Greetings, ToughPigs readers! With April Fool’s Day 2025 in the history books, I hope you enjoyed our prank this year. All of us on the staff had a lot of fun creating Korbett the Frog, and if you at least got a small chuckle out of it, it was well worth it. I always love being on the team, but perhaps my favorite day to be a ToughPig is April Fool’s Day. Getting to flex my creative muscles and play around with the world of the Muppets is a joy I treasure time and time again.
2025 marks my 10th year working on the ToughPigs prank, so I thought it was time to reveal a secret I’ve been keeping for a decade: every year, I’ve snuck Easter eggs into the bits I’ve written. Much like Al Hirschfeld’s “Ninas,” it’s just a fun way to put my own unique stamp on things. So let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
My first Easter egg hatched in BREAKING: Up Late Wins Major Late Night Award! This one was pretty obvious if you read closely: the first letters in the phrase “Fellowship Of Outstanding Late-Night” spell out FOOL. Later, in BREAKING: Miss Piggy Forced to Forfeit Desko After Awards Assault, the name Poisson D’Avril appears. In reality, poisson d’avril, or “April fish,’ is the name of April Fool’s Day in France. The international tour continued in Piggy Water® Faces Ban in Denmark with Juliet Aprilsnar, whose last name is the name of the holiday in Denmark. Finally, Miss Piggy to Donate Original Satin Gloves to Smithsonian featured Dr. Jonathan Hagcot, whose last name is an anagram for “gotcha.” A little ambitious for my first time, but I’d pare down to keep the Easter eggs sustainable.
Disney Doesn’t Announce New Muppet Movie included Disney studio executive Ed O. Floyou. When you rearrange the letters in his name, you might just get the message “fooled you.” (You might also get “you old foe,” but that’s not intentional.) Meanwhile Sven Aprillipäivä in Muppet Penguins Declared an Endangered Species references the term for April Fool’s Day in Finland.
In Baby Rowlf To Receive Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Flora Islop is an anagram of “April Fools.” I also snuck in another nod to the piece by noting previous honorees Kate Winslet and Janet Leigh as a subtle nod to Katie Leigh, the voice of Baby Rowlf in the original Muppet Babies. The international reference came in JUST ANNOUNCED: The Muppet Babies Take the Bowl with Emma Aprilvis, the name for April Fool’s Day in the Netherlands.
Back-to-back “April Fools” anagrams? Do I dare? I sure did in Sesame Street’s 21st Anniversary: The Master of Horror, with Stephen King’s address, “41 S. Flair Loop.” (41 stood in for 4/1, the date I adore so much.) Most of the Easter eggs that year came in Sesame Street’s 22nd Anniversary: All Ladysmith, All Mambazo. Art Firlisp was a rearranged “April First,” while three of the critics towards the end of the piece were international references. “Innocente” is a phrase used on Día de los Santos Inocentes, a holiday held in late December in many Spanish-speaking countries as well as the Philippines, where pranks are often pulled. Aprilvis also shows up again (probably meaning I forgot I used it the year before. Or maybe Emma and Ben are related!), and Ruth Cuthaige is a play on Là Ruith na Cuthaige, the Gaelic name for April Fool’s Day.
As more writers have joined the team and the formatting of the website has changed, I’ve written fewer articles each year, but I’ve still made sure to include some goodies. 2020’s entry was EDITORIAL: The Muppet Money Mess (or, “Sam” Sells Out), which mentioned the Huntigowk Theater Company. This was a nod to Huntigowk Day, the original name for April Fool’s Day in Scotland. Meanwhile, Congressman Knarp was my anagram, as the last name is “prank” spelled backwards.
2021 was the year I demanded the powers that be to #ReleaseTheKwapisKut. Of course, I should’ve been more careful, as Enos Senn’s name was an anagram of “nonsense,” and executive Pesce d’April was the name of the holiday in Italy.
So this one proved to be a challenge, as instead of articles, we did a spoof of “The Great Muppet Mural” and accompanying documentary. But just because you didn’t read something doesn’t mean I didn’t write something! I actually wrote a letter that I tried to get included into the video, but sadly, it was left on the cutting room floor… until now!
For those who can’t read my handwriting, here’s a transcription:
Dear ToughPigs,
I want to remind you that I am a WRITER. I WRITE stuff for you. With words and everything. What I don’t do is DRAW. I am not, nor have I ever been, a doodler. I am not good at it. As my fourth grade art teacher, Niles Sils-Humorina, once said to me, “If your art is ever shown anywhere, something has gone horribly wrong.” Thus, I don’t draw. If a picture’s worth a thousand words, I’ll give you the thousand words.
Your WRITER,
Matthew Soberman
Naturally, I picked the fourth grade for April, the fourth month. Niles Sils is a mix-up of “silliness,” and Humorina is the name for April Fool’s Day in Ukraine. Now wasn’t that worth the wait?
Remember Torvald Aprilskämt in Just What the Heck is an NFT? A 100% Accurate Explainer? Turns out Aprilskämt is the holiday’s name in Sweden. And perhaps I was a little sad that my piece the year before got cut, because I tried anagramming “silliness” again with the demon Prankor’s motto, “I Sell Sins.” (Also, Prankor has prank in it, but that’s more obvious.)
In Henson Company Announces New Merchandise, I wrote that the Pre-Holed Washtub was “hand-crafted by Turkish artisan Nisan Bir,” and of course, it’s another global reference! Nisan Bir is from Turkey, but it’s a phrase, translated to “April First,” shouted by pranksters on the day. The anagram for 2024 can be found in ToughPigs Announces New Merchandise in the entry for Canned SIRE. “Yo fog?” That’s just plain “goofy.” (It’s also absurd, but not an anagram of that word.)
Now we come to Korbett, whose designer, Iris Luduco, is a scrambled version of “ridiculous.” He appeared in Dorugh-e Sizdah, which happens to be the name of a similar prank-based holiday in Iran. Finally, the list of Andy Williams, Phyllis George, Roger Moore, and Linda Lavin was also a bit, as the first letters of their first names spell out “APRL.” (I couldn’t find a guest star in seasons four and five of The Muppet Show whose first name began with I, but I still thought it was fun to use.)
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of contributing to our annual April Fool’s Day prank, I thought it might be fun to echo one of my earliest Easter eggs. Since I created Juliet Aprilsnar in 2016, I thought it was time to give Juliet her match in Romeo Aprilsnarr, whose last name is the name of the holiday in Norway. And the anagram came from “cry out ‘Jail,'” which when you rearrange the letters, is “jocularity.” And of course, since I had so much fun creating Korbett’s backstory last year, I wasn’t ready to let him go. And let’s be honest, what better use of the cult classic tax-obsessed frog could there be than giving him a whole gift shop focused on sales tax. (Also, for dedicated readers who may not know, Chuuby is the name of a cartoon bird that appears in Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.)
And that’s all the Easter eggs I’ve hidden so far! Even though the secret’s out, I’m still planning to incorporate them in future years. So keep an eye out every April 1st, and you might just find them yourself!
Click here to lay an egg on the ToughPigs Discord!
by Matthew Soberman – [email protected]
