glass and ended up at the ER with stitches. Fast forward, a week and my legs hurts so d**n bad that when I went to my PCP to have my stitches removed I decided to tell her how much pain I was in. She took one look at my leg and sent me to the ER.
My husband had to call my Mom on April Fool’s Day to tell her I was being admitted to the hospital with a life threatening DVT and that I would be hospitalized for at least a week. My mom of course didn’t believe him since I was 22, an athlete and very active. She kept telling him that his prank was dumb.
My doctor had to call my mom to get her to believe the situation lol.
#6
5 years ago today my wife and I went to an ultrasound where they told us she was carrying twins. We were in shock but at least we could see the ultrasound. The phone calls to our family later that day were a bit tricky.
#7
My friend is born on April 1st. He was telling me that when his mom's water broke, his dad didn't actually believe her and thought she just spilt water on the ground.
Sara Frazer 3 days ago
I was afraid of my daughter being born on April 1st. Mostly because I could imagine the lifetime of people being like "hahahaha yeah right!" when she would say it was her birthday. Her due date was April 2nd. She was born nighttime March 31st. Phew!
#8
Not a sad story but a few weeks ago I got a letter from my job telling me I was to receive a substantial pay raise, and it would be effective on April 1. I kept thinking this is a seriously messed up prank... got my paycheck a day ago and yeah its not a prank!!
#9
My friend turned in her two weeks noticed on April 1. HR didn’t believe her until much later.
#10
Our family dog was hit by a car on April 1st. My dad saw it happen and came inside to tell us, I instantly started crying and my brother didn't believe him, my dad kept telling him to stop and to shut up cause he was laughing and saying no way.
#11
One April 1st a few years ago my wife woke up ont with Bell's Palsy ( half of her face was partially paralyzed and dropping) due to an infection. It took me way longer than it should have to believe her that she wasn't totally faking it as a prank. I played it off until she cried. Not my proudest moment.
#12
My brother got mugged quite a few years ago. When my friends told me, I thought for sure it was an April Fools joke. Then my brother walked into the room and he had a black eye. Turns out it wasn't a joke.
#13
Mitch Hedberg’s death was announced on April 1st even though he passed on March 29th and I thought he was pranking his fans. RIP, man.
#14
Obligatory "not me but..."
So my mom's birthday is April 1st and on her 40th birthday all of her friends threw her a surprise party at a very nice restaurant. About halfway through dinner my mom and dad stand up to make an announcement -- she was pregnant! No one believed them but nineteen years later here I am!
#15
My 17 year old friend telling me she got engaged while she was visiting overseas. We were still in high school. Kept saying “I’m not falling for it it’s April fools I’m not falling for it” even though she showed the ring. Didn’t believe until she showed me the 1000 pictures of the engagement.
#16
This just happened today.
My aunt texted me and a bunch of others in a group chat and sent us a photo of a little girl, saying she was officially a grandma because her son just learned he had a three year old daughter.
"You almost had me there" I responded soon after. She insisted it was true, but I knew she was joking. The others were eating it up though, remarking on how cute she was. Good prank too, because the girl kinda looks like him, but Photoshop exists and my cousin is pretty crafty.
Nope. It's true, apparently.
She texted me privately and said she forgot it was April Fool's Day. They just met the girl nine days ago! She sent me photographic proof of them together. Holy s**t!
#17
Today at work our internet connection broke down. Initially I thought it was a prank but in retrospect I doubt a large company would cut off an entire floor of employees from work for 1.5 hours especially considering we're the IT helpdesk.
#18
My time to shine!!!
Back in middle school on April Fools Day, we took a field trip the local ice arena. All of the guys lined up on one end, and wanted to race to the other end. During the race, a few of the guys got tripped up. One kid was down on the ground holding his hand and there seemed to be some blood on the ice. A teacher walked out, and picked something up off of the ice and started walking away. The kid ran up to that teacher and showed him his hand which was now missing a pinky and was screaming in pain. The teacher immediately started scooting off the ice with some urgency.
All of us on the outside of the rink thought for sure this kid just pranked the teacher about his finger getting cut off. A few minutes later, he was rushed off to the ER.
#19
I didn't just hear the story but I've called my parents from jail on April 1st after I got arrested. Didn't make this any easier..
#21
That my grandmother was dead, because her mother also died on April 1st.
trixiefly11 2 days ago
Not April fools but odd still. Most of my mom's siblings, as well as her mother passed in August. It got a bit ridiculous. I now don't trust August. There is only two of them left and when August comes up I start to worry.
#22
My dad called to tell me he had just won the Reader’s Digest sweepstakes. Two months later we were all in the company headquarters watching my parents accept a comically oversized novelty check for the first installment (it paid out over 30 years).
Crystalwitch60 3 days ago
I’m in uk lol is that still a thing ? my gran I grew up with used to get that , I’m 60 n I used to read it to lol not half bad mostly but I thought it was ended decades ago
#23
One of my old, super cynical coworkers is well known for “vague-booking” or writing cryptic Facebook statuses and not responding to inquiring comments. She casually posted on April Fool’s day a status along the lines of “already tired of being pregnant”.
