Last Class :(

Thoughts
• What was your favorite class?
• What are some things you know in
English this year that you didn’t know
last year?
• What are some things in English that
you would still like to learn?
 April Fools! :P
• I’m not really leaving, it was a joke!

1. practical joke/prank
a. A joke played on a large scale

2. to be tricked/fooled b. To deceive or outwit someone

c. A silly, exaggerated story
3. to trick/to fool somebody d. A trick played on someone in order
to make them look foolish
4. hoax
e.To be deceived or outwitted by
someone
5. spoof
Comics
 What is April Fools Day?
• It is commonly believed that in medieval
France, New Years was celebrated on April
1st. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a
new calendar for the Christian world,
changing New Years to January 1st. With no
modern communications, news traveled
slowly and new ideas were often questioned.
Many people did not hear of the change,
others chose to ignore it, while some merely
forgot. These people were called fools.
Invitations to non-existent ‘New Year’ parties
were sent and other practical jokes were
played. This jesting evolved over time into a
tradition of playing pranks on 1 April.
• In France and Italy, if someone plays a
trick on you, you are the ‘fish of April’.
By the month of April fish have only just
hatched and are therefore easy to
catch. Children stick paper fish to their
friends’ backs and chocolate fish are
found in the shops.
• In Scotland, April Fools Day lasts for
two days! The second day is called
‘Taily Day’ and tricks on this day involve
the bottom (or the ‘tail’ in informal
speech). Often a sign saying ‘kick me’ is
stuck onto someone’s back without
them knowing.
• In Spain and Mexico, similar
celebrations take place on 28
December. The day is the Feast of the
Holy Innocents. Originally, the day was
a sad remembrance of the slaughter of
the innocent children by Herod in his
search for the baby Jesus. It eventually
changed to a lighter commemoration of
innocence involving pranks and trickery.
• Today, Americans and the British play small
tricks on friends and strangers alike on 1
April. A common trick is to point to a friend's
shoe and say ‘Your shoelace is untied.’ When
they look down, they are laughed at.
Schoolchildren might tell a friend that school
has been cancelled. A bag of flour might be
balanced on the top of a door so that when
the ‘victim’ opens the door, the flour empties
over their head.
• Most April Fool jokes are in good fun
and not meant to harm anyone. The
best trick is the one where everyone
laughs, especially the person upon
whom the joke has been played.
 Test Your Knowledge
• Are these stories real or spoofs?
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,,1449501,00

• How much do you know about April Fool’s Day?

• http://www.bbc.co.
uk/apps/ifl/worldservice/quiznet/quizengine?
ContentType=text/html;quiz=1652_jokes
 Typical Pranks
• Tickling a sleeping person with a feather and
putting shaving cream in their hand
• Scaring someone by:
– Hiding
– Wearing a disguise
– With fake blood
– Snakes/spiders
• Putting a water bucket over the door
• pulling out someone’s chair from under them
• writing a message and sticking it on someone’s
back
• Sitting on whoopee cushions
• Flour on top of a fan
• Telling people you’re pregnant
• Food coloring in shower/shampoo
• Telling someone they won something
• Replacing things (I.e. salt for sugar)
• Shocking people
• Is your hand bigger than your face?
 Conversation
• Do you have a similar day in your country?
• Do you like practical jokes? Have you played a
trick on anyone recently?
• Who’s the joker in your class / family?
• Have you ever tried fooling your family on April
Fool's Day?
• Have you ever been tricked?
– Who played the joke?
– What happened?
– How did you react?
 Opinions
• Melissa: “I love April Fool’s Day. It can be
really good fun. I love playing tricks on
people and I don’t mind if people play
tricks on me. It’s one day of the year you
can be really silly and have a laugh and it’s
okay. You have to be quite sensible for the
other 364 days of the year, so I look
forward to April 1st.”
• Mark “I hate April Fool’s Day. Last year
people at work changed the sugar for salt so
we all put salt in our coffee! Then some
joker in the office decided he wanted a day
off and he did something to the computers
so they wouldn’t work. It just wasn’t funny!
I had lots to do and we all had to stop
working and solve the problem.”
• Louise “April Fool’s Day is a great idea.
It’s easy to forget the actual date and I
always believe everything I read in the
newspapers or watch on the TV news. I
usually believe the big national hoaxes and
it always makes me laugh afterwards. It’s
good to remind us that maybe we shouldn’t
always belive everything we hear in the
news.”
• Clare “April Fool’s Day is fun when you’re
young. I remember putting a plastic fried
egg on my Dad’s plate for breakfast as a
trick. He decided to cut it up and pretend to
eat it! Now I think some of the tricks are a
bit silly and people can be a bit cruel
playing tricks on their ‘friends’!”
 Famous Hoaxes
• In 1998 Burger King published an advert in
the magazine USA Today offering new
‘Left-handed Whoppas’ for the 32 million
left-handed Americans! Thousands of
customers ordered the new burger in the
restaurants!
• A zoo in Japan said that they had a giant
penguin that was 165cm tall and weighed
80 kilograms! In fact it was a man dressed
up in a penguin suit.
• In the night of March 31st 1989 hundreds of
Londoners phoned the police to report an
alien space craft they had seen in the sky. In
fact it was a hoax and it was a hot air
balloon that looked like a space craft.
• In 1949 a radio presenter in New Zealand
told listeners that there were millions of
wasps coming to invade. He told viewers to
wear their socks over their trousers and to
put honey on their doors. Millions of
listeners believed him!
• In Sweden in 1962 they have one television
channel and all TV was in black and white.
A scientist told viewers that they would see
the TV in colour is they put a nylon
stocking over the screen.
• In 1976 a very famous British astronomer
told radio listeners that at 9.47am the earth
was going to experience a feeling of less
gravity. He said that Jupiter and Pluto
would cross and if listeners jumped in the
air at exactly 9.47am they would feel the
sensation of having no gravity! Hundreds of
listeners phoned the radio to say they had
jumped and floated in the air!
• In 1957 a very serious documentary
programme on the BBC reported on the
spaghetti trees in Switzerland. They said it
was an excellent place to grow spaghetti!
Hundreds of viewers phoned the BBC to
ask where they could buy spaghetti trees.
• Top hoaxes of all time
• http://www.museumofhoaxes.
com/hoax/aprilfool/

• Videos of pranks
• http://www.videobash.com/videos/pranks?
gclid=CJ-sy9Gg6KcCFcEv2god9iOWaw