As April 1 draws near and old editions of The Equinox, The Monadnock and The Kronicle are looked at, there are some old jokes that were inspected once again.
When The Equinox was still called The Monadnock in the 1960’s, a common theme for the editions around the beginning of April was to make them satirical, and people questioned the papers each year around this time. According to archivist at the Mason Library, Rodney Obien, when some people look at these old editions, they are puzzled about things that didn’t actually happen.
Beginning in 2016, former Arts & Entertainment Editor, Stephanie McCann began “Hoots n’ Hollers,” a satirical column that was continued into spring semester of 2017, but was later dropped by the current executive board of The Equinox.
These articles ranged from puns and modern day humor to poking fun at the millennial generation, much like the popular satirical website The Onion.
While there are not many works of literature about the origins of April Fool’s Day, it does date all the way back to before 1700, according to history.com, but did become popularized over 300 years ago.
In modern day, people go far out of their way in order to pull hoaxes and pranks.
According to history.com, “In 1957, the BBC reported that Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of people harvesting noodles from trees; numerous viewers were fooled. In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked many of its readers when it ran a made-up article about a rookie pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour. In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell.”
The Monadnock became part of these similar traditions for many years.
Mary Curtin can be contacted at mcurtin@kscequinox.com
