Monica Lewinsky shares her favorite April Fools' Day pranks: “Oh, how we need laughter these days”
The activist is a huge fan of the annual pranking day, and explains, in an article in Vanity Fair, why we need it more than ever right now.
Monica Lewinsky, the anti-bullying social activist, public speaker and producer, is a big, big fan of April Fool’s Day and the light-hearted mischief that comes with it. As she writes in an article for April Fool’s Day in magazine Vanity Fair, where she is a Contributing Editor, she admits her inner “little prankster” went into hibernation after the Bill Clinton scandal, she got back her playful mojo a few years later, thanks to her friend and perennial prankster, Ann.
Ann was a year-round prankster—and a brilliant one at that. But April Fool’s Day was her Super Bowl. From her, Lewinsky learned two golden rules for a successful prank: start with a grain of truth, and commit to the joke completely.
Tough times means we need to laugh
The 51-year-old, originally from Southern California, says that given the “weight of the world” these days we need to laugh - it’s not just the news, the stock market, the price of (****) eggs, as she exclaims. But also the fact that the third series of hit HBO show The White Lotus is coming to a close.
Her remedy: April Fools’ Day 2025. For Lewinsky: laughter is one of the few things that can bring us together in this divided world.
For the article, she goes to the lengths of consulting her therapist to see why she loves April Fools’ Day quite so much. But the first answer she gets is rather darker than she was maybe expecting: it might reflect unconscious rage or the desire for power in a relationship, given it’s all about getting one over on someone.
Thankfully, on further discussion, the therapist decides that actually, Lewinsky’s love of pranks is probably more about connection. Laughing to love AT and WITH someone is a way of showing she cares.
Lewinsky’s best jokes
Lewinsky goes on to share some of her own favorite pranks, that she’s pulled over the years, including the classic taping her boss’s vital stuff to his desk - maybe not the edgiest of jokes, but it was in the Pentagon.
With the Scottish actor, writer and presenter Alan Cumming, she made the fantastical announcement of their plans to release an album of Scottish Jewish folk songs - though entertainingly Cumming did go on to do ‘Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret’ with Ari Shapiro.
On a major wind up to her friends, she met former British Primer Minister Boris Johnson at a holiday party and got a photo, which she then used to prank her friends by claiming to have slept with the famously unkempt politician who has never been known to be adverse to female company. One pal straight away texted back: “This time, Monica Lewinsky, do NOT tell anyone else!!!” The joke in this case though may have been more on Lewinsky as she admits she’s been reminded of it every year since.
You can check out all of Monica Lewinsky’s favorite pranks at her Vanity Fair article.
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