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

2. to be tricked/fooled

3. to trick/to fool somebody

4. hoax

5. spoof

a. A joke played on a large scale

b. To deceive or outwit someone

c. A silly, exaggerated story

d. A trick played on someone in order to make them look foolish

e.To be deceived or outwitted by someone

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,,1449

501,00.html

• 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?

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