The Dark Origins of April Fool’s Day (History No One Can Explain) | Wednesday Wild Card (4/1/26)

Keith Malinak (00:00.13)

Welcome, welcome to this edition of At the Mic. I'm your host, Keith Malinak. It is Wednesday, April 1st, 2026. And this is pre-recorded. And I will explain in just a moment why that is. Before I do, please head to ATMshow.com if you're not familiar. Bookmark that. Share that with friends, family, enemies, randos you pass in the street, anyone you can think of. I was about to say your.

your bag boy at the grocery store, but I haven't seen one of those in a while. So never mind. Anyway, share ATM show.com where you can please. Big thanks to hero Wes, who you can follow at second floor Dallas on X. He's the one who puts all the good stuff up there. And of course, Gabby is hard at work over with the Instagram channel at the Mike show. Big thanks to both of those teammates of mine. I really appreciate all that they do to

to get that show out there, get this show out there. And that's where you come in as well. The one person project, just share this, share this episode, share the website. No, don't share this episode. No, not this one. And the reason being, cause now they'll hear that I set you up to this and we want it to never listen. I had to prerecord today because as I've discussed on previous episodes, moving my mom and my stepdad in with us in today. I'm seeing again.

I'm recording this, it's actually Monday, March 30th, I digress. But really it's April 1st where you live. And it was just gonna be too much chaos going on with movers and driving stuff back and forth, you know how life is. So after Brad told me he wasn't gonna be able to join me today, I thought, know, let me just pre-record this thing. And I'm not phoning it in, I got some great stuff here I can't wait to share with you. It's just that life kind of got in the way.

today. Well, not today. You know what I mean. Now, I'll get to April Fool's Day stuff in just a moment here. But one of the things that I like to do on the Wednesday wildcard is I like to talk about really good books that I've read in my life. And one of those things, let me, you know what, let me read this quote first. This is, this is Thomas Jefferson in a letter to John Adams. That's going to be important.

Keith Malinak (02:27.438)

because I'll explain that in a second too. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to John Adams on June 10, 1815, quote, I cannot live without books, which is ironic since, well, look into the history of Thomas Jefferson and books and dead. It's really sad. bottom line is that was from a Jefferson Adams letter, which inspired an upcoming Wednesday wild card.

And I'm just going to give you kind of a window into my universe. I do this live whenever I can. But I thought, you know what? We need to do a Wednesday wild card show on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. And so I actually recorded that. Let's see how it goes. And I'll play that in a few weeks, I think, is when you'll find that. And just a fascinating relationship with two

imperative founding fathers to the Republic. And so that'll be coming up in just a few weeks, I believe. I don't know exactly, but I know that it's going to be awesome when you see it. okay. So I want to tell you about these books. I don't know. Did I mention? Because I found this. I'm cleaning up, believe it or not, cleaning up this scraggly mess over here. I don't even dare turn the camera over there. It's embarrassing.

But did I read some of my favorite books? I know I have in the past, but have I read this specific list? Because it scribbled on a Post-It note as if I haven't shared this with you yet. Did I tell you about the book, How Al Gore Tried to Steal the 2020 Election? I'm sorry, the 2000 election? Listen to that. No, the 2020 election was completely on the up and up.

I'm talking about the 2000 election, how Al Gore tried to steal it. It's fascinating. really, I contend that that's where the stealing of elections really clicked in certain people's minds. George Soros, because it was so close in Florida and the importance of each state's electoral votes and how it was kind of so micro to that state. 27 electoral votes.

Keith Malinak (04:47.914)

based on 537 votes by 537 Americans. And this book actually goes into the experience of many Americans that heard the results of the election, what they thought were the results. Al Gore already won Florida. Why am I still driving to the polling place in the central time zone over the panhandle? It's a fascinating book. It goes through the whole 2000 election, the court fight. It's just, I mean, at this point, it seems like ancient history, but

It's such a great read and it's how Al Gore tried to steal the 2000 election. And speaking of election integrity and that's what I started to say. As I started to say, I think that's where states became the focus for those that really wanted their guy to be in office. George Soros. so that's where in fact he made a, he had a quote.

