Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University, has provided an alternative explanation for the origins of April Fools' Day. He has claimed to have traced the practice to Constantine's period, when a group of court jesters jocularly told the emperor that jesters could do a better job of running the empire, and the amused emperor nominated a jester, Kugel, to be the king for a day. Boskin relates how the jester passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day and the custom became an annual event. Boskin explains the jester's role as being able to put serious matters into perspective with humor.
