‘The origin of April Fools’ Day’
Back in 1984, a reporter was tasked with writing about the origin of April Fool’s Day for the Associated Press, and arranged an interview with Boston University history professor Joseph Boskin.
Boskin, who was put forward for the job by his colleagues – and had absolutely no information on the day’s origins – spun the reporter a fictitious yarn about a Roman Emperor and his jester “Kugel”, who was given the chance to rule Rome for a day.
Kugel, a traditional Jewish dish, is a popular New York delicacy.
“Since I was calling New York, where kugel is famous, and it was April Fools’ Day, I figured he would catch on,” Boskin later recalled. “Instead, he asked how to spell kugel.”
The story was duly published, and various other news outlets picked up on it – until the hoax was eventually revealed.
“The AP had a huge conniption when they read this,” said Boskin. “I got an immediate phone call from an editor there, who was furious, saying that I had ruined the career of a young reporter. He said I told a lie. ‘A lie?’ I asked, ‘I was telling an April Fools’ Day story.’
“It was their fault for not checking the story, and I embarrassed them. But I mean, really — kugel? What reporter from New York doesn’t know what that is?”
(The career of the reporter, readers will be glad to know, was not in fact ruined – he later became a journalism professor at BU.)