What year was that? don't even remember but it was a few years later where he said, you know, I have Determined where to spend my money. It's more on the state level and And it's it's it's practically scrubbed from the internet. It was at an event I think Hillary was there too and It was fascinating. It's Anyway fast forward to 2020 and they perfected the science. Am I right? but but but I Want you to know that coming up and

in a month or so, Joe von Polatour will be back. He's done many, maybe five conversations with us on election integrity and give us an update because every time I have him on here, it's like, okay, it's been a while since I had you on, Johan, let's get an update. Our elections are complete. They're on lockdown now, right? Everything's got all sorts of election integrity around the land, right? I highly, highly doubt that the SAVE Act

the Save America Act or the Mega Save Act or what have you. Nothing will have been passed by the time Johan joins us here on the program. I look forward to getting updates from him. Let's just put it that way. So we'll see where we stand coming up in a few weeks. I'm trying to think of some other, got to see. tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, Thursday, April 2nd. I cannot wait for, I got it right over here. I got my questions too. Lots of questions.

Keith Malinak (07:13.432)

Jeremiah Johnston wrote the book, Jesus Discoveries. If you heard him on my day job, Peckery unleashed over at the Blaze. He was there for about 15 minutes with us. We're going to get into it a lot deeper. And I told him, because he's doing some really big podcasts that you probably enjoy more so than this one. And I respect that. I got that. And I told him, though, I said, let's make sure

that on my show that you talk about stuff that you haven't talked about anywhere else. I want to give you guys fresh insights, fresh material. I don't want this to be a situation where it's just regurgitated from a previous conversation. There may be some overlap, but I have a ton of questions. And I'm going to tell them I'm gonna be like, man, look, if you've explained this somewhere else, let's just quickly hit it and move on. Because I don't want to waste your time. I know it's very valuable. I seriously I mean, I know how valuable your time is.

and you stay very busy. And the last thing I want to do is give you some information that you've already gathered somewhere else or that you might end up hearing somewhere else because you heard it here first, right? You heard it here first. Right. I keep dropping my stuff here. That's a problem. Other books. Have I talked about To Kill a Mockingbird? It's the only fiction book I've read twice. Once for school and then once for play. Like I read a fiction book.

for pleasure. don't have that kind of time. You don't either. But To Kill a Mockingbird is my all time favorite. It was a joke when they were like, let's get that book out of schools. That Harper Lee, she's a bad influence. You want to talk about people making rules, having no idea what they're talking about. Not the first or last time in history. That'll happen. Not in this country. What else? Atlas Shrugged. mean, you got to read Einranz, Atlas Shrugged. Absolutely. Captains and the Kings. Come on now.

That's another fiction book that I absolutely love. don't take a lot of time for fiction books. And when I do, I hit home run. No, I make few exceptions, those are definitely up there. To Kill a Mockingbird and Captains and the Kings. And is Captains and the Kings, Mike Taylor Caldwell, is that fiction? You decide. Such a good book.

Keith Malinak (09:34.848)

Okay, so since I was recording this, this is something I've been meaning to do for a very long time and I apologize for failing, but I have a, where did I put it? I have like a, you know, a one a day calendar that has like, you know, fun stuff in history. fact, yeah, there it is. Can see when I drop something over here. There we go. I just plucked off April 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the,

The brain, the brain, you know? It's like in it, you know, reign it in, bro. This is actually very sad. I don't know if it's in this house or if I loaned it to someone. I vaguely remember loaning to someone. I don't know if I got it back or if I'm just that disorganized and cast. But what was sad is I was cleaning up, like I said, and I found the book jacket for a book that I love called The Gatekeepers. And I've never seen West Wing, the TV show West Wing.

