It’s tough to nail down a single origin story for April Fool’s Day – some point to a line in The Canterbury Tales, others pore through ancient manuscripts for references to a day of trickery. Either way, it’s fascinating how this holiday has lasted for hundreds of years. Somehow, somewhere, folks created a day dedicated to making ourselves and each other laugh, because exercising that part of our humanity was important to them.

We look for reasons to laugh all the time – we have an entire...