April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day

In San Francisco, April 1 is the date of the annual St. Stupid's Day parade, sponsored by the First Church of the Last Laugh.  The event celebrates everything stupid.  People wear stupid costumes and carry stupid signs.  Being San Francisco, there are always a few naked guys.

Above, one of the naked participants in the 2009 parade, wearing a birthday cake hat, waits in Embarcadero Plaza where people gather for the parade to start.

Another 2009 participant is wearing body paint but nothing else.

This one has a pig nose.

This one is putting on a performance, swinging weights around.

The parade stops at six Stations of Stupid, a parody of the Catholic Stations of the Cross.  The first Station of Stupid is the Federal Reserve building, where parade goers bless the Fed by throwing away their losing lottery tickets (above).

Then parade-goers head for the next station (above).  The naked guy wearing a bowler hat is a regular, appearing in each annual St. Stupid's Day parade.

The second Station of Stupid, above, is the Tomb of Saint Stupid.  It's actually a utility door at an office building at 101 California Street.  Above, we see Bishop Joey (real name Ed Holmes) who founded the First Church of the Last Laugh.  He's at center, wearing his bishop's hat and banging on a drum.  Someone knocks on the door of the Tomb (the utility door below the bishop) to see if St. Stupid is there.  Of course nobody ever answers.  The bishop then says "I guess we missed him; he must be out to lunch."

The third Station of Stupid is the Mechanics Monument, above, which the bishop calls the Statue of the Bare Butt Mechanics (which it is).

Above, a bare butt parade participant seems to be wiping the ass of one of the bare butt mechanics.

At this station, the bishop asks the parade-goers to take a "leap of faith", i.e. everybody jumps up in the air a few inches.

The fourth Station of Stupid is the Sunken Plaza of Slack, a.k.a. One Bush Plaza, where parade-goers get to sit down and rest.

The fifth Station of Stupid is the former Pacific Stock Exchange building.  Parade-goers bring socks and throw them up in the air (above) – that's their sock exchange.

The last Station of Stupid is this modern sculpture in front of the former Bank of America building, which the bishop calls the Banker's Black Heart.  Parade-goers toss pennies at the Banker's Black Heart.

Then the parade is over until next year.