I feel like it would be just like this. Now, Chris Whipple, as far as I can tell, I don't mean in this setting. So please do not write this book off before I get a chance to explain myself. I'm pretty sure he is a liberal. I feel like I've seen a couple of things, maybe editorial something by him. I was like, huh, but that doesn't come across in the gatekeepers. I'm so grateful for this book. There's no bias in this. OK, it is possible. People on the left and on the right can

actually create things that are free from bias. It's rare, but in this day and age, but they can do it. And Chris Whipple did that with the gatekeepers. And it's behind the scenes look at the chiefs of staff and stuff from their perspective. And it's, mean, it starts with, I mean, look at this. This is Gerald Ford with Donald Rumsfeld. Huh? Look at that, right? And then you've got, and start, that's where it starts. And it goes through the early days of the first Trump administration. And it was clearly written.

and without much to go off of from the Trump administration, the first Trump administration. But it goes from Ford through Trump. And there is some fascinating stuff. is, if you love political behind the scenes type stuff, this is the, I mean, where else are you going to get a live stream podcast? See, I can't go to a live stream today, sorry. It's pre-recorded. Where else are you going to get this kind of in-depth analysis on a book jacket? Am I right? The gatekeepers.

Keith Malinak (12:02.189)

by Chris Whipple. Check that out. Gosh, goes Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump-ish. I wish he would update this with the Biden behind the scene look-see, because then you could see who the real presidents were.

Keith Malinak (12:27.404)

You the auto, you get the joke. That's not a joke actually. Okay, so I started to talk about the one a day calendar thing. So I've plucked a couple of these. April 1st, let's do this. In 1970, President Nixon signed legislation banning cigarette ads on TV and radio. Stop right there. Addictive, yes. Bad for your health, of course. But that nicotine, man, you're talking about getting a bad rap. It's the tar. It's all that other stuff in there, you know?

Nicotine we are getting a new education in things forget everything that you thought you knew I Mean that and nicotine is naturally occurring. It's I think it's in tomatoes, right? But I mean you got people with the nicotine patches now it's got some benefits there for sure and It's just got a bad rap, but you can't advertise cigarettes on TV and radio

because of the law that Richard Nixon signed on April 1st, 1970. Now he was an avid pipe smoker, this thing says here. And doleging as many as eight bowls a day supported the legislation at the increasing insistence of public health advocates. Alarming health studies emerged as early as 1939 that linked cigarette smoking to higher incidences of cancer and heart disease. And by the end of the 1950s, all states had laws

prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to minors. 1964, the FTC, that's the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, agreed that advertisers had a responsibility to warn the public of the health hazards of cigarette smoking. In 1969, after the Surgeon General of the United States released an official report linking cigarette smoking to low birth rate, Congress yielded to pressure from the public health sector and passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. This act required cigarette manufacturers to place warning labels

There are products that read, warning, the surgeon general has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health. There you go. But the states had already taken... Oh, this is advertising. Let's go to April 2nd, 1972. I should do... We need to do a deep dive on this or maybe a Wednesday wild card. I don't know. But Charlie Chaplin. You hear little things here and there. I don't know all the details. I don't know all the details. I'll just say that upfront.

Keith Malinak (14:48.654)

But my goodness, on April 2nd, 1972, the great silent film actor and filmmaker, Charlie Chaplin, prepared for his first voyage to the United States since 1952. So for 20 years, he was a British citizen. He wasn't allowed into the US. Denied a reentry visa amid questions about his leftist politics. In September 1952, Chaplin and his fourth wife, Una, O-O-N-A, that's a pretty cool name actually, Una.

were informed by US Immigration Services the chaplain would be denied reentry. But in 1972, the 82 year old chaplain finally returned to the United States to accept an honorary Academy Award. It's interesting. I guess he was against certain causes like he was attached to certain causes that maybe drifted into the realm of communism. I don't think that he was a communist. Again, I don't know.

all the details. It might be worth a further conversation or please DM me what you have in that respect. Would love to learn more. That's one of the things I'd definitely love to learn more of. 1973 on April 3rd. See I'm covering Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week. There we are. On April 3rd, 1973, Motorola. I love this. This is a trivia question y'all. Motorola. I'm glad I stopped right there. Stopped, I just.

Pull the handbrake just in time to throw a trivia question at you. What would Motorola be debuting on April 3rd, 1973? What piece of technology do you think would appear for the first time? April 3rd, 1973. Motorola engineered, you got a guess? Martin Cooper made the first call from a handheld cellular device from Sixth Avenue in New York. The device weighed two and a half pounds and was the size of a shoe box.

