This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

367: April Fools Pranks Gone Wrong

Apr 1, 2025

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Before we get into some foolish April Fools pranks that didn’t quite land, let’s talk about the origin of April Fools Day. The oldest historical reference for April Fools Day comes from a Flemish poem written in 1561 about a nobleman who sent his servant on “fool’s errands” on April 1st. In about the same era in France, the people were slow to adapt to the calendar change from the last week of March to January 1st to mark the new year. It was a move from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar that was decreed by the Council of Trent. Those who struggled to adjust were called “April fools,” and many began playing tricks on them. Another reference is with the Catholic Church. In medieval France and England, a carnival of sorts, called “Feast of Fools” was held on January 1st, but was banned by the 15th century. Though, it was still held for hundreds of years, despite the ban. Then by the 19th century, April Fools’ Day was a part of American culture. Mark Twain was quoted as saying, “The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.”

Want access to our first 45 episodes? Grab em here! We've made them available for free to anyone who signs up! Remember, these episodes were recorded when we had no idea what we were doing, so just keep that in mind. The audio isn't the quality we would want to put out now, but the cases are on point! Visit killerqueens.link/og to download and binge all the archived episodes today!

Hang with us:

Support Our AMAZING Sponsors:

goPure: Get 25% off @goPure with code QUEENS at https://www.gopurebeauty.com/QUEENS #goPurepod
Prose: For 50% off your first hair care subscription and free consultation, head to prose.com/queens.
Hungryroot: For a limited time, get 40% off your first box PLUS get a free item of your choice for life at hungryroot.com/QUEENS.
OneSkin: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code QUEENS at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod

Audio Production by Wayfare Recording

Music provided by Steven Tobi

Logo designed by Sloane Williams of The Sophisticated Crayon

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices