Fool Me Once
Last week marked the end of the beginning of April, a month with the audacity to call us fools at the get go. For many of us, it ends with a total solar eclipse.
No one really knows how the tradition of April Fool’s Day began centuries ago, or what prompted it, or how it came to be. But it be. Overtime, the 1st of April became a day for the media, fast food chains, and popular brands, to put on their trickster hats and amuse their social media fan base.
On Monday, Dunkin’ announced a fake name change, while Krispy Kreme said they would glaze their donuts with anything the customer brings. Smoothie King raked in plenty of likes for their Air-Wan Smoothie post with only one ingredient, air. Scotch, known for their tape, introduced a Scotch Whiskey. Many more brands followed suite by announcing fake product launches on April 1st, showing off their playful side.
But not all jokes are funny, and some of them can go awfully wrong. I remember the time when my brother and his friends played a joke in our neighborhood by hanging a dressed-up dummy on a tree. Let’s just say that it was not well received.
In 2018, when Elon Musk announced a Tesla bankruptcy, his investors were not amused. Only if his Twitter buy was such a prank gone wrong. This week, he used all “prankness” into a post on X taking a shot at Bob Iger and Disney being woke. It was distasteful at best, full of spite.
Not funny, Prank!
Trump sent a message to his supporters indicating that he is suspending his 3rd pursuit for the Presidency, along with a link to make a donation to his campaign. I would pay for that. It was quickly followed by this: "Did you really think I'd suspend my campaign? Happy April Fool’s Day!" he wrote in capital letters.
Trump’s Truth Social share of the video, a MAGA truck with a tailgate decal depicting a hog-tied Biden, could have passed off as a funny April Fool’s hoax only had he waited a few days longer. Instead, the ill-timed repost left the left-wing media so utterly devastated by the image that the likes of CNN and MSNBC refused to air it, for the sake of us viewers. Really? Was it really that disturbing? We can handle this. We have seen it all.
The best April Fool’s Day hoax of all time still goes to Google, when they announced the launch of Gmail in a goofy press release, 20 years ago on April 1st, 2004. A hoax that wasn’t a hoax, which once revolutionized how humans communicate, to later become the virtual black hole where we sent emails to die a slow death. That joke’s on us.
The last laugh.
This part comes from Arkansas on the eve of a total solar eclipse. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event for many, to be in the path of totality of a solar eclipse. My wife and I are fortunate to witness this astronomical phenomenon a second time.
In 2017, the event of totality occurred close to my Tennessee home. We watched the moon make the sun disappear from an outlet mall parking lot. We felt the eeriness when the day went dark, when the confused birds wailed, and a strange sense of shiver set in as the temperature dropped.
This time, we drove for 400 miles to relive the moments, those that my Hindu ancestors believed to be a bad omen. According to Hindu mythology, two evil demons swallow the sun during what they consider a doomsday event. Even to this day, Indian households board shut all their windows, throw away any leftover cooked food, and stay indoors until the evil passes. Temple worship is suspended, and the deities are hidden away until after the event, when they are cleansed with pure Ganga water.
Meanwhile, here at Little Rock, Arkansas, and the surrounding state parks, crowds have amassed. Hundreds of thousands of people who have poured in from various parts of the country, their RVs parked and tents staked, drinking and dancing the night away around campfires. We are here to welcome this scientific “end-of-the-world” event with awe and enthusiasm, the American way.
It’s April 8th, 2024. In about 12 hours many of us on this path of totality will be looking up at the sky looking stupid in our paper eye glasses. What any of us will get to see is anybody’s guess at the point. With cloudy skies and rain showers teasing us, we try to find the perfect viewing spot. But the final prank and the last laugh may be reserved for the weather gods.