Oh my gosh, we're almost back up to there. And this is the S Ultra, the 26 S 26 ultra. Hell, don't know. I'm about to take this thing back. I know when my return window closes too. I've already, I've already talked to the cell company about making sure that that restock fee, I'm not getting charged that because this thing sucks. And here's why. So anyway, if you have Android auto and an S 26 ultra,

Keith Malinak (17:13.664)

It's not connecting, it's not just you.

It's a but and so they've gotten till I think I said April 10th To fix this where I'm taking it back

How easily am I distracted? But I'm complaining about this technology that started off two and a half pounds, size of a shoe box, could be used for only 30 minutes. Why was it, was it the battery? Needed to be recharged for 10 hours, took 10, can you imagine if it took 10 hours to get your phone to recharge? Holy crap. Let's see, in 1983, so 10 years later, Motorola began selling a 16 ounce phone model priced at $4,000.

What's old is new again. We're almost there with the price, But spread over 36 months. You don't even feel it. Let's see. That set the precedent for the portability of cell phones in the future. 1983. I remember I was in high school, 90 to 94. And I remember I had a buddy who had they had to drill a antenna in the back of his window in the top middle there. And then that cord came down like a CB antenna, basically.

except for the CB antenna, because I'm breaker one nine. mean, I had that that would run underneath the floor mats and then underneath the my 87 Honda Accord. And it would go into the trunk and then up through the little it has a magnetic base. It's still in my garage. And I can't tell if it's not hooked up, if it doesn't have a good magnetic ground in there or if the CB radio bands are just completely empty now. Does anybody talk on a CB anymore?

Keith Malinak (18:55.566)

Or do I have a bad connection out there? Like, seriously, I have no idea. But it was a magnetic mount and a whip antenna. Loser. No, it was cool. It was awesome. But cell phones. That's why the truckers even talk on the CB anymore. Breaker one nine. You got the fuzz up. Highway 72, exit 63 off to your right.

Have I talked to you? I know I surely I have. I say the same things over and over again, right? I've told you about this article I read back in high school. It was an old article that said that society began its collapse because of the CB radio, because truckers would warn other truckers and motorists would warn other motorists about there's a cop up ahead. And so people learned to, I guess, be less than.

lawful. I don't know what you want to call it. And they learned how to beat the system is a crazy article. Awesome. But but the premise was the moral decay of the United States of America began with the CB radio. Because now you knew when you needed to behave. See, God's always watching the cops aren't technically. But if you know where they're watching you, then you know when to behave or pretend you're behaving. All right, book club time, right?

Well, you know what? I've already done. You know what? No. I wrote myself a note to go through some books, but remember, I found that post-it note. So let's just call it there. I'm not going to load you up with even more books, but just know that off to my left here at 11 o'clock, there's a stack. And I was about to grab a few of those, but I think we've covered enough book ground. Plus, Bourne Genius is going to be making stuff. And I don't even have the ability to do the graphics, but hopefully she'll comment under here and put a list. I mean, that's my job.

It's my job to put the book titles, but hopefully she'll do that. was how Al Gore, you heard him. Sorry. All Let me grab this. Let me grab these fun facts from April 1st, April Fool's Day, which I will say you'll see in the title has the apostrophe after the S. Okay. Like I've always thought it was, you know, multiple fools, April fools, right? There you go. April fools. F-O-O-L-S, if you're listening. All right.

Keith Malinak (21:18.796)

And you're like, I know how to spell April Fool. Yeah, I got it. Just hang on a second. Or is it April Fool's F-O-O-L apostrophe S? Because I thought that's a possessive thing, right? OK, that makes sense. But it's plural fools, man. If you get more than one fool on April 1st, it's the way it's titled in most places that I saw, April Fool's F-O-O-L-S apostrophe. Because you get that plural possession. Plural possession.

That's a good band name.

Keith Malinak (21:52.462)

I've missed everything I've thrown over here. I've missed today. I just want you to know. And I'm not kidding. Like, if I had yards, about four feet away, this garbage can. It's right there. Just embarrassing. All right. Let's talk about April Fool's Day. Origins, origins. People have no idea. People have no idea the origins of April Fool's Day. I'll tell you that. Although many theories have been proposed throughout the years, the origin of April Fool's Day is not exactly known.

