Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

The lights are all blinking red.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

In my day, never was longer.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

He really is that stupid.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Now Every Day Is April Fool’s Day!

Friday Morning Open Thread: Now Every Day Is April Fool’s Day!

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gop obama appreciation conspiracy luckovich

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
.

Yes, once again we’re going to have to grit our teeth and ‘celebrate’ the favorite holiday for twelve-year-old boys of all ages and genders. While we wait for the Blogmaster to post his favorites, here’s the Washington Post with some “terrible history of this garbage holiday”:

… How did we get into this mess? We asked Alex Boese, curator of the online Museum of Hoaxes. He says you can blame the Dutch (who first referenced April Fools’ in a 16th-century text) or the French (who overhauled their annual calendar in the 1500s, confusing “fools” who didn’t adapt). Or maybe the U.K., home of the first April Fools’ Day prank on record, or Germany, which popularized fake April Fools’ news stories. And certainly the good ol’ U.S.A. — because who else would be tickled by the idea of renaming a national monument the “Taco Liberty Bell?”…

***********
While we brace ourselves — how the hell can you tell a Trump or Cruz hoax from the real thing, not to mention anything coming from Reince Priebus? — what’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week?

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  5. 5.

    bystander

    @Amir Khalid: Thanks for that memory, AK. As a permanent 12 year old, that one had me laughing hysterically when I first saw it on the JackPaar Show.

    “Love in the Afternoon” is on. I wonder if I would warm to this one better if the Gary Cooper role had been played by a man who didn’t appear to be in emphysematic distress. I love Audrey in it, John McGiver, Wilder’s episodic story. Maybe it’s because Vienna would have been a better backdrop?

  6. 6.

    Davebo

    I liked the comment that The Onion would celebrate by printing “real news” today.

  11. 11.

    raven

    Now they are talking about the 1990 Playboy interview with Trump and how it has the exact points he makes in his campaign today. I posted it yesterday but it wasn’t very interesting I guess.

  14. 14.

    PurpleGirl

    When I worked at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences they had a weekly schedule of seminars, lectures, and special classes. For April Fools Day they would make up a schedule with listings that made fun of the regular seminars, lectures, and classes. Stuff like professors talking about topics that weren’t their specialties, making fun of their backgrounds (one professor was the daughter of a famous Irish mathematician or the Institute’s director’s Ph.D. dissertation). I should still have a copy of one of them somewhere.

  23. 23.

    gogol's wife

    @bystander:

    Cooper’s best moment is when he’s dancing with the woman at the beginning while Audrey looks on.

    And the drunken bout with the band when he sends the cart back and forth.

    It’s a fabulous movie, though, even so.

  24. 24.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    ya know, Perot did drop out.

    I have to think Trump will drop out citing some fake family health issue.

    He doesn’t want the grueling job of being president. Not when he’s used to living a life of great luxury. all he ever wanted was to be a celebrity. he never thought his joke candidacy would catch on.

    By dropping out he gets the best of both words: he avoids being humiliated in november, while letting him brag for the rest of his life to his idiot friends and idiot talking heads that the presidency was his for his taking.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    I have a mixed marriage: Mr WereBear is not an April Fool fan, so I cannot pull any pranks on him.

    The friend I’m seeing later is fair game, however.

  31. 31.

    Divf

    @PurpleGirl: Yes I remember seeing one of those when I happened to visit The institute on April 1. One title made fun of a senior member’s tendency to doze off in seminars.

  32. 32.

    satby

    I posted an update on my mom last night. She’s responded to one of the medications and seems to have stabilized for a bit. The girls and I leave for Florida tomorrow morning, and I think my mom will still be with us by the time I get there.

  35. 35.

    debbie

    @raven:

    I read your post. I thought it was interesting in light of the GOP’s insistence that Trump only recently came to conservative views.

  50. 50.

    bystander

    @gogol’s wife: Audrey is great in that scene. She’s like a bird jumping around…just wish she wasn’t jumping around Cooper. He looks awful throughout.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “I didn’t know that white guys could play the blues,” Elliott says.

    offered without comment, from a 2007 article on the passing of some St. Louis blues legends. I spent more than a little time listening to those guys play.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne, Mob Enforcer

    @satby:

    I’m glad to hear that. I hope you have some good quality time with your mother, and that you and the girls have a safe and enjoyable trip. Can you keep us updated from the road?

  55. 55.

    Ken

    I’ve noticed that editorial cartoonists have all settled on the hair-shelf and compressed face for Trump, but they’re not doing much with Cruz. If you compare Lukovich’s version of Cruz with the real thing, it’s more police sketch artist than political caricaturist.

  56. 56.

