Today marks April Fools' Day — the perfect opportunity for pranksters to take to the floor and play jokes on their friends and family.
This tradition has been celebrated for centuries despite its mysterious origin: no one can pinpoint when the custom first began. However, this doesn’t stop people from choosing salt instead of sugar for their best friend’s coffee throughout the first day of April.
There are a wide variety of pranks that can be planned. Someone who is secretly clever or witty will easily think of verbal pranks.
Fake news, forgotten debts or an unexpected loss of valuable objects are some jokes that could be used without one having to plan too much before the day arrives.
Jenna Kim, junior in marketing, described a harmless prank that she pulled a few years ago on her friends.
"I played a prank pretending that I was moving schools back in high school," Kim said.
April Fools' Day is a time when many people engage in playing tricks. Social media accounts for businesses often take advantage of this opportunity to make fun advertisements.
"This is one that always stands out to me — I don't know if it's because I'm a marketing major, but I love when companies kind of prank you on their social media regarding, like, a new product they're coming out with," Kim said.
There is a wide variety of pranks that can be done depending on one's hobbies and skills. Gamers might find it funny to find some unexpected changes on their screens.
“I destroyed something [in a game] in a funny way,” said Lucian Borchers, freshman in architecture.
There are chances for those who like to get creative, too. Adding toothpaste between Oreos or moving around kitchen objects from one drawer to another are some classic jokes that never get old.
“Some friends came to our house late at night and put goldfish in one of my roommates' bathtubs, and then he woke up, or he got home late, and thought it was one of us who did it so he went and put the goldfish in our bathtub,” said Thomas Nord, junior in mechanical engineering.
Not only friends can be the target of the jokes. Changing class furniture positions, like turning all the desks backwards, can be a funny joke to play on a professor.
“I saw a senior year prank, I guess, where some people paid a mariachi band to follow their principal around the entire day," Nord said.
Pranks can be a funny memory in the future, or they can be annoying for those who get irritated easily. Choosing the target of the jokes is just as important as planning it sensitively.
“I guess your goal is to confuse them, not necessarily mess with them in a way,” Nord said.
Today, students will want to make sure they take every bit of exciting news with a grain of salt to avoid becoming the fool this April Fools' Day.
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