Fools in April

"**Fools in April**" is a *Maggie Muffin* episode from season 1. In this episode, Helen plays a nasty April Fools' prank on Maggie.

## Characters

* Strawberry the Octopus
* Maggie Muffin
* Maggie's tongue (debut)
* Helen Luggins
* Florence Owl
* Orange Square (cameo)
* Kira Moonhead
* Mrs. Luggins (debut)
* Johnny Uzumaki

## Synopsis

The episode begins with Maggie waking up and realizing that it is April Fool's Day. Helen sees him and wonders what Maggie is so pleased about, until he looks at the calendar, and realizes that it is April Fool's Day, which he says is Maggie's favorite holiday. Fearing the worst has to come, Helen calls Ms. Owl saying he caught something terrible and that he would not be able to make it to work. Ms. Owl says that there is an art collector in his office who wants to buy Helen's art and name him the artist of the month. So, Helen immediately rushes to the Lightbulb Office, only to find that it was a silly prank by Maggie and Ms. Owl. Helen attempts to resign from his job, but Maggie persuades him to stay, promising not to pull any further pranks on him.

However, Maggie continues to prank the customers inside the Lightbulb Office while not pranking Helen but getting carried away with it. The customers do not take offense to Maggie's pranks as they are harmless and playful in nature and they even laugh with Maggie. Although Helen is not receiving any more tricks as Maggie promised, he gets furious over his and the customers' laughter. Eventually, an angry Helen decides to get revenge on Maggie by showing him what he feels is a "real" prank.

Helen sets an elaborate rope trap attached to an anchor suspended from the ceiling and squirts a blob of mustard in the middle of the lasso. As Maggie goes to clean it up, Helen cuts the rope holding the heavy anchor, causing Maggie to get his foot caught in the rope, triggering a chain reaction that sends him flying around the restaurant, colliding into several objects and areas, ending with him into landing in a garbage can. Helen laughs hysterically at him, but a hurt Maggie runs out of the restaurant crying. Bewildered by Maggie's reaction, Helen calls out to him, saying that he was just kidding, and turns to the customers for support. But the customers are appalled by Helen's prank, seeing it as far too harsh and nasty to be funny. They all feel sorry for Maggie and call Helen out on this as they storm out of the restaurant in disgust. Distressed at their reaction, Helen frantically insists that it was only a joke, but as he looks around at the damage his prank did to the restaurant, it slowly dawns on him that Maggie's pranks were actually funny, harmless, and meant to make people laugh so that Maggie could laugh *with* them, while his prank was just cruel, and meant to hurt and humiliate Maggie so he could laugh *at him*, all because he was not able to deal with it. Overcome with immense guilt, Helen realizes that he has no choice but to apologize to Maggie.

Helen goes to Maggie's house and sees Maggie's hat behind a rock. He goes over to apologize but then sees that it is just Kira wearing the hat while digging. Helen asks why he is wearing the hat and where Maggie is, and Kira tells Helen that Maggie is in the house "impressed" (instead of *depressed*) and was crying a lot. This, of course, makes Helen feel even more guilty and he rushes over to Maggie's house and bangs on the door. He goes so far as to force his way in, but Maggie slides his arm through the door and removes the doorknob, clearly in no mood to talk to him. Losing patience, Helen gets his clarinet and starts playing badly, refusing to stop until Maggie reluctantly answers him. Helen attempts to apologize, but since apologizing to others is not something Helen normally does, and because of his intense hatred toward Maggie, he initially finds himself to be physically incapable of doing so.

Helen tries other methods of apologizing to Maggie, including sending him an apology note in a bottle but shoving the cork all the way in the bottle and apologizing to Maggie far away via two cans attached to a string, but these are foiled by Maggie not having a bottle opener and Kira using the string as floss, respectively. Eventually, he is able to apologize by putting a bubble over his head, so that Maggie does not actually hear his apology. Helen walks away, saying that his conscience is clear, but is confronted by memories of what he did. After he imagines his mother telling him he stinks, he runs back and genuinely apologizes to Maggie, even admitting he likes him, his friends, and everyone else in Dice Bottom, but tells Maggie not to tell anyone. Maggie promises not to tell and forgives him, but then fully opens his front door, revealing that everyone else is inside behind him, and witnessed Helen's apology. They all say "April Fools!" to Helen, who is flabbergasted by this. Helen states that he was fooling them as well before running away to his house, while laughing maniacally, causing Maggie to ask, "What would we do without Helen?," ending the episode.