Now I could go through all of the things that they think are the origins, but some of them are just so laborious and it's just like whatever. Okay. I mean, in fact, the ones I have highlighted, you're going to be, what is it? 1508 French poet, Eloy Demaroe, just go with it, referred to a poison de vreux, April fool, literally April's fish.

possibly the first reference to the celebration in France. Some historians suggest that April Fools originated because in the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on the 25th of March in most European towns with a holiday that in some areas of France specifically ended on April 1st. And those who celebrated New Year's Day on the 1st of January made fun of those who celebrated on the other dates by the invention of April Fools Day. There was no uniformity on New Year's Day.

The use of the 1st of January's New Year's Day became common in France only in the mid 16th century. And that date was not adopted officially until 1564 by the Edict of Rossoillon as called for during the Council of Trent in 1563. However, there are issues with this theory because there is an unambiguous reference to April Fool's Day and a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Edward de Deney.

a nobleman who sent his servant on Foolish errands on the 1st of April, predating the change. April Fool's Day was also an established tradition in Great Britain before the 1st of January was established as the start of the calendar year. See, nobody knows, bro. Nobody knows. You could make up a story as the origin of April Fool's Day, and it would hold just as much weight as this stuff here. In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as Fool's Holy Day, the first British reference.

Keith Malinak (24:15.758)

On the 1st of April 1698, let's see, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to see lions get washed. That's a good one. That's a good April Fool's Day joke right there. Armenia. So now I'm going to go country by country, Armenia, I love this. The prank is revealed by saying, April Meck, I don't even know. I love this, which means.

One April. Popular April Fool's pranks in Armenia include common harmless tricks like tying a friend or coworker shoes together. Harmless, breaking up, okay. Hiding plastic spiders, that's not funny. There's nothing funny about hiding plastic spiders anywhere. In drawers of people in their workplace and switching sugar for salt in hopes of startling an acquaintance as they take a sip of their morning coffee. My kids got me with that one time, that's funny.

Maybe that's why I don't put sugar in my coffee anymore, because I'm scarred for life. Only black for me. Coffee. Germany. In Germany, an April Fool prank consists of tricking someone else to believe a fake story, usually to be later revealed by shouting, April, April, at the recipient.

Keith Malinak (25:35.822)

What else we got here? you know, speaking of fake news stories, obviously my day job is Pat Gray Unleashed over at The Blaze. And when I was his producer in Houston a lifetime ago, I mean, this would have been probably April of 2000.

two or three, whenever Enron was happening, 2003 maybe. So at the same time, the Enron scandal is happening. The Houston Astros, our local baseball team there in Houston, they played in a stadium known as Enron Field. And that scandal was happening and they took the name Enron Field off of the side of the stadium. The naming rights evaporated overnight and the season was coming up. It was April 1st. because the season...

Yeah, back then kids, the season started in April, not March. anyway, a mayor at the time there, just a dreadful mayor, Lee P. Brown, not popular. let's see, I'm trying to think of what, that's right. The city council in Houston, if I remember, has like two dozen people in it. So I wrote this fake story for Pat to read, Associated Press, Dateline, Houston.

Late last night, you know, ahead of the season starting or something like that. don't know. It's been determined by the city council of Houston to rename in Ron Field, Lee P Brown Stadium. And it featured fake city council members. Remember, there's a couple dozen. I mean, I mean, there's what? Five in your town, probably. How many of those can you name? So by putting in fake quotes from fake city council members.

No one was to the wiser, you know? So anyway, we read the story, we reacted to it, we thought this is an abomination, but the justification was, look, let's find us a local leader. Let's get the season started. We can worry about naming rights later. But right now it's Lee P. Brownfield in Houston. And the phone lines lit up. People were livid. They just couldn't believe this story. And then our call screener said that,

Keith Malinak (27:54.412)

maybe half, less than half, a little bit less than half, knew it was April Fool's Day. That was the perfect thing. Whatever year, it was on a Monday because you weren't thinking it's a new month yet. That's what it was. So whatever year it was on a Monday, that's what it was. Anyway, it worked out great. we, after about an hour of taking calls from livid people, we said, ha ha, April, April, or whatever the hell they say in Armenia. don't know. Or no, that's right, that's Germany.

