Events - Part 84

April Fool's Day

In San Francisco, April 1 is the date of the annual St. Stupid's Day parade.  The event celebrates everything stupid.  People wear stupid costumes and carry stupid signs.

Above, the Doggie Diner heads are brought in by truck for the parade.

The event was started in 1979 by Ed Holmes, who has organized it ever since.  He dresses up as Bishop Joey of the fictitious First Church of the Last Laugh.  Above, Bishop Joey addresses the crowd and tells them how stupid things are.  His name is a takeoff on entertainer Joey Bishop, who had a TV show in the 1960s.

Then Bishop Joey moons the crowd, and the parade begins.

The parade visits 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.

The third Station of Stupid is the Statue of the Bare Butt Mechanics, above (actually a 1901 bronze sculpture called the Mechanics Monument, but the figures do have bare butts).

Speaking of bare butts, this is San Francisco, so there are always a few naked parade-goers.

We end with this video clip of part of the St. Stupid's Day parade in 2016.