    MomSense

    I think I met one of those wolf hybrids for the first time yesterday. I was walking the pup on her leash and two giant dogs came running up on us off leash. My dog did not do her usual defensive posture to protect me because one of them had to have been part wolf. Wow that was a beautiful but intimidating dog. Anyway, she tucked her tail down, and made her hind end look like a slinky, and was very gracious and licky until they did their sniffing and towering over her routine. As soon as they passed, she gave me a look that I understood instantly to be let’s get out of here. We finished our walk in peace and she took a looooong nap on my feet when we got home.

  60. 60.

    gogol's wife

    @MattF:

    Oh, please, don’t tell me they messed with my Friday crossword puzzle. I left it at home for enjoying later. The puzzle is sacred!!!

  61. 61.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    That was my first thought when I saw them run towards us on the trail. They were really big so I think she rightly decided that this was a fight she could not win. I never saw their owner but they were wearing collars and tags.

  62. 62.

    Pee Cee

    @Ken:

    If you compare Lukovich’s version of Cruz with the real thing, it’s more police sketch artist than political caricaturist.

    That’s just because Cruz is already a political caricature.

  63. 63.

    Randy P

    @OzarkHillbilly: Heck, even Jack Webb played the blues[*], and they don’t get any whiter than that.

    [*] Pete Kelly’s Blues. I saw the closing credits once with Webb pretending to play, and thought WTF? I’ve always meant to watch that film just to find out W, in fact, is TF.

  64. 64.

    Robert Sneddon

    I used to have a copy of the famous Guardian April Fool’s issue with a multi-page supplement advertising the tropical paradise tourist destination of San Serriffe. The adverts were also jokes, with Qantas offering non-stop 747 travel from Heathrow to Sydney using in-flight refuelling.

  66. 66.

    JPL

    @gogol’s wife: It still is.
    Once it wasn’t online and I called customer service. They had been yelled at all day long. The person said puzzle people are intense.

  69. 69.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Today in “only on NPR”, Scott Horsley presents a sober, serious assessment of Donald Trump’s foreign policy. NPR: We’ll take anything seriously, even the deranged ravings of an ignoramus. Unintentionally hilarious.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @satby:

    Phew! Drive safe.

    @gogol’s wife:

    That was some seriously soothing music. I’m sure there was food at some point, but there was probably also a large dose of cat nosiness. “What are you doing now? How about now? Can I see?”

    I also liked their very floofy winter coats, perfect for Russian kittehs.

  74. 74.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Amir Khalid: @bystander:

    As a permanent 12 year old, that one had me laughing hysterically when I first saw it on the JackPaar Show.

    Same here. IIRC a week or two later, Paar took on-air time to explain to his viewers than it was, in fact, a hoax–because a significant fraction of them had no idea how spaghetti is made & harvesting it from trees made as much sense as anything else.

    You laugh, but ignorance in those days was rife. In autumn 1967, when I was a freshman at Johns Hopkins commuting from home, my parents told me to invite a few of my new friends to come for supper (so they could size up the crowd I was hanging with). Three of the guys–two Jews & a German-American Lutheran–jumped at the offer of a home-cooked meal (considering the Hoppie dorm cafeteria, no wonder).

    Mom made lasagna. None of them had ever had it. I warned them to go easy, that her recipe (no ricotta, double mozzarella) transmuted to solid lead on the way to the stomach. They took second helpings anyway. And moaned in agony all the way back to campus.

    (FTR the most significant difference between a Jewish mother & an Italian mother is the difference between Ess, ess, mein kindt! and Mangia, mangia!)

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    I don’t know cuz I didn’t see the owner. I think one of the dogs was a Rhodesian Ridgeback so only one wolf hybrid. He did have very pretty eyes. This is a big forest with many miles of trails. I often can hike for 4 miles and not see another person or pet. Because of this, some people think they can let their animals run free. If I didn’t walk with a dog, I’d definitely bring a walking stick or Nordic poles with me.

  79. 79.

    Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim

    @Randy P: Jack Webb loved jazz. The flick isn’t great, it’s about a musician, played by Webb, caught up with Kansas City mobsters in the 1920’s. But you do get to hear Ella sing the title song. It’s worth a look.

  80. 80.

    YellowDog314

    This political season is further proof of Poe’s Law. Suddenly, Idiocracy seems like a documentary.

  81. 81.

    J R in WV

    One of my favorites was NPR’s long and detailed story about Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, and the impending shortage of fondue, which would be a crisis in the high-end restaurant industry.

    Fondue, you see, is extracted from the fondue lakes for which Fond du Lac is named, and the increasing popularity of fondue at swanky parties was putting a serious demand strain on those lakes, which could only regenerate more fondue so quickly.

    They reported it in typically great depth and detail, and even the interviewees were straight , detailed, and believable. I know where fondue comes from, and it still got me for a minute.

    But the pasta trees was a good story too.

  86. 86.

    sukabi

    @burnspbesq: guess we should be looking forward to more distinguished lawyers citing “jiggery pokery” in their arguments…

    Not sure what triggered moderation… reference ro Scalia’s outstanding legal speak, or the lawyers…

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