But that was fun. That was fun with that one there. Ireland, it was a traditional to entrust the victim. So you pick out a victim and you give them an important letter, an important letter to be given to a named person. That person would read the letter, then ask the victim to take it to someone else and so on. The letter went open, contained the word, send the fool further. And they just kept sending this person on a wild goose chase.

course now look it's like an uber eats driver if you don't think they're eating and sampling your food I just want to make sure you know food it's a food taster you know so if you don't think they're looking at that letter that that's crazy why wouldn't you just you know people are gonna be nosy like hey what's this why do I keep going from place to place anyhow in Italy France Belgium and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada

The 1st of April tradition is often known as April fish. is that? Possible pranks include attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed.

Keith Malinak (29:33.816)

Cool. In Lebanon, an April Fool prank is revealed by saying, first of April lie to the recipient. At they're being honest, it's a lie. Let's see here. Nordic countries, Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes celebrate April Fool's Day. Most news media outlets will publish. Now this is kind of cool. I like this a lot. Most news media outlets will publish exactly one.

false story on the 1st of April. For newspapers, this will typically be a first page article, but not the top headline. In Sweden, April Fool's jokes are revealed with the phrase, April, April, den dummasil jag kan lur dig vart jag vill. I'm just reading. I'm just in a quote. April, April, den dummasil jag kan lur dig vart jag vill.

This can be translated to April, April, you silly herring. I can trick you wherever I want. Let's see, again, the fish thing. Herring, I don't get it. In Poland, it's, let's see, the 1st of April is a day of pranks, a centuries long tradition. It is a day when many pranks are played. Sometimes very sophisticated hoaxes are prepared by people in the media, even public institutions. Now this is interesting.

Polish, let's see, the conviction for this was so strong, the Polish anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I was signed on the 1st of April 1683. But it was backdated to the 31st of March, because they didn't want people to think it was a lie. However, for some in Poland, Prima Aprilis ends at noon of the 1st of April. And if you tell jokes after noon, that's considered inappropriate and not classy.

So noon is your cutoff for telling jokes on April, pranking people on April 1st, okay? And many Spanish speaking countries, there's a festivity and it's very similar to April Fool's Day, but it's celebrated in late December, either the 27th, 28th or 29th, depending on the location. And the tradition is, how do you do April Fool's in December? December fools! Let's see, the tradition is embedded in a traditional, okay, that's an oddly worded sentence.

Keith Malinak (32:01.056)

The tradition is embedded in a traditional saying about this day being the day when donkeys go where they must not go. Better than fish, at we got off the fish. In Turkey, they have a custom of April Fool's pranks. Pranks and jokes are usually verbal and are revealed by shouting, beer Nissan, Nissan beer.

Keith Malinak (32:22.382)

Ukraine, April Fool's Day is widely celebrated in Odessa and has a special local name, Humorina. This holiday arose in 1973, ancient. An April Fool prank is revealed by saying, let's see, 1st of April worldwide lies.

You gotta wonder about some of these translations when you read stuff like this, am I right? Let's see, to the recipient, the festival includes a large parade in the city center, free concerts, street fairs and performances, festival participants dress up in a variety of costumes and walk around the city fooling around.

and pranking passersby. One of the traditions on April Fool's Day is to dress up the main city monument in funny clothes.

Keith Malinak (33:24.598)

United Kingdom, in the UK, an April Fool's prank is sometimes later revealed by shouting, April Fool! At the recipient, who becomes the, well, April Fool, as it says. A study in the 1950s by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derive from the UK, this continues to be the practice with the customs ceasing at noon. There we go, we got a deadline again.

at noon after which time it is no longer acceptable to play pranks. Thus a person playing a prank after midday is considered the April Fool themselves. In Scotland, April Fool's Day was originally called Hultegrock. Hultegawk Day. I mean, with authority I said that. The name is a corruption of Hunt the Gawk. Gawk being Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person. Come on, we're going to get a fish reference in here.

Alternative terms in Gaelic would be La na garra chagokgng day or La ruth na kuthi jimnum The day of running the cuckoo The day of running the cuckoo. Okay, the traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver a sealed message that supposedly here we go again requests help of some sort. In fact, the message reads Dina laugh Dina smile

Keith Malinak (35:14.61)

Please tell me nobody has fallen for this. Pass this note along to Clarence down the street and stop it.

