April Fools for Kids

April 1, 2005 6:12 AM

Follow up to this question from a few days ago: What are some excellent, easy April Fools Day gags for adults to play on children? Specifically, two 4th and 5th grade children while at the dinner table or right after dinner.
posted by TurkishGolds to human relations (24 comments total)

There are these gelatin capsules of fake blood, you put them in your mouth and bite down on them, and then when you open your mouth, it looks like you're hemorrhaging from the mouth.

Put, say, three in your mouth, and as you're telling the kids that "God usually loves us, but sometimes he hates us and strikes us dead", convulse, open your mouth spitting up the blood, let your head sag onto your dinner plate, and pretend to die.

Your kids will never forget it!
posted by orthogonality at 6:21 AM on April 1, 2005

Not really an answer to your question, but tradition has it that any April Fool's pranks should be completed before noon, else they turn on the prankster (scroll down to Superstitions)
posted by darsh at 6:42 AM on April 1, 2005

What are some excellent, easy April Fools Day gags for adults to play on children?

"Excellence" in regards to jokes played by adults on children means go gentle and don't extend the joke too far, whatever you decide. There's enough humiliation for 9- and 10-year-olds in the world already.
posted by mediareport at 7:02 AM on April 1, 2005

There's a penn and teller gag where you take a coffee creamer and palm it. then you say, hey, look at this! and start prodding around the edges of your eye, gently with a fork. Then you bring the palmed creamer up to your other eye, so your hand is sort of shading that eye, and you shove the fork (but not too hard) into the palmed creamer while squeezing it with your hand so it spurts everywhere while you scream.

This one kills. At least it did at Denny's in Ogden with my visiting father-in-law and our four kids.
posted by mecran01 at 7:05 AM on April 1, 2005

We once turned off all the lights in the house and lit a flare in the backyard, telling my little sister that aliens had landed and were going to take us away. I think I was 12, and that was a little mean, but the house was filled with this cool pulsing red glow.

She doesn't speak to the family any more.
posted by mecran01 at 7:07 AM on April 1, 2005

I second mecran01's Penn and Teller gag. Comedy gold.
posted by Optamystic at 7:16 AM on April 1, 2005

tell the kids they're adopted and their real parents hated them
posted by sharksandwich at 7:27 AM on April 1, 2005

Thirding mecran; I had to do a speech in 7th grade for English class with an "attention grabber" opening. I used that trick.

It got the attention, to say the least.
posted by Remy at 7:27 AM on April 1, 2005

sharksandwich, these particular kids *are* adopted. Time to put your foot in your mouth.
posted by TurkishGolds at 7:48 AM on April 1, 2005

I'm having trouble thinking of anything that isn't cruel on some level, so let me just suggest that whatever prank you pull ends with ice cream, or something else that they both like.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:11 AM on April 1, 2005

if you have the time and they have separate rooms....

switch them. Move everything from one room into the other. Pretend nothing has happened. Keep a straight face. They'll insist that their rooms have been switched.

The cruel side of me suggests that you tell them that you've gotten them a puppy and have a cage + stuffed animal. See their excitement mount...to find the stuffed animal. This only works if the next day you go out to buy them a puppy.

Take all the Tv's out of the house. Tell them the government made everyone do it. If they speak to their friends, tell them that it was because of some shows the kids must have been watching too much of....or that their friends will have their tv's taken on monday. You could go an entire weekend without tv!
posted by filmgeek at 8:12 AM on April 1, 2005

When I was 8, in primary school, a teacher made up a 'Boggle' board (a 16x16 grid of letters, the idea is to make words using non-diagonally consecutive letters) on the blackboard. It contained no vowels and no 'y'. It took us a while to complain.
posted by altolinguistic at 8:26 AM on April 1, 2005

When I was about that age I really really really wanted a heart-shaped locket necklace with my name engraved on it. It was some minor holiday when my sister and I came downstairs to find small, identical giftwrapped square boxes with on the kitchen table. Since my sister was younger she got to open hers first. It was a heart-shaped locket necklace with her name engraved on it - I was so excited, and positive that my gift would be the same, until I opened my box and found the ugliest pair of brown and yellow polyester knee socks with huge flowers on them. I almost burst into tears, but had to pretend to be gracious and say "thank you," until my mom pulled the box with my locket in it out from behind her back.
posted by bendy at 8:31 AM on April 1, 2005

Kids think simple gags are funny- fake dog poo, fake vomit, that kind of thing. Just get some and leave it where they will see it (in front of their bed, perhaps). When they come tell you about, act grossed out and perplexed, then go in and pick it up barehanded.

