NYC's wacky April Fool's Day Parade is celebrating 40 years as a satirical spectacle
Everyday absurdity and legislative lunacy are often featured in the headlines, but now these antics will be on display in the streets of NYC for April Fool’s Day. The annual April Fool's Day Parade in NYC is celebrating 40 years of “exposing fools and mocking madness.”
Hosted by artist and and activist Joey Skaggs, the parade will march through the heart of Manhattan “eviscerating the most absurd social, cultural, and political figures and events of the times with outrageous floats and unrelenting mockery.” All are invited to participate.
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Whether you want to get involved or watch from the sidelines, expect “larger-than-life floats lampooning the year's most shameless attention-seekers, power abusers, conspiracy peddlers, and tone-deaf billionaires,” as the event's press release puts it.
“From political clowns to tech tyrants, social media meltdowns to courtroom circuses—no fool is safe from the sharp wit and artistic fury of this year’s procession,” event organizers continue.
The April Fool's Day Parade began in 1986 as a guerrilla performance against the increasing absurdity of everyday life. It drew not only international attention but also much-needed laughter. For the next four decades, the parade has continued to march on, skewering presidents and princes, exposing charlatans and crooks, and celebrating the public's right to laugh in the face of authority, as Skaggs puts it.
In honor of its 40th anniversary, this edition promises to outdo itself with a jaw-dropping lineup of scandalous floats and laugh-out-loud caricatures celebrating the foolishness of the powerful and the absurdity of the world we live in. Its longevity proves that “satire is a vital tool for survival in a world brimming with nonsense,” organizers say.
The parade kicks off on Tuesday, April 1, at noon, beginning at 5th Avenue and 59th Street and marching down to Washington Square Park. The grand finale in the park will crown the much-anticipated “King (or Queen) of Fools,” honoring the individual whose audacity, ignorance or hypocrisy reigned supreme over the past year. (It’s bound to be be a tough choice this year!)
Anyone is invited to create “outrageous floats and dress up as lookalikes in colorful costumes to reflect the folly of the nuttiest politicians, crooked corporate leaders, silly celebrities, and whoever else has been a total fool in the past year,” per the organization's press release. In fact, Skaggs has made it easy to get involved with these printable masks of people like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Eric Adams and Luigi Mangione. Even if you don't dress up or make a float, all are still welcome to join in—we’re all in this absurd world together, after all.
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