April Fools' Day: Why Is It Prime Time for Pranks?
Plumb the murky origins of April Fools' Day—and find out how straight-faced scientific research can be sillier than the wackiest pranks.
"A lot of people think [April Fools' Day] is just obnoxious, and just wish it would stop," said Alex Boese, curator of the Museum of Hoaxes in San Diego, California. (Read an April Fools' Day Q&A with the Museum of Hoaxes curator.)
"But people who love pranks really love the day and refuse to give up the tradition. They're the ones who keep it alive," Boese told National Geographic News in 2008.
He said, however, that the number of pranks in the home and at the office has decreased in recent years in the United States, and has been replaced by large institutionalized media hoaxes.
(Related: "April Fools' Day Special: History's Hoaxes".)
The origins of April Fools' Day are shrouded in