For added joking, fling it at them right as you pick it up, so the moment they realize it's not real is when it hits them.
posted by Four Flavors at 9:04 AM on April 1, 2005

Along the lines of Four Flavor's suggestion, if you have cats or dogs, especially ones that occasionally have potty accidents, take some big tootsie rolls and twist them into poop-like shapes and put them in the middle of the rug. When the kids see that Fido pottied on the rug, go "Huh, how about that." Reach over, pick up the poop, and take a bite. Then offer the rest of the tootsie roll to the kid.
posted by salad spork at 9:08 AM on April 1, 2005

I never realized that April Fool's Day was such a mean holiday !
posted by curtm at 9:33 AM on April 1, 2005

There's a whole Penn and Teller book devoted to gags at the dinner table. (SIPs: "prepared spoon" and "this your card") You can search inside and you can review the table of contents. It's got dozens of gags.
posted by stuart_s at 9:43 AM on April 1, 2005

My father once pretended he was having a heart attack, clutched his chest under his jacket, and pulled out little stuffed toys for the three of us. We still remember how funny that was.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:21 AM on April 1, 2005 [1 favorite]

Wow. We were into nicer April Fool's gags then this.

In 4th grade, we had one of the most annoying kids in the class ask our teacher, "Which month is St. Patrick's Day in?" She answered, "March." But he kept asking her, "Which month?" And she kept repeating "March." She got more and more annoyed until she practically shouted, "March! Kenny! March!"

So we all stood up and marched out of the room.

She hyperventilated from laughing, we all felt pretty self satisfied, and the whole thing was a big hit. From a 4th grader's point of view.

This was all my mother's idea. Who is quite the prankster. And was fond of jokes which wouldn't put you on an analyst's couch years later. I appreciated that.
posted by jeanmari at 12:02 PM on April 1, 2005

The old fill-the-oreos-with-toothpaste is a fine gag for a fourth grader, or any sort of food-substitution.

And anything with fake poop.
posted by terceiro at 12:53 PM on April 1, 2005

You could take them to play a trick on someone else.

Also, Craig's list in Salt Lake has got a free Welsh pony. That'd be great if you could somehow lead them into saying, "I wish I had a pony" and then feigning shock at the pony in your backyard. Of course, then you have to feed and raise an aging pony.
posted by mecran01 at 1:25 PM on April 1, 2005

TurkishGolds writes "sharksandwich, these particular kids *are* adopted. Time to put your foot in your mouth."

In that case, tell them they're really royalty, adopted incognito to save them from the machinations of an evil vizier. And that now that the vizier had died and they're going to be crowned King and Prince Regnant of their exotic foreign land.

But their country has no TV or candy, and they have to leave tonight.
posted by orthogonality at 2:00 PM on April 1, 2005

WTF with the mean-spirited adopted kids angle? Its not funny when you don't know the real situation and its really not funny when you know the children are actually adopted.

To actually answer the question, my parents pretended that the pasta we just ate were actually worms (I was 5) and that grossed me out. Also, they once brought out ice cream and only served themselves and pretended there wasn't enough for me and my sister to our consternation (and then at the end actually made us special sundaes). The best pranks for little kids are the ones that actually end up with a gift or a reward.
posted by Falconetti at 2:57 PM on April 1, 2005

One day, my father said to me my brother:

"Hey, kids! Did you know you have an Aunt Anna?"

"No," we said.

"Well, you do. How'd you like to go see your Aunt Anna right now?"

"Right now? Where is she? We can meet her right now? How come we've never heard of her before?"

"Just come outside here and you can see your Aunt Anna," he said.

We followed him out. For some reason he was pointing to the roof - no, the chimney?!? "Is she standing on the roof? Is she hiding behind the chimney? What? Why are you pointing up there?"

Finally, one of us figured out that he meant the TV antenna that was attached to the chimney.

There were groans, but I still haven't forgotten it. It's been probably more than 20 years since then.

Clearly, this depends on your pronunciation of the word "aunt". We all say it just like "ant".
posted by amtho at 3:58 PM on April 1, 2005