Original air date: 10/11/2002 (produced in 2001)
Episode number: 18a
Everyone's pranking Timmy on April Fool's Day, so Timmy asks the April Fool, a comedian in Fairy World, to help him get his revenge. However, the April Fool's pranks end up being really mean, and Timmy has to find a way to stop him.
This episode provides examples of:
- Animals Hate Him: Groundhogs attack Timmy as part of a handful of pranks that others pull on him.
- April Fools' Plot: Of course. The episode's title card even provides the current trope image.
- Brick Joke:
- The April Fool is first seen delivering a knock-knock joke at Uncle Knuckle’s Chuckle Bunker when Timmy summons him, causing him to disappear before he can deliver the punchline and frustrating an eager Jorgen Von Strangle. When the Fool returns at the end of the episode, Jorgen angrily confronts him, demanding to know “who was knock-knock-knocking.”
- After they and other characters put Timmy through a Pranking Montage of pies and groundhogs at the start of the episode, Cosmo and Wanda reward Timmy with a fresh pie at the end as gratitude for saving the world. Timmy is initially overjoyed — until an angry groundhog pops out of the pie and mauls him.
- Call on Me: According to Cosmo, summoning the April Fool requires an introduction “like any great comedian.”Timmy: [reading off Cosmo’s cue cards] Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the comedy stylings of… the April Fool?
- Chekhov's Gun: Should anyone deprive the April Fool of the opportunity to complete a joke (often by prematurely laughing), he will experience "comedy backup" and could swell up to the point of being blown back to Fairy World. Timmy takes advantage of this in the climax by wishing for the spread of laughing gas on Earth, causing worldwide laughter that cuts off the Fool’s joke and successfully foils his plans.
- Chirping Crickets: One of the April Fool’s stand-up jokes elicits one of these and a howling wolf.The April Fool: They can’t all be gems.
- Chute Sabotage: The April Fool does this to Timmy’s parents as they’re skydiving, changing their parachutes into pigs. This causes them to almost plummet into a factory of broken glass and pointy objects (fortunately, Timmy has it magically changed to rubber trampolines and pillows in time).
- Comedic Sociopathy: Much of the April Fool’s pranks involve this — which, to the April Fool, is all a part of the show.The April Fool: All comedy involves a little pain!
- Deadly Prank: The Fool's pranks start out as mean-spirited yet (mostly) harmless, but cross the line into this when he "pranks" Timmy's parents by giving them free skydiving lessons situated over a broken glass and pointy objects factory, and then replacing their parachutes with pigs. At that point, Timmy steps in to save them and calls off the deal, realising that things have gone too far. The April Fool doesn't take this very well, and for his final prank, he decides to take the trope one step further and plunge the Earth into a permanent ice age, which would be deadly for all of humanity.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Timmy tells the April Fool this almost word-for-word after his prank on Timmy's parents goes too far. The April Fool doesn't take it very well.Timmy: Dude, you're not being funny. You're being harsh!The April Fool: You can't tell me what's funny! I'm the April Fool!
- Food as Bribe: Timmy wins over the April Fool’s help after presenting him with a stick of spearmint gum.
- Hollywood Magnetism: One of Timmy and the April Fool’s pranks utilizes a powerful ceiling fan-mounted magnet to target the braces-wearing Chester, who they trick into looking up with a sign promising free cleaning for braces.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A downplayed case near the beginning when Timmy tries to use his Electric Joybuzzer on Cosmo. It only shocks Timmy.
- The Hyena: Cosmo will laugh at anything. Lampshaded by Wanda:Wanda: Cosmo thinks everything is funny. Watch. [turns to Cosmo, completely deadpan] Pudding.
Cosmo: [bursts into hysterical laughter and goes to the April Fool] She said “pud,” and then “ding!” - Hypocrite: Wanda objects to the cruelty of the Fool's pranks, but has no problem with the people of Dimmsdale siccing an angry groundhog on Timmy and laughing as it mauls him, or with pulling that exact same prank on Timmy herself at the end of the episode.
- Inconvenient Summons: The April Fool is in the middle of a stand-up comedy routine when Timmy summons him to Earth. This especially annoys Jorgen Von Strangle, who later confronts the April Fool over an unfinished joke.
- I Will Show You X!: The April Fool reacts to Timmy telling him he's crossed the line and stopped being funny with "I'll show you what's funny! I'll show this whole world what funny is!"
- Kill It with Fire: In one of the pranks, A.J. is tricked into pulling a lever, summoning a flamethrower that incinerates his lengthy report on the history of mankind.
- "Nations of the World" Montage: When Timmy wishes for the world to be filled with Laughing Gas in order to stop the April Fool, comes a montage of people around the world laughing, with National Stereotypes galore: Egypt Is Still Ancient, French people with berets and goatees, and even for China (introduced upside down) there are people with Asian Buck Teeth and conical hats at the Great Wall.
- Not Good with Rejection: The Fool does not react well to Timmy rejecting his more deadly pranks and calling off the deal, and Timmy telling him they aren't funny tips him over the edge.
- Not What I Signed Up For: The Fool's attempted Deadly Prank on Timmy's parents prompts a mutual version of this trope. Timmy protests that he didn't sign up for people to get hurt, just pranked; the Fool counters that he didn't sign up to have his creativity stifled by "restraint and compassion". Timmy swiftly calls off the deal, and things go downhill from there.
- Pie in the Face: At the start of the episode, this is a recurring feature of the pranks that characters pull on Timmy. The Groundhog Day prank almost subverts this when Timmy receives an angry groundhog that mauls him when it sees its shadow instead, only for the groundhog to immediately slam his face with a pie afterwards (and then continue mauling him).
- Prank Gone Too Far: The episode starts off with Timmy being subjected to several of these in a row, infuriating him to the extent that he enlists the April Fool's help in getting his own back. Wanda thinks the Fool's own pranks are this from the start - the prank he pulls on AJ drives him to tears - but only when he tries to pull a Deadly Prank on Timmy's parents does Timmy himself decide that things have gone too far and call off the deal.
- Pranking Montage: Timmy is on the receiving end of this in the beginning. Across a number of holidays (i.e., the Fourth of July, Halloween, Groundhog Day), various people show up on his front doorstep with a seemingly innocent present, only for said present to ultimately chuck a pie in his face.
- Rimshot: The April Fool naturally plays this various times throughout the episode.
- Schmuck Bait: The Fool's pranks on Chester and AJ. Chester sees a sign saying "Free braces cleaning - look up", and when he looks up, his braces are attracted by a magnet attached to a ceiling fan, leaving him spinning helplessly in mid-air. AJ, meanwhile, sees a lever labelled "Smartest kid in the world - pull here". You'd think the smartest kid in the world would be suspicious of such a lever, but AJ pulls it and his newly-finished essay is promptly incinerated.
- Squirting Flower Gag: The bouquet that the April Fool gives Wanda squirts out chocolate syrup.
- Vaudeville Hook: The April Fool uses this on himself a couple of times towards the end — once when Timmy calls off the deal (or in the Fool’s words, “giving [him] the hook”), then in a slightly darker context as he whisks himself away to launch…
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: Of a sort. The April Fool’s climactic plan is to launch a giant rocket called the “Punch Liner” towards the moon, propelling it to orbit around the sun instead and plunge the entire Earth into a potentially damaging ice age. You know, for the funny.