And then Clarence like, hey, take this to Mildred across town. When was the last time that something like that was successful? Come on now. All right. United States. look, we got the United States. And since 1986, New York City has hosted the annual April Fool's Day Parade founded by artist and activist Joey Skaggs. The parade features satirical floats and performances that lampoon political figures, celebrities and current events.

Participants often dress in costumes and carry props to embody the year's most notable fools. Doesn't say anything about how, you know, it's like, oh gosh, I used to, almost every year it seemed like for a while there, would tape the light on the inside of the fridge. I mean, it's harmless thing, right? My mom would be like, oh, the light bulb burned out. Yeah, it's burned out on this day for four years straight, It's April Fool's Day. See, I was a good kid.

Whereas my daughter's not as good a kid as I was, thank you very much. About eight or 10 years ago, they put googly eyes all over the house. Like some were on shampoo bottles. Got it, that's fine, whatever. Some were on like napkins, right? I'm just trying to think of some of the play. Some were like inside the cabinet in the laundry room, stuff like that's fine. But some were like on light switches and then you peel them off and there's a sticky residue and then dirt and you're like.

And you have to like go and get alcohol wipe them down now Was I irritated at the time absolutely you know on stuff like that? Yeah, it's just like more work for me to do But you know as they move out and they get older you think back and you're like damn those were good days, man I don't want to be all depressing but Yeah, I what I wouldn't give for for more googly eyes appearing on Wednesday around the house. Holy crap I hope Zeely isn't seeing this right now because she's still

Keith Malinak (37:15.054)

One common prank is to carefully remove ice cream from an Oreo and replace it with white toothpaste. my gosh, that would be That would be gross that would be nasty. gross Let's see now. This is interesting

I really hate when I have to use the phrase ever since COVID.

Here's something that was affected by COVID. I think we're back to normal in this respect as far as April Fool's Day. But I didn't realize this at the time. In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, various organizations and people warned not to observe April Fool's Day as a mark of respect due to the large amount of tragic deaths that COVID-19 had caused up to that point. Google decided to not do its traditional April Fool's jokes that year. And because the pandemic was still

ongoing a year later in 2021, Google also decided not to do pranks that year. Interesting. I wonder what the Google deal is today. See, because I'm pretending is April. I can't wait for their beautiful Easter thing coming up on Sunday, April 5. I'm sure they'll show the tomb probably across something very tasteful. Maybe they could show the women running across the Google thing there, you know, to spread the news.

cannot wait for tomorrow's discussion. Don't forget the Thursday deep dive with Dr. Jeremiah Johnston. I got so many questions. We got so much to talk about. Because if you got somebody in your life that, or maybe it's you, or maybe you're a Christian and you just, you're a doubting Thomas. I love how this book doesn't lean on biblical stuff. It leans on anything non-biblical that buttresses the point that Jesus was who he said he was.

Keith Malinak (39:07.094)

and not just some myth lost to history. love this kind of stuff. This is the kind of stuff in Christianity that I absolutely live for. Okay, so where was I on the blah, blah, blah? Let's see. in Thailand, the police warned ahead of April Fool's Day in 2021 that posting or sharing fake news online could lead to a maximum of five years in prison.

Stand by.

Keith Malinak (39:33.484)

Has anyone in Thailand been jailed for April Fool's jokes and fake news?

Keith Malinak (39:44.366)

Yes, authorities in Thailand have repeatedly warned, didn't say warned, April Fool's jokes and fake news can lead to jail time and while no large-scale incarceration, specifically for April 1st pranks have been reported, individuals have faced police complaints, intense legal investigations, and the potential for severe penalties under strict laws.

Let it go. Stop it. No satire exemption. It's the Computer Crime Act and criminal code. don't know. Severe penalties. Flogging. Isn't that where they flog that kid for spitting on the street back in the late 80s, early 90s? Something like that, I recall. Remember that? See, I'm old. Let's see here. Let's see. Other examples of genuine news.

on April 1st, mistaken as a hoax. So this is real news stories that were mistaken as hoaxes. On April 1st, 1946, warnings about the Aleutian Island earthquakes, tsunami that killed 165 people in Hawaii and Alaska. People thought it was a joke. April 1st, 1984, news that singer Marvin Gaye was shot and killed the day before his 45th birthday by his father, Marvin Gaye Sr. Some people thought, like, let's see, Smokey Robinson?

