Each year, the first day of April brings pranks, trickery and serious trust issues. While pranksters eagerly anticipate the April holiday, others simply hope to avoid becoming the unsuspecting victim of a sneaky plot.
Either way, April Fools' Day is a day in which pretty much everyone should be suspicious of grand announcements, unusual invitations or anything else that seems out of the ordinary.
Whether you're crafting the perfect prank to pull on unsuspecting loved ones or co-workers, or anticipate that you may be this year's prey, you might be curious to know the origin of April Fools' Day, as well as the history behind this annual observation dedicated to jokes and tomfoolery.
You might be surprised to know that, far from being a new practice, pulling pranks on April 1 has been around for decades, perhaps centuries.
To learn more about April Fools' Day, TODAY.com spoke with a pair of experts who weigh in on the annual tradition of tricking others solely for our own personal amusement. You'll also find out more about the history of this unusual commemoration and some of the most notable pranks in recent memory.
Here's what to know.
Why Do We Celebrate April Fools' Day?
The actual origin of April Fools’ Day is somewhat of a mystery.
An article published by the Library of Congress notes that the first official reference to the holiday comes from a 1561 poem by Eduard De Dene, a Flemish poet who wrote about how much fun it was to send his servant out on a series of unnecessary tasks or "fool's errands," as the expression goes.
Nearly 500 years later, in 1902, devious behaviors were chronicled in an article published in the "Akron Daily Democrat," an Ohio newspaper that cited tricking people, or pulling pranks, as popular practices occurring on April 1.
So, while the exact basis of April Fools' Day is murky, there's no question that people have been engaging in related shenanigans for hundreds of years, if not longer.
“We all have an innate desire to be mischievous. It’s part of our human nature,” Rob Weiner, pop culture librarian at Texas Tech University, tells TODAY.com. “April Fools’ Day gives a way to play a prank on someone or a joke without doing too much harm,” he explains.
More than that, the practice of pulling pranks appears to be universal.
“What strikes me is the fact that you’ve got these traditions in Ireland, in Scotland, in France. It’s an official holiday in the Ukraine. How did the concept of April Fools’ expand to these different countries?” Weiner says. “That’s the true mystery.”
Even corporate giants have gotten in on the gag, including Taco Bell. The fast-food chain notoriously fooled the public back in 1996 with false claims of having purchased the Liberty Bell with the intention of renaming it as the "Taco Liberty Bell." Burger King followed suit in 1998, introducing the new "Left-Handed Whopper" to help left-handed folks to enjoy the burger "their way."
In addition to those memorable pranks, the BBC once told gullible citizens in a 1957 faux news segment that the Swiss had harvested spaghetti from trees. A couple decades later, they claimed that London’s Big Ben was being converted into a modern digital clock.
What's the Meaning Behind Pranks?
Even when they aren’t intentionally harmful, not everyone appreciates being the butt of a joke. In fact, according to a 2025 YouGov poll, 41% of Americans polled said that they found pranks annoying. Yet, another 44% consider them amusing.
Unsurprisingly, according to a 2021 survey, respondents much prefer being the prankster, than the victim.
“The underlying theme of it is to trick you, perhaps humiliate you or embarrass you,” Wayne Federman, comedian and professor at the University of Southern California, tells TODAY.com.
“There’s a basic element of just lying to someone,” Federman explains, adding that it’s human nature to trust someone’s words so we feel silly when we’ve been fooled, which is the opposite of what an actual joke is meant to do.
It’s something to keep in mind if you’re planning on pulling any pranks this April Fools’ Day.
“To me, the best high-level practical jokes are the ones where the person who’s being pranked or tricked is so delighted at the level of expertise that went into creating the prank that they laugh at it with you ... you got me, this is incredible,” Federman says.
