Alumni keep joke going for 46 years
Published 3:21 pm Wednesday, March 31, 2021
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Happy April Fools’ Day! Only today is Wednesday, and April Fools’ Day is tomorrow.
One fun thing to note as you enjoy a day filled with pranks and jokes tomorrow is one group of alumni from Harlan High School have been keeping the same joke running for 46 years.
Rene King Thompson reached out to the Enterprise with a tale of a group of students who not only played a prank on their French teacher but have also continued to keep the joke alive every April Fools’ Day since.
In 1975, students sat at their desks in Dr. James Greene’s French class within the walls of Harlan High School.
Thompson said in France, April Fools’ Day is known as “Poisson d’Avril,” which translates to “April Fish.”
Because the translation was funny to them and as a way to celebrate the holiday of jokes, classmates worked together to cover Greene’s car in cutouts of fish with “Poisson d’Avril” written on them.
“Those students, who ruined a perfectly good Romantic language and gave a good man a hard time surprisingly graduated and went on to lead productive lives,” Thompson said. “And still, on April Fools’ Day, they send fish to their beloved teacher. Harlan students love their teachers… and bad jokes.”