Story by Jacob Gilmore
It seems that Drake University students have their own brand of humor.
For the most part, April Fools Day is celebrated rather lightly on campus.
Some people choose not to participate, some forget the holiday entirely, and some scramble at the last minute to bamboozle their friends.
2014-15 Student Body President Joey Gale hasn’t heard of any large-scale April Fools pranks at Drake over the last few years, but he’s “familiar with recurring ones, such as telling friends you’re pregnant, or Facebook pranks, like changing your birthday to April 1.”
April Fools Day pranks typically fall under three categories: making people react to fake news, elaborate property art closely resembling vandalism, and sending people out to look for things that don’t exist.
Senior Anna Moran recalled that she woke up to find her bathroom “covered in cellophane and maple syrup. My roommate put the phone in the bathroom and then called it. It was a rather sticky surprise.”
Her roommate later made her a nice dinner to make up for it.
Other common pranks include wrapping a friend’s car in cellophane or tin foil or, in the extreme, breaking in and wrapping all of your friend’s belongings in plastic wrap.
Then there are corporation-scale pranks.
With many resources and opportunities, corporations from news agencies to tech companies to social media compete to pull the best pranks.
Nobody knows how the holiday began. Some suggest it began when Pope Gregory changed the calendar from the Julian calendar into the Gregorian calendar.
This would have moved New Years from April 1 to Jan. 1.
Others believe it may be a result of spring fever, as many cultures have days of foolery around this time.
