April Fool’s Day…April 1st.
I used to get a classroom of gullible 9th graders going about a story that involves a lady not paying for her food at a fast food restaurant and how I turn the tables on said lady and then…at the grand crescendo…let the youngsters in on the fact that is indeed just an April Fool’s hoax.
Not that it needs mention with this silly day, once I hijacked the 50,000 watt airwaves of WHAS 840…heard in 39 states..I think…the night the great Joe Elliott was hosting “Joke Night” on 84 WHAS. I told the longest joke in “joke night” history. I am not going to tell it here. But know..that Joe Elliott interrupted me about two thirds of the way through my spectacular joke to tell me that his show only lasted three hours. I was most proud!
I have told that joke on occasion since, but it never meant quite as much as it did when I was clogging up hundreds of other callers trying to get through to Joe that night.
April Fool’s. It is a silly event, I suppose. But what is wrong with that? Have you heard the headlines coming out of my native state of Indiana lately? We could use a good joke or two…the ones in Indianapolis notwithstanding.
A good joke. What makes a good joke? Content? Timing? I fall in this sub-category. I think timing is everything.
Who got more from less than anyone in show business history. The answer…easy…Bob Newhart. How many guys need just to show up on the set and employ a purposeful pause before he says three subtle words that can make a guy spew ginger ale across the room? Just one: Bob Newhart.
My lovely wife, Carrie, and I watched the show Newhart starring Bob Newhart last week. We were in North Carolina and we were at a place that has something called Antennae TV. It was on the local cable station. I would give anything to get Antennae TV at my house! I have DirecTV. Translation: my money goes directly from my bank account into that of DIRECTV and I assure you they are much happier than I am. HBO? A joke. Most of the channels on DIRECTV? More jokes. April Fool’s! That is what I am for paying for this crappy service. Okay…soo I got on a tangent here. I do not apologize.
While we were in North Carolina we watched Newhart and it cracked us up. I looked the series up on the interwebbers. The show ran from 1982 to 1990. I would have never guessed it ran that long. I remember watching it as a youngster and enjoying it. Cerebral humor has always enticed me. That would be a miracle. But I am a true believer in miracles.
Speaking of which…on April Fool’s Day in 1983, I found out my mother was pregnant with the last of her third children, my brother, Darrell Lee Johnson. I remember it like it was yesterday. As was the custom, we attended Good Friday Church services when I was growing up. Good Friday in 1983 just happened to fall on April Fool’s Day…April 1st.
No one at church believed my mother when she told them she was pregnant. They were waiting for the big proclamation: APRIL FOOL’S! Not so.
On November 14th of 1983 Darrell Lee Johnson found his way into the world at Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany, Indiana. I had and still have a brother!
To put this into context, know I was born in 1968. I have a sister, Lynn Benson. She was born in 1966. Fifteen years and change after I was born, I had a little brother. I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am to be able to report this to you.
Will I forget April Fool’s Day? How could I? It is a day to celebrate…for me. The rest of you? Just don’t try to be too gullible. But then again, who cares? It is only one day.
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson