Delawareans better stay on their toes come Saturday, April 1, now that a new report ranks Delaware as a top prankster state.
April Fools’ Day is a caution-filled day due to all the tricks potentially coming your way. And Delaware might have it worse than most places.
Delaware ranked No. 3 as a Top 10 prankster state in the U.S., according to a study done by U.S. Betting Report.
Delaware’s got jokes
The study analyzed Google searches over the last 12 months of more than 1,000 keywords around the terms “pranks” and “April Fools” to see which states were searching the most for new jokes to crack.
Delaware’s standing resulted in 57,480 searches for “April Fool’s” and 155,880 searches for “prank,” for a total score of 215.5 combined searches per 1,000 population, the study says.
The top prankster state was California, with 928,080 searches for “April Fool’s” and 8,742,000 for “prank.” The total score was 244.6 combined searches per 1,000 population.
Georgia is No. 2 with 260,520 searches for “April Fool’s” and 2,160,120 for “prank,” resulting in a total score of 226.0 for combined searches per 1,000 people.
The state interested in April Fools’ Day the least is Iowa, coming in at No. 50 with 103,320 searches for “April Fool’s” and 323,760 searches for “prank.” Iowa’s total score was 133.9.
What is April Fools’ Day?
Although it is commonly misspelled as “April Fool’s Day” or “April Fools Day,” April Fools’ Day occurs annually on April 1 and is all about playing practical jokes or hoaxes on others, with a signature “April Fools” shouted at the end of the bit, according to History.com.
The holiday has been a tradition for centuries all over the world, and although the exact origins of the holiday remain a mystery, society has filled in the gaps with their own creative — and humorous — flare over the years.
When did Aprils Fools’ Day begin?
That we’re not sure of. Some historians say the holiday dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar, which had the new year beginning on April 1, to the Gregorian calendar, which moved the new year to Jan. 1.
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Those who didn’t get the memo and mistakenly celebrated the new year on April 1 still were deemed “April fools.”
Other historical iterations of April Fools’ Day include ancient Romans dressing up in disguises and mocking fellow citizens and magistrates at the end of March, celebrating April Fools’ Day on the vernal equinox when the weather was changing and often unpredictable in the Northern Hemisphere, or 18th-century Scotlanders sending people on phony errands and playing pranks on people by placing “kick me” signs on them or pinning them with fake tails, reported History.com.
If you have ever fallen victim to similar pranks, you can thank Britain for that one.
April Fools’ Day in action
April Fools’ Day is entertaining enough that in modern society, brands, media companies and other entities in our society pull out all the stops to create tricks of their own each year.
In Delaware, our local government has been known to participate with a particularly pointed jab or two over the years.
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In 2021, the official State of Delaware Twitter account poked fun at longtime neighbor — and rival — New Jersey by offering to merge the two into one state named “New Delaware,” with all coastlines referred to as “the beach,” not “the shore,” of course.
Last year, the official State of Delaware Twitter account came back for more New Jersey jokes.
The account announced a new underwater tunnel being built between the Delaware Beaches and the Jersey Shore to “improve relations between the states,” the joking tweet read.
As a follow-up, the account added that New Jersey drivers “should be able to handle” the new route given it was straight, meaning no left turns needed.
Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.
