For the first time since 1956, April Fool’s Day fell on Easter Sunday, and though the student population was on break, plenty of Marquette students had pranks and tricks for their friends and family.
I myself am no stranger to April Fool’s pranks, as my mother is an avid participant each year. Growing up, she would cook “fake meals” and pull various other hijinks throughout the day to keep my family members on our toes.
This year, even though it was Easter, my mother still managed to make sure we were fooled. She made “cupcakes” and offered them to us, only to find out that it was meatloaf with colored mashed potatoes on top of it after taking a huge bite. She also made jello in a cup with a straw in it, making it look like some sort of sports drink. Finally, later in the night, she offered me a wrapped chocolate candy. When I opened the wrapper I found a single grape.
While not everyone has to face such a gauntlet of pranks on April 1 each year, plenty of students still find themselves in the midst of less intense jokes on April Fool’s Day. Mike Carpenter, a junior in the College of Communication, was one of those students.
“I’m not usually super into April Fool’s Day, but the pilot on my plane played a trick on us,” Carpenter said. “He said the baggage carousel was closed and no one could get their bags and people were really nervous.”
Others, like Joe Lauer, a senior in the College of Business Administration, were tricked on an even smaller scale.
“I don’t usually do much for April Fool’s Day but this year my mom tricked us into thinking our Easter dinner reservations were canceled,” he said. “It was kind of funny, but it wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if it was.”
While plenty were tricked this April Fool’s Day, others at Marquette were doing the tricking themselves including J.P. Orr, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences.
“I told my parents I dropped out of school with only two months left,” he said. “Initially they were mad but they knew something was up after a little bit since it was April Fool’s Day.”
While many still participated in the day of deceit, others weren’t able to pull their usual hijinks because the day fell on Easter this year. Nico Couri, a senior in the College of Business Administration, said he usually likes to pull tricks on his friends but this year, he was on vacation during break, foiling his plans. Couri did share a tale of a previous April Fool’s Day in which he did trick his friends.
“In seventh-grade, farts were in,” he said. “One of my friends obtained a fart machine from Walgreens. A marvelous feat of modern technology. They put the machine in a pencil bag in the corner of the class. They hit the remote, a fart noise was made, and everyone laughed. (My teacher) was able to track the fart machine down in the pencil bag. She took it out and was angry. With fury of being embarrassed she lifted up the fart machine and said, ‘Whose is this?’”
“Then, it, of course, got quiet. I took this opportunity to hit the remote. The machine let out a fart noise that sounded like a loud creak from opening an old wooden door. Then she put it in her desk and I kept doing it so she finally took out the battery. I never got in trouble. My friend Jack who owned the machine did.”
While there was less hilarity than usual this year, Marquette students still found a way to celebrate April Fool’s Day in their own way. Next year, when it is on its own day, students are sure to pull more pranks, tricks and jokes on their friends around campus.
