April Fools’ day is a centuries-old custom, but its current popularity stems back to 18th-century Britain, when it became popular to prank people. Often the jokes centered around sending someone off to do a fake errand or putting a teasing sign on someone’s behind (thus a synonym was “Tailie [tail] Day”).
The image here showcases a particularly famous April Fools’ joke from 1708. The author and satirist Jonathan Swift (_Gulliver’s Travels_ and _A Modest Proposal_) set up an elaborate hoax to ridicule a well-known astrologer called John Partridge. Partridge claimed that his knowledge of astronomy had made him the possessor of special knowledge, and he claimed he could predict events (for instance, that because two eclipses occurred in one month that London would experience a plague).
Swift determined to undermine Partridge’s reputation, and published an almanac called “Predictions for the Year 1708” by Isaac Bickerstaff, a pseudonym. In it, he predicted Partridge’s impending death. Partridge retorted in print, denying the prophecy. But immediately after the predicted day of Partridge’s demise, (March 29) Swift published a fake obituary of Partridge, and followed it up a couple days later with another pamphlet he entitled “The Accomplishment of the First of Mr. Bickerstaff’s Predictions”.
It was a case of fake news defeating fake news. Londoners believed Partridge to be dead- on April 1, Partridge himself awoke to a church caretaker outside his window inquiring about a funeral sermon, and when the pranked man appeared in public, he was stared at and folks told him he looked just like their recently deceased acquaintance, John Partridge.
Partridge’s reputation never recovered after that. The April Fool’s day joke had undone the charlatan.
Source(s): George P. Mayhew, “Swift’s Bickerstaff Hoax as an April Fool Joke,” _Modern Philology _, May 1964, vol 61, no 4, pp 270-280. @History.com, “April Fools’ Day” March 30, 2017.@hoaxes.org, “The Predictions of Isaac Bickerstaff,”.