The comments were 100% “oh yeah right, you’re not pregnant” and she was PISSED that nobody believed her, even when she was reassuring them it was true. Popped that baby right out a few months later.
Headless Horseman 3 days ago
This is one where the "prankster" just needs to wait for the truth to tell itself.
#24
When I was 15 my brothers best friend stopped by on March 31 because he was headed to the other side of the state for a few weeks. We hung out and he went home. The next morning people were ringing our phone off the hook, when I answered they said our friend was dead, I said April fools and hung up, this went on for a couple hours until finally someone knocked on the door and had us turn on the news, the friends house was on the news and they were saying our friend was in fact dead. Three years later his mother won her case against the local police office. They m******d her son in his sleep.......
His room mate was a d**g dealer, when they raided the house they claimed they entered his room and he pulled a gun on them and they shot him. The autopsy report showed 6 bullets in his back, one in his calf and one in the back of his head. We are not sure why they shot a sleeping man but he did have a gun but it was fully loaded with one still in the chamber.
Edit: the police statement said he was facing them and shot first, they stated they shot him in the chest, four head and leg. The autopsy proved this to be a lie. He was no angel but he would not have drawn his gun on police officers. In our neighborhood this means death and he knew this. The gun was found and photographed under his pillow not in his hand. This combined with the autopsy is what won his mother the case against KCPD.
#25
Today I thought our supplier was pranking me when she said that the 3 months of programming I just spent trying to fix their s**t was going to have to be redone because they changed their policies. I'm still waiting for that April's Fool message.
#26
My boss was a well known joker in a company where we made April Fool’s pranks an art.
He announced a well-liked colleague was leaving.
After the fact, my boss told me he should’ve waited one more day before sending the email announcement as most people still didn’t believe that the colleague was leaving.
Melissa Harris 3 days ago
Being a prankster is like being the boy who cried wolf. Do it to offen and people stop taking you seriously.
#27
One time my dad's girlfriend started drinking water and used the fake-choke on me. She was on the ground rolling in laughter, and as a result, started actually choking.
#28
When a close friend of mine went to middle school, he was told his school had burned down and obviously thought it was just another April fools’ prank. Well, he went there only to discover there actually had been a fire the night before and school was cancelled. Coincidentally April 1st is also his birthday, so I guess that must have been a pretty good day.
Joe Reaves 3 days ago
Seems like a great alibi lol. Well, clearly I couldn't have set the fire. I went to school the next day!
#29
I used to work in a deli in a grocery store. We were right next to the bakery and I got to know the people over there pretty well. There was this guy, we'll call him Ben. Ben had a lot of tattoos and played guitar in a band and was a pretty chill dude overall. I came into work on April first and one of my friends told me that Ben was in a car accident last night and had passed away. I thought no way, he was totally the type of person to make a joke like that on April fool's day, but it turned out to be true. It was really surreal that he was just gone. He was only 23 years old. My favorite memory of him was one night he was closing and didn't have much to do. They had two burnt loaves of bread, so he pulled the insides out and cut them to fit around his feet. He walked over to us and said, "look guys, I made loafers!" He was a great guy.
#30
My prankster Uncle Tim died of a massive heart attack in his front yard.
Poll Question
What is your reaction to people being extra cautious on April 1st?
It's smart to be cautious
People overreact
April Fools' is harmless
I dislike pranks
What do you think ?
Trillian 3 days ago
I hate pranks and I don't care what day it is. What is funny about getting people who trust you to believe b******t and then laugh about them.
RedHairedDragon 2 days ago
It's funny because it breaks the norm. I got majorly pranked twice this year, and we had a really good laugh about it afterwards. Let go of your pearls and live a little!
Jemima Bauer 3 days ago
My sister told me she was pregnant on April 1. I said, “Congrats! Oh wait…I know what day it is, you had me going for a minute there.” The joke was she really was pregnant.
Ms.GB 2 days ago (edited)
When I was 16 I told my mom I was pregnant on April fools. The look of anger on her face is one I had never seen before or since. When I became an adult I realized how s****y that joke was.I just thought she'd be so relieved when I said "April fools!" that she wouldn't be mad. I've apologized to my mom several times for that. My poor mother 😆 There's a reason I didn't pull that prank on my Dad. I wouldn't have had enough time to get an "April fool's!" out before I hit the ground.
Trillian 3 days ago
I hate pranks and I don't care what day it is. What is funny about getting people who trust you to believe b******t and then laugh about them.
RedHairedDragon 2 days ago
It's funny because it breaks the norm. I got majorly pranked twice this year, and we had a really good laugh about it afterwards. Let go of your pearls and live a little!
Jemima Bauer 3 days ago
My sister told me she was pregnant on April 1. I said, “Congrats! Oh wait…I know what day it is, you had me going for a minute there.” The joke was she really was pregnant.
Ms.GB 2 days ago (edited)
When I was 16 I told my mom I was pregnant on April fools. The look of anger on her face is one I had never seen before or since. When I became an adult I realized how s****y that joke was.I just thought she'd be so relieved when I said "April fools!" that she wouldn't be mad. I've apologized to my mom several times for that. My poor mother 😆 There's a reason I didn't pull that prank on my Dad. I wouldn't have had enough time to get an "April fool's!" out before I hit the ground.
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