Every other Tuesday, the team behind Civics 101 joins NHPR’s All Things Considered Host Julia Furukawa to talk about how our democratic institutions actually work.
Every April 1, some politicians, government agencies and media outlets like to join in on the April Fools' fun to varying degrees of success. Civics 101 senior producer Christina Phillips joined Julia for a round of April Fools' trivia on the political jokes and pranks that have gone down over the years.
Transcript
Editor's note: We recommend listening to this piece.
[What’s your] favorite political April Fools' joke over the years?
I really loved a fake NPR story from a few years ago that said that the IRS was sending people air conditioners or toaster ovens instead of their stimulus checks in 2008. The joke was that the IRS didn't trust people to actually spend the money, so they decided that they would spend it for you. It was just close enough to be believable, even though it wasn't true.
I mean, [with] New Hampshire summer coming up, I'd take an air conditioner.
Yeah, they tried to decide based on where you lived, so you probably would have gotten a snow blower instead.
All right, let's get into the April Fools' trivia. Christina, the floor is yours.
This is another prank story from NPR that talks about another thing people deal with every day, and that is your mail. So this April Fools' story announced that the U.S. Postal Service was starting a program called Portable ZIP Codes, which allowed people to keep their current ZIP code even if they moved.
ZIP codes were introduced in 1963 to help more efficiently sort the mail, but I have a couple questions about ZIP codes for you. First, what does the "ZIP" in ZIP code stand for?
Zone in place? I don't know.
I like that. So "zone" is correct. [It’s] zone improvement plan. But I kind of like zone in place. I think it works for that.
Here's your next question. There are three individuals who have their own ZIP codes. One is the president, another is the first lady, and the third is this animal mascot, created in 1944, which is part of the longest running public service campaign in U.S. history to date.
Smokey the Bear!
Yes. So it's Smokey Bear. I was corrected about this: not Smokey the Bear, but Smokey Bear. But yes, that's 100% correct. Smokey Bear, who's been around since 1944 is the Forest Service mascot.
Only you can send me mail.
Oh, that's good, I like that. Okay, here's your next question. In 1996, this fast food company announced they had purchased the Liberty Bell, to "help with the national debt." Julia, what is that company?
Gotta be Taco Bell.
Yeah, it is Taco Bell. They called it the Taco Liberty Bell.
Here's your last one. This is a fake policy by a member of a political office. So in 2015, the Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, son of Jeb Bush, announced that there was an agency wide ban on which font?
Please let it be Comic Sans.
You're right. It is Comic Sans.
I was gonna go with Papyrus for a second there, but I think overall, [the] most hated [font is] Comic Sans.
It is the legendary font that is hated by many.
Well, we all like to have fun every once in a while. But Christina, overall, how are these types of political jokes received by the public?
I think it's a mixed bag. So a politician does set themselves up for some trouble when they make a joke, especially if people already don't like them [or] if they're not popular. But sometimes they do it for a specific reason. So in the case of Bush, this actually drove a ton of traffic to the new Land Commission website, which was his intent because they had just revamped the website. So people went to check it out.
In the case of Taco Bell, they say it was one of the most successful campaigns in history for getting publicity for the brand, but it also caused a lot of headaches for the National Park Service, because they got thousands of calls from people who were outraged that the government was selling national monuments to corporations. So it can kind of depend on how people respond to these pranks.
Give me liberty or give me Baja Blast.