Jermaine Jackson didn't believe the news initially, had to call other people who knew Marvin to confirm the news. Al Sharpton during his interview for the VH1 documentary, VH1's most shocking moments in rock and roll referenced the coincidence of the date when he said that Gay's death came like a sick sad joke to all of us. yeah. April 1st, 1995, news that the singer Selena was shot and killed by the former president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar.

on March 31st when radio station KEDA broke the news on that day in 1995, many people accused the staff of lying because the next day was April Fool's Day. April 1st, 2001, Netherlands became the first country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage and people didn't believe it.

Keith Malinak (41:56.782)

It wasn't that long ago, 2001. That was the first country, the Netherlands, to recognize same-sex marriage. Let's see. April 1st, 2005, news that the comedian Mitch Hedberg had died a couple days before. People didn't believe that. Also on April 1st, 2005, the announcement of the Powerpuff Girls. A TV show was an anime adaptation of the cartoon, the Powerpuff Girls. So this is Powerpuff Girls Z.

I don't know, So the idea that a cartoon would get turned into an anime was considered very outlandish in 2005, as this was the first time it happened. I think, wasn't it comic? You guys, mean, some of you anime fans would know this. Because I had a friend, I don't know, exchange student, I guess, from Japan when I was in fifth grade, I feel like that was a classroom. And he had these comic books from Japan. And that's the first time I saw

animation like that. And like, I guess you would read from right to left or down to up or up to right and I don't know. But when anime became a thing, I thought back to those comic books. Isn't that where that kind of art originated was Japanese comic books? Is that what they're saying? This is the first time as a TV show? I don't know. April 1st, 2009 announcement that the long running soap opera Guiding Light was being canceled.

The date was so heavily associated with jokes and pranks that even some of the cast and crew members did not believe the news when it was announced by CBS, the TV network that aired the show. Again, these are real stories that happened around April Fool's Day and people didn't believe them. April 1st, 2011, Isaiah Thomas declared for the NBA drafts. must have been Isaiah Thomas' son. Basketball players in the NBA are usually taller than average as height gives advantage to playing basketball and Thomas is compared

Imperatively short I have no idea how short he is and look at me care enough to look it up April 1st 2025 the National Football League announced that records and statistics from the All-american All-america football conference would be recognized in its official records

Keith Malinak (44:14.636)

So wait a minute, the All-America Football Conference or the American Football Conference? Like, AFL, I don't, whatever. Boy, that was a good one to end on, Should've skipped that one, am I right? Okay, kids, I appreciate you so much. Thanks for hanging out with me. I apologize that it's pre-taped, but like I said, moving the parents into the house today.

Wish us luck. So that's happening right now. So I appreciate you hanging out here tomorrow, live on the Thursday deep dive, April 2nd, 2026, Dr. Jeremiah Johnston and the Jesus discoveries. The historic finds that he has uncovered. I love this kind of stuff and looking forward to that conversation. And remember, if you heard him on Pac-Grey Unleashed for 15 minutes, this is gonna be much longer than that.

And if you heard him somewhere else doing an interview, we're going to do our best to cover different information. And that's very important to me and bring you a quality show, stuff that you haven't heard. So we'll do our best on that front. But I hope you will join us. And then the Friday live stream, I have no idea who's going to be here. I make no promises. I've learned my lesson. No. But thanks to, like I said, Wes and Gabby.

do so much great stuff behind the scenes. Please follow them at second floor Dallas on X and at Jeffy Apologist on X. And don't forget to share please. ATM show.com rate review. Pass it around y'all rate review is very important though. If I just even if you just want to say it's a good show, just I don't care. It's a be generic. But given it the five stars is very helpful. So

until we see each other tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern live with Dr. Jeremiah Johnson. I hope you'll be safe. Thank you for spending time with us here as always on At the Mic Show in the Wednesday wild card.