We’re Looking For The Most Epic April Fools’ Day Prank Ever: Survey

A well-played April Fools’ Day joke is harmless, surprising and ultimately hilarious for both the prankster and the person on the receiving end.

Clever timing wins over malice. If it’s mean-spirited, it’s not really a joke, is it? A well-executed April Fools’ Day prank creates a moment of confusion or even shock that ends in laughter.

April Fools’ Day dates back to 16th-century France when the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar, changing New Year’s Day from April 1 on the old calendar to Jan. 1.

News traveled slowly during those times, so not everyone got the word about the change. Those who continued to celebrate the new year on April 1 were widely mocked as “April fools,” according to a Rutgers University account.

April Fools’ jokes have spread rapidly over the last 500 years. In recent years, many well-knownbrands have put their spin on April Fools’ Day with jokes about KFC toothpaste, the quietest Crunch bar ever and Denny’s and Mattress Firm’s “Bed and Breakfast Drop.”

Those efforts count, but not in the way that you fooled your sibling, best friend, coworker, students, teachers or whomever with an epic stunt that could’ve been real, but wasn’t.

This prank shared on Reddit checks all the boxes.

A high school teacher has a tradition of pranking her students every April Fools’ Day, enlisting one student as an accomplice each year. In one memorable prank, she gave an old cell phone to a student named Brad and instructed him to conspicuously text on it during class on April 1st, a clear violation of the rules.

“When Brad starts texting … my mom promptly halts her lecture, walks up to Brad, takes the phone right out of his hands, and chucks the damn thing out of her second-story window,” the post said. “The look, as my mom describes it, on the faces of her students was priceless. No one laughing, no one smiling, just sheer, raw horror. Always loved that one, never done a prank quite like it.”

Just for fun, tell us about memorable April Fools’ Day pranks, whether you pulled it or were on the receiving end. Just fill out the survey below, and we may feature your answers in a Patch story. No politics, please. Let’s set seriousness aside and have some fun.

We don’t collect email addresses, and that is not an April Fools’ joke.